The Wardman Wire

Kezia Dugdale, who writes at Kezia Dugdale’s soapbox, has removed an article concerning SNP Councillor Jahangir Asif after a legal threat.

From Alwyn at Huw at the Miserable Old Fart blog:

On Saturday I mentioned the fact that an SNP councillor and millionaire had threatened the blogger Kezia Duggdale with legal action.

I don’t particularly like Kezia’s blog - she supports the Labour party - I don’t. She says nasty things about Alex Salmond, one of my political heroes, but I respect and defend her freedom of opinion!

Last year there was a blog consensus that the blogosphere would stand up to rich people trying to bully individual bloggers when Usmanov went after Bloggerheads, where is that blog support for Kez?

I’m afraid this story is quite involved, and has quite a lot of nuances in it - which has added to the length of this article. I’ll run through events and add some reflections.

The Background

For the events, let me summarise from Tim Ireland :

August 8th onwards:

Evening Times - Councillor Kalashnikov: This is Glasgow councillor Jahangir Hanif caught on camera firing a deadly Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle at a military-style camp in Pakistan. The 46-year-old SNP councillor, who was last month reported to be a slum landlord, took five of his six children - including his five-year-old daughter - to learn how to fire the weapon in mountains in the Kashmir border.

Another tabloid more familiar to those of us south of the border also ran with the story the next day, as did The Times and the BBC.

Jahangir Hanif’s reported actions appear to have been within the law, but the SNP are big on gun control, and the death of two-year-old Andrew Morton is a major factor in the gun debate .

Noor Hanif, Councillor Jahangir Hanif’s 17 year old daughter, wrote a long (2700 word) letter to Alex Salmond, the leader of the Scottish Executive and the SNP, questioning whether Jahangir Hanif was a fit and proper person to hold office as a local Councillor.

Various newspapers quoted from the letter (I don’t know how they got hold of it), and Kezia Dugdale published the full 2700 word text on her blog.

The letter, which you can (currently) find on Wikileaks, contains statements about events in 2005 around the Kalashnikov Shooting episode, and also a lot of material that seems to be what I call “custody battle character assassination”; I have no way of judging the truth of the latter material - but, if believed to be true, the place to report it should have been the police and child protection services rather than Alex Salmond and the SNP. Whether Noor Hanif also reported these allegations to the police is perhaps a litmus test of how seriously they should be taken.

Kezia Dugdale’s action caused Councillor Hanif to threaten legal action unless the entire text was removed within 15 minutes. As Kezia herself has said in a statement on her website :

This letter was removed from this site after Councillor Hanif’s solicitors intimated their intention to raise a summons in the Court of Session for interim interdict. The firm of Bannatyne, Kirkwood, France and Co., gave this site 15 minutes to remove the letter.

Spy Blog have a good summary of the legal events

This political censorship seems to have been as a result of Kezia being one several bloggers who published what seems to be the full letter from Noor Hanif , the 17 year old daughter of Jahangir Hanif, to the leader of the SNP Alex Salmond, which paints her father as a violent, devious, domineering bully, as well as puncturing some of the spin and gloss put out by him regarding the AK-47 incident in Pakistan, for which he has been temporarily suspended from the SNP. Parts of the letter have been quoted in National and Scottish newspapers and it has been referred to in debate in the Scottish Parliament.

More recently the SNP MP for Glasgow East, John Mason, has accused critics of Coun. Hanif of colonialism and racism:

CRITICS of Glasgow’s “Councillor Kalashnikov” were today branded racists and colonialists by the city’s newest MP, John Mason.

In an extraordinary defence of Jahangir Hanif, Mr Mason - the former SNP leader on the city council - claimed it was wrong to oppose the use of guns in other countries.

Mr Mason’s comments infuriated opposition politicians, who said claims of racism were insulting and raised doubts about the new Glasgow East MP’s credibility.

And here is the video segment of First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament (about 6 minutes), in which most of the above are mentioned.

Reflections

There has been good reflection from Spy Blog and Bloggerheads on the Censorship and Libel Law angles on this affair. Also, there are public and private aspects to this, since - as mentioned briefly above - in addition to Jahangir Hanif’s encouragement to his children to fire Kalashnikovs in a “military style training camp” on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border, the Hanifs are also going through a divorce.

It seems to me that the “Kalashnikov” aspects of this affair are of legitimate public interest, while the aspects around the divorce are - basically - not in that category. Or, at least, not in that category unless breach of the law is involved and has been demonstrated - or is being hidden.

There are also a couple of political/legal aspects to speculate about that people seem to have missed, such as the fact that it is now illegal (from 2006) to engage in training or encouragement to take part in Terrorist Activities. Did - for example - Jahangir Hanif’s actions in the video constitute “glorification of terrorism”? Critics could draw an interesting comparison.

Equally, note that the “Kalashnikov” incident took place in 2005 “on a family holiday”, around two years before Mr Hanif became a Councillor. Councillor Hanif:

“I regret that this happened and apologise, it was foolish and inappropriate. It took place over two-and-a-half years ago, long before I became a councillor…I accept the actions of the party, and will wish to take part in the formal hearing on my return to Scotland.”

He might just as well have said:

“I regret that this happened and apologise, it was foolish and inappropriate. It took place over two-and-a-half years ago, six months after I stood for Parliament on behalf of the SNP … I accept the actions of the party, and will wish to take part in the formal hearing on my return to Scotland.”

In May 2005 Mr Jahangir Hanif was the Scottish National Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Central Ayrshire for the Westminster Election. He gained 11.1% of the vote and came 4th. The “Kalashnikov” incident was in December 2005.

If the objective is to embarrass the SNP and undermine Coun. Hanif as a serious politician, then there is ample leeway to do that simply on the relevant political facts. Tim Ireland calls the divorce stuff “tangential”, and I think he is right.

The Solicitors acting for Hanif expose themselves as fools and bullies when they play “take it down in 15 minutes or else…” games; if that went to court that aspect would probably - and correctly - be treated with derision. Such tactics can only help those of us working for more rational laws around libel and defamation in the UK.

And John Mason MP gives every sign of being a candidate for the Cynical Dragon’s “Cock” list, alongside Paul Flynn MP.

Support for Kezia … but

The case that I have been writing about most recently - Dave Walker and others - was a clear case of an attempt to use legal threats to close down legitimate straight reporting, and the protagonist in that case has since admitted to misleading (inadvertently, it is claimed) a Bankruptcy Court.

My position is that there should be “Open Debate” about allegations, rather than their removal due to pre-emptive legal threats based on an alternative set of unproven allegations (i.e., claims that the first lot are defamatory). But I am trying to have the laws around defamation reformed, not to abolish defamation as an offence; there should be proper redress for damaged reputations.

In this case I think the various newspapers got it right in reporting the “Kalashnikov” part of the story while simply summarising the familial aspects.

So, I support Kezia Dugdale’s right to publish, but I don’t think dumping the entire text on her blog was either wise or necessarily effective. If there is proof of the allegations made by Noor against her father, then it should be a police matter. The exception would be if there was a need for some investigation, when the evidence should have been presented alongside the allegations; in that case, defamation would not arise as the statements would be true.

The latest statement from Coun. Jahangir Hanif :

“In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Hanif said: “Editors are to be advised that a Labour Party blog containing defamatory statements concerning me has been withdrawn and an undertaking granted that it will not be re-posted following the initiation of interdict proceedings.”

“Notice is given that in the event that newspapers or broadcasters publish extracts from the blog that legal proceedings will follow.”

is also amusingly ambiguous. Is Kezia Dugdale’s Soapbox a “Labour Party Blog”? I thought it was a “Kezia Dugdale” blog.