Carole Cadwalladr facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Carole Cadwalladr
Cadwalladr in 2019
Born	Carole Jane Cadwalladr 1969 (age 55–56) Taunton, Somerset, England
Occupation	Journalist
Education	Radyr Comprehensive School
Alma mater	Hertford College, Oxford

Carole Jane Cadwalladr (born 1969) is a British author and investigative journalist. She writes for The Observer newspaper. She used to work for The Daily Telegraph.

Carole became well known around the world in 2018. This was because she helped to reveal the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. For her work, she was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. This is a very important award for journalism. She shared this honor with reporters from The New York Times.

Early life

Carole Cadwalladr was born in Taunton, Somerset, England. She grew up in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. She went to Radyr Comprehensive School in Cardiff. Later, she studied at Hertford College, Oxford University.

Career

Carole Cadwalladr's first novel was called The Family Tree. A novel is a long storybook. This book was nominated for several awards in 2006. It was also turned into a five-part radio show on BBC Radio 4. In the United States, The Family Tree was chosen as an Editor's Choice by The New York Times Book Review. The book was translated into many different languages. These included Spanish, Italian, and German.

As a journalist, Carole has focused on technology issues. This has been her main interest since around 2010. For example, she interviewed Jimmy Wales. He is the person who started Wikipedia.

Starting in late 2016, The Observer newspaper published many articles by Carole. These articles were about what she called the "fake news ecosystem." This means how false information spreads online.

Carole's articles in The Observer reported on concerns about how election campaigns were run. She looked into the 2016 EU membership referendum. She also reported on possible connections between Nigel Farage, the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and Russian influence. These connections were investigated in the United States. Before Cambridge Analytica closed down in 2018, the company took legal action against The Observer. This was because of claims made in Carole's articles.

In April 2019, Carole gave a TED talk. A TED talk is a short, powerful speech. Her talk was about the links between Facebook and Brexit. It was titled "Facebook's role in Brexit — and the threat to democracy." She spoke about how she believed Facebook was "breaking" democracy. She mentioned important people like Mark Zuckerberg, who started Facebook. She said that she didn't think fair elections were possible anymore. Her speech was well-received. Some tech companies disagreed with her claims. However, they did not explain why.

Legal case against Cadwalladr

A person named Arron Banks started a libel case against Carole Cadwalladr. This happened on July 12, 2019. A libel case is when someone says a published statement has harmed their reputation. Mr. Banks was unhappy with Carole's claim in her TED talk. She had suggested he was not truthful about his connections with the Russian government.

In May 2023, a court ruled that Carole had published a serious statement that was not true. The court said that keeping this statement public had caused Mr. Banks harm. The court ordered her to pay damages and cover legal costs.

Initially, in June 2022, Mr. Banks lost the case. The judge at that time said Carole had a good reason to believe her comments were important for the public. Groups that support press freedom were worried about the lawsuit. They called it a "SLAPP" suit. This means a lawsuit meant to stop journalists from reporting. However, the judge said it was not fair to call it that.

In February 2023, a higher court partly agreed with Mr. Banks. They ruled that the continued publication of her TED Talk after April 2020 had harmed his reputation. This was because an official report found no evidence of him breaking the law.

In April 2023, Carole was ordered to pay money to Mr. Banks. She was also ordered to pay a large amount for legal costs. In November 2023, her lawyers announced they would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Other work

Carole Cadwalladr also helped start "All the Citizens." This is a not-for-profit organization in the UK. It is made up of journalists, filmmakers, and other creative people. The group plans to raise money for individual projects and campaigns.

Journalism awards

Carole Cadwalladr has won many awards for her journalism:

• British Journalism Awards' Technology Journalism Award in December 2017
• Specialist Journalist of the Year 2017 at the National Society of Editors Press Awards
• Orwell Prize for Political Journalism in June 2018. This was for her work on how large amounts of data affected elections.
• Reporters without Borders "L'esprit de RSF" award in November 2018. This was for her work on protecting democratic processes.
• The 2018 Polk Award for National Reporting with reporters from the New York Times.
• The 2018 Stieg Larsson Prize. This award is given to people who work in the spirit of the author Stieg Larsson.
• Political Studies Association Journalist of the Year in November 2018. She shared this award with Amelia Gentleman. It was for her strong investigative journalism.
• Two 2018 British Journalism Awards for Technology Reporting and Investigation.
• Technology Journalist of the Year in the 2018 Society of Editors awards.
• The 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for Investigative Reporting.
• The annual Hay Festival's Medal for Journalism in May 2019. This was for her "heroic and rigorous investigative journalism."
• Finalist, 2019 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. This was for her coverage of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
• Winner, 2023 Quaker Truth & Integrity Award.