A judge said that the broadcast ‘is simply not about him’ (Picture: Reuters/Rex/Channel 4)
Vacuum cleaner billionaire Sir James Dyson has had a libel claim he brought against Channel 4 dismissed.
The broadcaster had screened allegations that workers at a factory in Malaysia which previously supplied products to his firm faced abuse and ‘inhuman conditions’.
Sir James claimed the broadcast falsely said he and companies Dyson Technology and Dyson Limited were complicit in systematic abuse and exploitation of the workers.
Mr Justice Nicklin found today that while Sir James was named and pictured in the programme, the entrepreneur was not defamed, and his claim was dismissed.
He said: ‘The broadcast is simply not about him, and no ordinary reasonable viewer could conclude that he was being in any way criticised. The allegations in the broadcast were clearly targeted, but the targets do not include the first claimant [Sir James].
‘Only a reader that was hopelessly naive about the way in which global companies like Dyson operate could consider that a single person, its founder, had day-to-day management responsibility for what happened in a manufacturing plant that supplied its products.’
Sir James had sued the broadcaster and Independent Television News (ITN) over the broadcast on February 10.
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At a hearing earlier this month, the court was told the programme reported on legal action brought against the vacuum cleaning giant by several workers.
The programme is estimated to have been seen by millions of viewers, and featured interviews with workers at ATA Industrial, who said they faced abuse and ‘inhuman conditions’ while at the factory, which manufactured vacuum cleaners and air filters.
Hugh Tomlinson KC, for Sir James and the companies, previously told the court the broadcast had targeted ‘Dyson meaning Sir James and Dyson companies’.
Mr Justice Nicklin had been asked to decide several preliminary issues in the claim, including whether the programme defamed Sir James and the two companies.
However, Adam Wolanski KC, for Channel 4 and ITN, had argued that the broadcast did not defame Sir James or refer to the two companies.
Mr Justice Nicklin was also asked to decide whether the two companies were referred to in the broadcast.
The judge found the two ‘candidates’ identified by the broadcast would be the company trading with ATA and the company involved in the so-called ‘PR operation’ accused of attempting to hide the alleged abuse.
He added that if Dyson Technology Limited and Dyson Limited were not those companies referred to, they would not be able to continue the libel claim.
‘It may be possible for Dyson to put forward a revised claim on behalf of the current corporate claimants, or for claims to be brought by other companies in the Dyson group,’ Mr Justice Nicklin said.
He added that he had not reached ‘any concluded view’ on the meaning of the programme in relation to the two companies.
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A judge ruled that the broadcast, about the abuse of workers, was ‘simply not about him, and no ordinary reasonable viewer could conclude that he was being in any way criticised’.