Richard Donovan, a Galway runner who organises an annual North Pole marathon, has won a £140,000 (€160,000) settlement from Forbes after suing the magazine for defamation in four countries.
Forbes agreed to settle the case in Belfast’s High Court last August, but details emerged only last week. Donovan alleged that an article in July 2006, entitled Run in the Midnight Sun, was inaccurate or defamatory of him and his North Pole race on eight grounds.
A Forbes journalist had travelled with participants in the 2006 race on a Russian Antonov jet before writing the feature.
Donovan complained the subsequent article was inaccurate in suggesting the Russian plane was unsafe and its emergency exits blocked with luggage. He said he had video evidence to prove this.
The race organiser also claimed the article was wrong to suggest that a tractor, dropped onto the ice to clear a landing strip for the plane, broke through the ice when its parachute failed. He also said the article was wrong to suggest runners were in danger of falling through thin ice.
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Donovan contacted Forbes to complain about the article. It printed a correction stating the tractor did not break through the ice, but instead broke on impact with the ground. According to Donovan’s statement of claim, the article caused an 80% drop in the number of new participants in the race from Ireland and the UK, causing him to lose out on €377,751 in profit from 2007 to 2010.
Runners pay €11,900 to participate in the annual race, which is taking place this week, with Donovan flying out to Norway tomorrow.
Donovan originally filed actions against Forbes in New York, London, Dublin and Belfast but decided to withdraw the American action and consolidate the others into one case lodged in Belfast. His case will feature in a BBC documentary, See You in Court, to be aired on April 12.
“I thought Forbes really sensationalised the trip,” said Donovan. “A tractor has to be air-dropped to carve out the runway but in 2006 the parachute didn’t deploy and it broke apart on hitting the ground. But in the Forbes article, the bulldozer is described as crashing through the ice and sinking. The reader would assume this ice is unsafe, when it isn’t.”
Donovan said the North Pole marathon was a global event and claimed Forbes had hurt its image. “As part of the settlement they agreed to take the article off their website,” said Donovan. “I’ve noticed business has improved since.”
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Forbes did not return calls seeking comment.