A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?

The good news last week is that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has agreed to hear the case that there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum. Several UK court cases, petitions and speeches in Parliament have failed to get the government to investigate and publish the result of the research into Russian interference.

The multimillionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks has lost his libel action against the Observer and Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr, in a significant decision for public interest journalism.

"Very desperate or very stupid, or both," wrote one person in response.

Banks is suing Guardian journalist for defamation over Brexit backer’s ‘covert relationship’ with Russia.

Sean Topham and Ben Guerin have worked on campaigns for Australia’s rightwing coalition and Glencore mining firm.

Legal threat comes as campaigners warn UK government that courts are being used to intimidate journalists.

Cadwalladr has spent the past two years investigating the Leave.EU co-founder as part of her work exposing the harvesting of millions of Facebook users’ data by the now-defunct Cambridge Analytica and the wider impact of technology misuse on democracy, including in the 2016 EU referendum.