Morrissey has put reviewer David Quantick and NME in court after objecting to the tone of a review.
Morrissey's lawyers claimed that the review suggest Morrissey was a racist and a hypocrite.Quantick wrote in a review for the recently released Greatest Hits album that "For his waving of the flag (for publicity too, it would seem), for his ingrained habit of paying lip service to anti-racism while talking like an old Tory immigration spokesman, and for his abandonment of everything that made The Smiths a band for outsiders, Morrissey should be ashamed of himself."
Quantick's defense claimed that they did not intend to slur Morrissey in the manner that Morrissey's lawyers suggested but the magazine has been forced to apologize.
Caroline Kean, on behalf on NME told the court "My Lord, on behalf of the Defendants, I confirm everything my Friend, the Claimant's solicitor, has said.
The Defendants offer their sincere apologies to the Claimant. They hope that by making this Statement, the matter will be clarified once and for all and the record will have been set straight."
In a statement, Morrissey said, "I am obviously delighted with this victory and the clearing of my name in public where it is loud and clear for all to hear. The NME have calculatedly tried to damage my integrity and to label me as a racist in order to boost their diminishing circulation. Word Magazine made the mistake of repeating those allegations, which they now accept are false and, as a result, have apologised in Open Court. I will now continue to pursue my legal action against the NME and its editor until they do the same."
