Britain’s leading newspaper, The Telegraph, has issued an unprecedented series of apologies and paid damages to Pakistani-American technology entrepreneur Zia Chishti for alleging that he had engaged in sexual misconduct.
 
Zia Chishti had sued the Telegraph Media Group (publisher of the Daily Telegraph and the Telegraph online) in the UK High Court over 13 articles published by The Telegraph between November 2021 to February 2023 that republished allegations made by a former employee of Mr Chishti that Mr Chishti had harassed and assaulted Tatiana Spottiswoode. 
 
Zia Chishti, whose full name is Muhammad Ziaullah Khan Chishti, fought a tough legal battle with the paper in London for over two years, which involved disclosure and review of thousands of documents between Mr. Chishti and Ms. Spottiswoode.

Between November 2021 and February 2023, The Telegraph published a series of articles that reported on allegations made by Ms. Tatiana Spottiswoode to a committee of the United States Congress. Mr. Chishti initiated libel proceedings against The Telegraph in response.

The subsequent high court proceedings drew on extensive personal communications between Mr. Chishti and Ms. Spottiswoode, as well as hundreds of documents The Telegraph obtained through a subpoena of Ms. Spottiswoode’s attorneys in the United States. The communications included text messages in which Ms. Spottiswoode asked that she be “seduced and slowly undressed” by Mr. Chishti during the period in which she claimed she was being harassed.

The documents contained intimate conversations which showed that Ms. Spottiswoode repeatedly pursued Mr. Chishti with romantic interest during the periods in which she was claiming she was harassed and assaulted - and made her allegations public after Mr. Chishti had moved on to a different relationship and married his now-wife.
 
The UK’s oldest newspaper has now conceded the allegations it published were false, misleading and defamatory. The apology states that the Telegraph withdraws its position that its allegations against Mr. Chishti were true and will run the apology on top of a record thirteen separate articles that The Telegraph published about him. It will also be published separately both in The Telegraph’s print and online editions.

The Telegraph also agreed to pay Mr. Chishti substantial damages and legal costs. It acknowledged that Mr. Chishti has consistently disputed the allegations Ms. Spottiswoode made to the Congress, which provided her with legal immunity against claims of defamation. The Telegraph also acknowledged that, although he sought to provide evidence to Congress to disprove the allegations made against him, Congress did not give Mr. Chishti the opportunity to do so.
 
The Telegraph today read out in open court in the Royal Courts of Justice in London that: “A series of articles published by the Telegraph from November 2021 to February 2023 reported on allegations made by a former employee of Afiniti, Tatiana Spottiswoode to the United States Congress, about the company’s founder and CEO, Zia Chishti. Although Mr. Chishti sought to do so, Congress did not give him the opportunity to refute the allegations, which he strongly disputes.”
 
The apology continued: “The Telegraph made a statement in open court that it withdraws its earlier position that the above allegations were true and that they were made in the public interest. The Telegraph apologises to Mr Chishti and his family for the harm they have been caused. Finally, The Telegraph has agreed to pay Mr Chishti a substantial sum by way of damages and a contribution to his legal costs.” 
 
Speaking to media outside the court after winning the case, Zia Chishti said The Telegraph apology and settlement is a step in the right direction. The technology entrepreneur, accompanied by his family members and lawyers, said: “I did not commit the horrific acts Ms. Spottiswoode and The Telegraph alleged against me. These allegations have created a three-and-a-half-year ordeal that has critically hurt my family and severely damaged my reputation and business interests. The Telegraph has now withdrawn its position that the allegations it published were true and has apologised for the harm it has caused in publishing these allegations. This apology helps repair the extensive damage to me in the United Kingdom. I am now hopeful that in the United States the newly elected Congress gives me the same platform to deny the allegations against me as it gave my accuser to make the allegations.” 
 
Chishti has also sued Spottiswoode and her attorneys Nancy Smith and Michael Zweig for defamation in the United States. In his US complaint, Chishti also included extensive text and email conversations with Spottiswoode that made clear that Spottiswoode had lied to the United States Congress and that the two had a consensual romantic relationship spread over many years.

A central part of Spottiswoode's defence is that because her allegations against Chishti were made to the US Congress, she has legal immunity against Chishti's defamation lawsuit.