Journalist criticised over Libya libel cash

By Sandra Barwick

THE deputy foreign editor of the Guardian who let a Ghanaian former head of security put ?327,000 through her bank accounts to fund a libel action against a rival newspaper made "a silly mistake", says the paper's ombudsman.

Most of this money came from Libyan sources, although Victoria Brittain has said that she had no knowledge of that, and the ombudsman's report says that her bank accounts did not reveal the origins of the money.

Khalifa Ahmed Bazelya, Libya's most senior representative in London, in 1993 had paid large sums into Miss Brittain's accounts to fund the action of Kojo Tsikata, ex-head of security in Ghana, against the Independent newspaper.

John Willis, the Guardian's ombudsman and columnist, has concluded that "it is surprising" that Miss Brittain did not ask where her close friend's money was coming from. His salary as head of security in Ghana, a poor country, was ?4,000 a year. Mr Willis reports: "No doubt Mr Tsikata, as she says, could have been funded from many different sources around the world, but that included Libya, and we will never know if Mr Tsikata had to do anything in return for the money."

In failing to suggest that Mr Tsikata put his money into his solicitor's client account by a more direct route she was "surprisingly naive", he says and reveals "poor judgment". She had not told her editor of the transactions. As well as large sums from Libyan sources, just under ?50,000 was put in the account in 1994 apparently by Kojo Amoo-Gottfried, then Ghanaian ambassador in Peking.

In October 1996 over ?62,000 was put through for Mr Tsikata via Citibank in New York, from an unknown source. The last payment was made in September, just after the Mail on Sunday revealed Miss Brittain's role in handling the funds. Miss Brittain said she met Mr Tsikata in 1982 at the House of Commons. He became a source, and a close friend in 1988. Mr Willis concludes that she could have been wiser but her conduct did not compromise her journalistic integrity or that of the Guardian.

Coverage of Ghana during the regime with which Mr Tsikata was involved as head of security was as good as, if not better than, other papers, he believes. He accepts that Ghana's human rights record had been "indefensible", and that coverage of this in the paper was slight, but this was little different from the reports in other British papers. However, Miss Brittain's reputation had been damaged and it was hard to imagine how she could write about Ghana without being accused of bias.

"Ms Brittain says she has finished writing about Ghana, as if that resolves all questions of potential compromises in her journalism. But as deputy foreign editor, Ghanaian stories will come across her desk." It would have been wiser for her not to have let her bank account be used. "So far she does not seem to have accepted that there was any risk of conflict of interest in how she behaved," he says. "She behaved commendably as a friend, but inappropriately as a journalist."

M15 is criticised by Mr Willis over their prolonged attempts to find out why large sums of Libyan money were going through Miss Brittain's account.

25 August 1997: Watch on journalist was 'too risky' 4 October 1997: Journalist in MI5 case to face fresh inquiry 19 April 1997: Ghana keeps its cool

Email Electronic Telegraph.