Harry Potter author seeks 'unspecified damages' for 'causing distress'
JK Rowling: suing the Daily Mail for libel. Photograph: David Cheskin/PA
The Daily Mail has taken down a story from its website about the author JK Rowling after she sued the paper for libel.
Rowling says the online article, headlined "How JK Rowling's sob story about her past as a single mother has left the churchgoers who cared for her upset and bewildered", misrepresented her comments.
In so doing it injured her reputation and caused her great distress and embarrassment, according to documents filed at the high court by Rowling's lawyers, Schillings.
They argue that the article - also published across two pages of the paper in September last year - suggested Rowling had given "a knowingly false account of her time as a single mother in Edinburgh."
They say the article meant that that she had "falsely and inexcusably accused her fellow churchgoers of behaving in a bigoted, unchristian manner towards her, of stigmatising her and cruelly taunting her for being a single mother."
Rowling believes the Mail story was "premised on a false picture" of her own article published 10 days before on the website for the single parents' charity, Gingerbread, "I am prouder of my years as a single mother than of any other part of my life". Rowling is president of Gingerbread.
Her court filing states that she had not "accused her fellow churchgoers of 'stigmatising' or 'cruelly taunting' her." Instead, "she had referred to a single occasion involving a woman who had visited the church one day whilst she was working there."
It further states that a woman quoted in both versions of the story had neither been "upset" nor "bewildered" and claims that the Mail had been "misleading and unfair" by accusing Rowling of "making knowingly false statements".
According to the document, a Mail journalist did contact Rowling's representative prior to publication but he "failed to put to her or offer any opportunity to comment on the allegations he was proposing to publish", which is "contrary to basic standards of fair and responsible journalism."
Rowling is seeking unspecified damages from the Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers, for publishing the story. In the printed paper it carried a slightly different headline, "How JK Rowling's sob story about her single mother past has surprised and confused the church members who cared for her,".
Rowling says the online article, headlined "How JK Rowling's sob story about her past as a single mother has left the churchgoers who cared for her upset and bewildered", misrepresented her comments.
In so doing it injured her reputation and caused her great distress and embarrassment, according to documents filed at the high court by Rowling's lawyers, Schillings.
They argue that the article - also published across two pages of the paper in September last year - suggested Rowling had given "a knowingly false account of her time as a single mother in Edinburgh."
They say the article meant that that she had "falsely and inexcusably accused her fellow churchgoers of behaving in a bigoted, unchristian manner towards her, of stigmatising her and cruelly taunting her for being a single mother."
Rowling believes the Mail story was "premised on a false picture" of her own article published 10 days before on the website for the single parents' charity, Gingerbread, "I am prouder of my years as a single mother than of any other part of my life". Rowling is president of Gingerbread.
Her court filing states that she had not "accused her fellow churchgoers of 'stigmatising' or 'cruelly taunting' her." Instead, "she had referred to a single occasion involving a woman who had visited the church one day whilst she was working there."
It further states that a woman quoted in both versions of the story had neither been "upset" nor "bewildered" and claims that the Mail had been "misleading and unfair" by accusing Rowling of "making knowingly false statements".
According to the document, a Mail journalist did contact Rowling's representative prior to publication but he "failed to put to her or offer any opportunity to comment on the allegations he was proposing to publish", which is "contrary to basic standards of fair and responsible journalism."
Rowling is seeking unspecified damages from the Mail's publisher, Associated Newspapers, for publishing the story. In the printed paper it carried a slightly different headline, "How JK Rowling's sob story about her single mother past has surprised and confused the church members who cared for her,".
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