The Independent newspaper has today agreed to pay undisclosed libel damages to Lizo Mzimba over a story that orignated from a Cambridge University student magazine and claimed that Mzimba had perhaps had too many drinks and ended up taped to a wall when on a visit (that it was alleged was work related) to Cambridge.
After some legal clarification from Mzimba's lawyer (Jonathan Coad) it appears that none of the allegations published about Mzimba's outing to Cambridge were in fact true (or proven to be true) and High Court Judge Mr Justice Tugendhat acknowledged the Independent's undertaking not to repeat the libellous allegations and pay over substantial damages.
So the Independent got the rap for this one and is paying the price for not checking its primary source while that primary source in the form of Cambridge student publication 'The Tab' has got off lightly for dreaming up such a story...
Motto of the story for student editors is don't imagine someone in gaffer-tape unless you can prove it while the Indy should have known better than to expose itself to such sticky tape scandal.
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