The BBC has agreed to a settlement payment of £185k to Lord McAlpine following its broadcast of erroneous information implicating him in a child abuse scandal.
Reflecting the scale of the harm done the sum is one of the largest ever doled out by the BBC, setting the bar high for a string of follow-up cases.
The broadcaster is described as being the first ‘on a very long list’ of defendants facing legal action which includes ITV and journalist Charles Monbiot and Speakers wife Sally Bercow, both of whom also implicated McAlpine on Twitter.
Despite the scale of the sum involved McAlpine’s lawyer claimed that the settlement had been ‘tempered’ by the acknowledgement that we, the license payers, were underwriting it.
In a statement the BBC said it had “agreed terms with Lord McAlpine to settle his claim of libel against the corporation. The settlement is comprehensive and reflects the gravity of the allegations that were wrongly made".
As part of the deal McAlpine has agreed to release a statement saying he still holds the BBC in ‘high esteem’, a concession requested by the BBC to begin the process of rebuilding its tarnished reputation.