The Press: A Victory for Honor

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In Britain, many newspapers are so intimidated by the tight libel laws that they hastily retract stories when threatened with a libel suit. Last week Fleet Streeters saluted one scrappy British newshen who gave British newspapers a lesson in the importance of standing behind the stories they print. In court, Feature Writer Honor Tracy, 38, won a case against Lord Kemsley's Sunday Times* (circ. 531,566) after the paper settled a libel suit before trial and printed an apology for an article she had written. The Sunday Times apology, she charged, sold her "down the river" by implying that she was an "irresponsible journalist prepared to write articles recklessly."

In court, Writer Tracy testified that, as a regular contributor to the Sunday Times, she had written about an 82-year-old parish priest in Doneraile, County Cork, Ireland. He had built a new house for himself, she said, by getting contributions from his 2,700 parishioners, who lived in tattered "cottages without water or light," earning an average of only $8 to $11 a week as farm laborers.

Honor Tracy was ready to stand behind her article, but the Sunday Times backed away from a showdown in court with the priest by writing a letter apologizing to him and paying $2,100 to a charity he designated. Writer Tracy was also infuriated when the Sunday Times printed an abject retraction in which the paper "admitted" that her article was "an unjustifiable attack on the character and posi tion" of Doneraile's Canon Maurice O'Connell. Indignant that the Sunday Times had disavowed her story without consulting her or trying to check the truth of the piece, Honor Tracy filed her own: libel suit. Defendant: the Sunday Times. Charge: damage to the professional reputation of Writer Tracy.

Lawyers for the Sunday Times argued that there were inaccuracies in her story (e.g., the house cost about $17,000, not $25,000). But the jury decided this "woman of great resolution and determination" had been maligned by the Sunday Times's settlement and apologies. Damages awarded Honor Tracy: $8,400.