Pubdate: Sun, 31 Mar 2002
Source: Independent  (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd
Contact:  http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Author: James Morrison and Ross Slater

NAOMI MOTHER TAKES SWIPE AT 'RACIST' PRESS

Naomi Campbell's mother yesterday criticised the media, saying that press 
attacks on her daughter during and after a High Court battle with a tabloid 
paper were motivated by racism.

Ms Campbell, 31, won UKP3,500 damages last week after Mr Justice Morland 
ruled that the Mirror had breached her rights to confidentiality by 
publishing details about her attending Narcotics Anonymous. However, the 
judge balanced the verdict by criticising the model for lying in court, a 
charge reiterated in several tabloids.

Speaking to the Independent on Sunday, Valerie Campbell yesterday 
challenged the Mirror's columnist Sue Carroll to repeat her description of 
the model as a "chocolate soldier" to other black people. "That was 
blatantly racist. I was disgusted by the Mirror's editor trying to suggest 
it was a common phrase with no racial connotations. If Sue Carroll or Piers 
Morgan think it's so inoffensive, they should go to Brixton and start 
calling black women 'chocolate soldiers' and see what happens."

Valerie Campbell, a fashion designer, argued that editorials in a range of 
newspapers after last week's ruling reflected the paper's frustration that 
it had been beaten by a "young, black girl".

She said: "They just can't take the fact that they lost the case. They 
cannot stand it because a young, black girl has put them under manners and 
now they are all ganging up to moan about it."

She praised her daughter's "courageous" decision to seek treatment for her 
drug addiction: "I think my daughter was very courageous to go along to an 
open meeting like that with ordinary people to admit her addiction in 
public. It was a very hard thing for her to stand up and admit her problem 
in front of a whole lot of strangers."

Valerie Campbell's comments came as her daughter's lawyers claimed the 
final legal bill faced by the Mirror could exceed UKP500,000 - more than 
twice the sum quoted until now. Keith Schilling, the model's solicitor, 
said that, in addition to the paper's own estimated costs of UKP200,000, he 
would pursue a claim for UKP250,000 or more.
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