Vodafone sues Daily Telegraph for libel

NEWS Vodafone is suing the Daily Telegraph over an article in which the newspaper criticised high executive pay and poor business performance. A spokesman for Vodafone said today: "We have issued a statement of claim against the Telegraph," but refused to go into any detail about the lawsuit. He declined to say exactly what article had offended Vodafone. However, a 27 June opinion piece entitled "The robber barons must be made to pay for their greed" has been taken down from the Telegraph's website. The news comes as Vodafone faces further pressure from shareholders to scale down the size of Vodafone CEO Chris Gent's remuneration package. On Friday pension fund manager Pensions Investment Research Consultants urged shareholders to vote against the latest pay review. Vodafone registered Europe's largest ever corporate loss for the 2002 financial year, but still proposes to award Gent a pay package worth in excess of £6m, plus nine million share options. The Telegraphrefused to comment on the news.