The BBC has agreed to pay Oryx Natural Resources (Oryx) approximately $785,000 in damages for wrongly accusing the company of having affiliations to the Al-Qaeda network. The out-of-court settlement requires BBC to pay all legal fees, which will be calculated in the next few weeks.
Oryx's legal action against the BBC was in response to the October 31, 2001 edition of Ten O'Clock News entitled The Diamonds that Pay for Bin Laden's Terror. The report falsely accused Oryx of funding Osama Bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda network. Three weeks later, the BBC broadcasted an apology.
The false allegations arose when BBC journalists mistakenly accused one of Orynx’s major shareholder’s of being convicted terrorist, Mohammed Khalfan. It was later revealed that the shareholder was a legitimate investor with a similar name to that of Khalfan. As a result of BBC’s accusations, Orynx lost many orders and a number of its credit facilities were canceled.
Oryx is a subsidiary of the Omani-based Orynx Group. The company is a mining corporation operating worldwide in the diamond, cobalt, and gold industries. It is currently developing a diamond concession in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Founded in 1990, the Oryx Group is an international corporation with investments and business interests across a range of industries, including banking, hotels, automotive, natural resources, food production, construction and marketing. The Group currently operates in Europe, Africa and the United States as well as the Middle East. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
