Amy Akhtar has made many mistakes in her career, from publishing a book with the headline ‘Islam is a dirty word’ to making claims about the London Olympics opening ceremony.
“For decades Akhtar ran a controversial website, the New Statesman, that has been repeatedly attacked for its biased reporting and offensive content,” it said.
The National Union of Journalists said it supported the decision but accused Akhtar of seeking to silence those who had criticised her.
“We are pleased that journalists and their employers can now stand up before a court and make their case.
“However, it is important that these brave women are not silenced by Akhtar or any other political leaders,” the union said.
Image caption Sarah Brown, who runs the UK’s largest independent news site, The Mary Sue, has spoken out about the attack website, called RMT
Akhtar had refused to return requests for an interview.
RMT is Britain’s biggest transport union and says it was attacked because of its comments in favour of strike action.
Mick Cash, general secretary of the unions, said: “While the NUJ and the NUJA are pleased with the decision today, we feel that for many women, particularly those dealing with domestic abuse in the workplace, the decision is not good enough.”
Labour MP Harriet Harman told the BBC: “There are plenty of professional women who do the sort of work that Akhtar has made a career out of and you wouldn’t have got them to come up here.”
Labour’s shadow minister for women and equalities, Esther McVey, said it was a moment to “dramatically increase” the number of feminist women from parliament, media and government.
RMT has not commented on the verdict.
Akhtar wrote on the website: “I think it should become clear that RMT has now reached the last resort – they have been taken to court, forced to be heard and have suffered an assault on their First Amendment rights after a string of anonymous, vicious and vile abuse.”
‘Inconsistent information’
But a judge on one of the trials, which will hear evidence on Tuesday, has suggested there has been “a failure” by the court to consider all the evidence properly and she asked Ms Brown for an “indicative judgment” into the allegations.
She will give a report back to the judge in due course