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Reuters to pay damages to mosque in London over false 'terrorism' allegation

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An international news agency has agreed to pay undisclosed damages to a well-known mosque over a "terrorism" allegation.

Reuters expressed its "regret" at London's High Court over publishing damaging allegations about Finsbury Park Mosque, north London, in its international database World-Check.

World-Check is subscription-only service that publishes profiles which go to subscribers including law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies.

It also gets sent to banks, financial institutions and other financial organisations.

Following publication of the report, the mosque's bank "terminated its banking relationship and closed its account".

Furthermore, several other banks refused to accept the mosque.

Sara Monsoori, representing the company that now runs the mosque, said they discovered the news agency had placed it in the "terrorism" category.

She told deputy High Court judge Richard Parkes QC: "This was wrong.

"The profile referred to press reports and allegations from many years ago, long before the mosque was reorganised and the claimant company was established."

The management company said they were unaware of the report until they were notified by the BBC on June 20, 2015.

Reuters accepted the report "made the false allegation that there were grounds to suspect that the claimant had continued connections to terrorism".

Oliver Murphy, appearing for Reuters, said: "The defendant is here today through me to express its regret for publishing the allegations".

It is unacceptable that any organisation is able to designate people as terrorists on the basis of poor research and for those people to be labelled without any recourse to truth or justice.

– FINSBURY PARK MOSQUE

Brian Mairs, spokesman for Reuters said: "Although the court documents cite Reuters Ltd as the defendant, World-Check is owned, operated and published by Thomson Reuters.

"Thomson Reuters provides information and insight to professionals in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, and media markets.

"The Reuters news agency is one of its businesses, but World-Check is not part of the agency. It is operated by the Financial & Risk business."

http://www.itv.com/news/2017-02-01/reuters-to-pay-damages-to-mosque-over-false-terrorism-allegation/
 
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