The Royal Courts of Justice in the UK has found Nigerian investigative journalist David Hundeyin guilty of libel and ordered him to pay £95,000 in damages to Charles Northcott, a BBC journalist he falsely accused in a 2022 article.
The court ruled that Hundeyin’s article, titled “Journalism Career Graveyard,” made serious and unsubstantiated allegations against Northcott, including claims that the BBC journalist had used his position to demand sexual favors from Kiki Mordi, a Nigerian Emmy-nominated reporter featured in the BBC’s Sex for Grades documentary.
Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), revealed that the Royal Courts of Justice in the UK had found Hundeyin guilty of libel and ordered him to pay £95,000 in damages.
In its judgment, the court accepted that Hundeyin’s defamatory publication had caused significant harm to Northcott’s professional reputation, causing him distress both personally and professionally. It also noted that the journalist’s continued online trolling and failure to comply with court orders had aggravated the harm done.
“The article and subsequent behavior have caused serious reputational damage and distress to Mr. Northcott,” the court’s document read. “In addition to compensating for the damage to his reputation, the award includes aggravated damages to address the distress, humiliation, and distress caused by Mr. Hundeyin’s conduct.”
The court also ordered Hundeyin to remove the defamatory article from his website, a directive he had ignored despite previous warnings.
The case stems from Hundeyin’s 2022 article, where he accused Northcott of an inappropriate relationship with Mordi during the making of the Sex for Grades documentary. The documentary exposed the exploitation of female students by Nigerian university lecturers in exchange for sexual favors. Hundeyin’s article claimed that Northcott had an inappropriate relationship with Mordi and had favored her over another journalist, Oge Obi, who Hundeyin claimed was the true brains behind the project.
Hundeyin’s article and his subsequent social media posts generated widespread attention, accumulating more than 40 million impressions on X (formerly Twitter) between September 27 and October 31, 2022. Northcott argued that a significant portion of these impressions came from the UK, where Hundeyin has a notable presence.
After the publication of the article, Hundeyin continued to make provocative posts, including one where he dared Mordi and others to sue him for the allegations. He also posted a video of Northcott and Mordi at Trafalgar Square with a caption further accusing them of misconduct.
Despite being ordered by the court to remove the article, Hundeyin did not comply, and his actions were deemed part of a wider campaign of harassment that aggravated the distress caused by his false claims.
In response, the court concluded: “Mr. Hundeyin’s behavior, post-publication, has fallen within the principles of aggravated damages, contributing to further distress for both Mr. Northcott and Ms. Mordi. His conduct was calculated to cause maximum distress and harm to both individuals.”
As part of the ruling, the court ordered Hundeyin to pay the £95,000 in damages, including both compensatory and aggravated damages, for the harm caused by his libelous publication and his ongoing online harassment.
This case highlights the legal risks journalists face when making unverified and defamatory statements, especially when such claims harm the reputations and livelihoods of those accused.
