High Court rules in favour of journalist Owen Jones in Raffi Berg libel case
The UK's High Court has ruled in favour of the journalist Owen Jones on key issues in a libel case brought by Raffi Berg, BBC news online's Middle East editor, over an article in which Jones alleged that Berg fostered a culture of bias towards Israel.
An article by Jones, published by the news outlet Drop Site News, cited BBC journalists who named Berg as playing a "key role in a wider BBC culture of 'systematic Israeli propaganda'".
The court rejected Berg's lawyers' core argument that Jones' reporting presented him as "a rogue journalist and editor who deliberately disregards and breaches the duties of accuracy and impartiality".
Judges ruled that the article by Jones expressed an opinion, and indicated the basis for that opinion through examples of Berg's journalism and editorial role.
The ruling is central to determining whether the case is to be pursued.
Berg will now need to show that Jones did not genuinely hold the opinion he expressed in his reporting, or demonstrate that the opinon is not one an honest person could hold on the basis of any fact that existed at the time of its publication.
In a statement on X following the ruling, Jones said: "I stand by my journalism and, if Mr Berg decides to continue the libel claim, I look forward to defending my article in court".
I am delighted that the High Court has ruled in my favour on the key issues in the libel case brought by Raffi Berg.
— Owen Jones (@owenjonesjourno) March 12, 2026
The court rejected the claimant’s interpretation of the article and ruled that it expressed an opinion based on stated material.
I stand by my journalism and, if…
Jones' piece in Drop Site News quoted BBC staffers saying Berg "reshapes everything from headlines, to story text, to images" and "repeatedly seeks to foreground the Israeli military perspective while stripping away Palestinian humanity".
Jones said that "facts unfavourable to Israel have been stripped out of Berg’s reports" and that he played a "crucial role" in "conduct that imperils the integrity of the BBC".
Berg's lawyer last year said the piece strikes "at the claimant’s professional reputation as a journalist and editor", and has led to "an onslaught of hatred, intimidation and threats", including death threats.
Drop Site reporter Ryan Grim said in November that the organisation had spent $40,000 on legal costs relating to the case so far, but had raised over $100,000 from the public in just over a day since launching an appeal.
In 2020, Berg said that it was "wonderful" to be in a "circle of trust" with current and former Mossad agents while writing a book.
Berg's book, Red Sea Spies, details the 1980s secret Mossad operation to transport thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel.
Its blurb says it was "written in collaboration with operatives involved in the mission, endorsed as the definitive account and including an afterword from the commander who went on to become the head of the Mossad".
In August 2020, Berg posted in celebration that his book was pictured on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bookshelf.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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