Former Sunday Express journalist Yvonne Ridley has won a case for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination against The Islam Channel. The three-person tribunal panel ruled that Ridley had been dismissed by the digital channel and upheld her complaint of sexual discrimination and harassment. Her case, which was part-funded by the NUJ, was held in London in February and heard evidence from a number of figures in support of her claims including the Respect MP George Galloway. Ridley, who resigned from the channel in April last year, complained that she had effectively been dismissed after relations between her and the channel’s chief executive, Mohammed Ali broke, down. The tribunal ruling, on Thursday, April 17, said: “There is nothing in the statutory wording that suggests that the facts of this case should not lead a tribunal to the conclusion that the claimant’s dignity had been violated, on the basis that the words were spoken to an outsider. We find that the words had the purpose of violating her dignity because they were false.” Ridley was also found to have been unfairly dismissed by the tribunal, which ruled that the way she was treated was “riddled with unfairness” and that she was subjected to “a wholesale approach of seeking to blame her at various points”. Ben Dowell
