The usual costs rule is that the winner of a trial, in this case the Guardian, receives its costs from the losing party, in this case Clarke.
Judge Mrs Justice Steyn said he must pay £3m within the next 28 days, ahead of a detailed assessment into the total costs to be recovered.
She said: “It seems to me that the sum of £3m sought by the defendant is appropriate and no more than what ought to be reasonably ordered in this case.
“It is substantially lower than the defendant’s likely level of recovery on detailed assessment and so in my judgment, it does allow for a suitably wide margin of error.”
The judge continued: “The claimant maintained a far-fetched and indeed a false case that the articles were not substantially true, by pursuing allegations of dishonesty and bad faith against almost all of the defendant’s truth witnesses.”
Gavin Millar KC, for GNM, had asked the court to order payment of half of the estimated £6m costs as an interim payment, which he said was “significantly less” than the “norm” of asking for 75-80% of the costs.
Clarke, who represented himself at the hearing, told the court he thought the Guardian’s legal costs were excessive and should be reduced.