BBC journalist ‘wrong’ to say NDA was signed freely

THE BBC has been told it is “inaccurate” to claim that women who entered into non-disclosure agreements after they had made allegations about sexual harassment did so “freely”.

Media and employment lawyers have said it is likely there would be an “imbalance of power” during negotiations to settle a claim and therefore it was incorrect to view these contractual relationships as free of “abuse”.

Yesterday, a BBC journalist claimed the judgment by the Court of Appeal “made clear that there was no evidence any of the NDAS resulted from bullying, harassment or undue pressure”. Clive Coleman, the BBC’S legal correspondent, explained that “NDAS are just contracts and if entered into freely, with proper legal advice, courts are loath to unpick them”.

Analysing the judgment by the Court of Appeal, Mr Coleman said that NDAS “used by powerful rich people to gag alleged victims are an area of massive concern, but this does not appear to be a good example of that kind of abuse”.

However, legal experts questioned some of the comments.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher, a media lawyer at Doughty Street Chambers, described a “fundamental inequality of bargaining power” if a very rich individual with a weighty legal team attempted to “buy the silence of employees”. She said: “Describing those people as having freely entered those arrangements isn’t accurate.”