December 17th, 2009
Index on Censorship and English PEN today have expressed dismay that the BBC has conceded the libel action brought by toxic waste shippers Trafigura in the High Court. We believe this is a case of such high public interest that it was incumbent upon a public sector broadcaster like the BBC to have held their ground in order to test in a Court of law the truth of the BBC’s report or determine whether a vindication of Trafigura was deserved.
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December 17th, 2009
The BBC has today withdrawn claims made on flagship news programme Newsnight that oil-trading company Trafigura caused deaths in the Ivory Coast after toxic waste was dumped there. in a settlement designed to head off a potentially massively expensive libel case, the BBC will make a small donation to charity at Trafigura’s request.
While other sources, including the British government, claimed that Trafigura’s actions had caused deaths in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast’s largest city, Newsnight was unable to independently verify the claim.
Sources at the BBC say the corporation faced up to £3 million in legal costs if it defended the case against Trafigura.
Read BBC court statement
here
November 5th, 2009
Launch of the Libel Reform campaign and the English PEN and Index on Censorship “Free Speech Is Not For Sale” report
12 – 2pm, 10th November 09. Light lunch provided.
Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1R 3GA
Index on Censorship and English PEN fear:
“We’re becoming a global free speech pariah”
“Our libel laws allow people accused of funding terrorism or dumping toxic waste in Africa to silence their critics whilst ‘super-injunctions’ stop the public from even knowing that such allegations exist. We need to reform our libel laws now, and that’s why we’re launching a national campaign to persuade our politicians to do so.”
Jonathan Heawood, Director of English PEN
“If we don’t act we’re at risk of becoming a global pariah. There are US States who view English libel law as so damaging to free speech they have passed laws to effectively block the decisions of English judges. Our report is an important milestone in modernising our antiquated and chilling approach to free expression.”
John Kampfner, the CEO of Index on Censorship
English PEN and Index on Censorship will be publishing their report on English libel law reform, and launching the Libel Reform campaign, at the Free Word Centre on 10 November.
English PEN and Index on Censorship have been looking into these issues in detail for over a year now and it has become increasingly clear that English libel law and the use of ‘super-injunctions’ are having a profoundly negative impact on freedom of expression, both in the UK and abroad. Writers such as Simon Singh, and respected current affairs programme Newsnight, have found themselves facing defamation suits, whilst human rights campaigners are often forced to edit and retract articles in the face of potential libel action.
The Libel Reform campaign will bring together Index on Censorship and English PEN to mount a national campaign with a website launched on 10 November to persuade politicians from all parties of the importance of reforming these unjust laws.
Update: Read the Independent’s interview with Index on Censorship’s John Kampfner here
October 21st, 2009
Index on Censorship and English PEN today welcomed MPs’ robust response in this afternoon’s adjournment debate to law firm Carter-Ruck’s challenge to Parliamentary reporting, and called on them to strengthen the public’s right to information by banning the use of so-called “super injunctions” except in extreme circumstances.
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October 19th, 2009
Law firm Carter-Ruck’s super-injunction to attempt to stop the reporting of a question on the Trafigura affair in Parliament has galvanised MPs and other bodies to take up the fight for freedom of expression. John Kampfner reports
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October 17th, 2009
Commodities firm Trafigura and solicitors Carter-Ruck have given up attempts to conceal a report on the company’s activities in the Ivory Coast.
You can read the Minton Report
here
October 16th, 2009
An answer to a parliamentary question by Paul Farrelly MP has revealed that the high court does not keep a record of the number of injunctions granted against the press. In the current edition of The Economist, media lawyer Mark Stephens says he estimates that between 200 and 300 injunction are in action at any one time.
Read more
here
October 14th, 2009
Carter-Ruck, the aggressive media law firm helping the Trafigura oil-trading company in relation to reports of its 2006 waste dumping disaster in Côte d’Ivoire, scored a spectacular own goal yesterday when it tried to keep the Guardian from reporting a parliamentary question due to be asked today.
The Guardian asked for an urgent hearing to overturn the gag, which goes against free-speech privileges enshrined in the Bill of Rights of 1688 as well as long-established legal precedent; Carter-Ruck withdrew before the matter came to court. It was the work of a few tedious minutes to skim through the Commons Order Book online and find the relevant question. In no time the news had been spread by flocks of twitterati.
The question refers to a previously secret High Court injunction banning the Guardian from mentioning the Minton report, commissioned by Trafigura in September 2006, which related to toxicity levels of the caustic tank washings dumped that August on the coast around Abidjan. Whatever the consultants said, Trafigura continued for three years to claim that they were harmless.
The company finally announced a weak compensation deal for some of the victims — with no admission of liability — on 17 September, the day after the Guardian published internal emails between Trafigura executives considering how to dispose of the toxic “crap” in order to profit from a cheap consignment of petrol from Mexico. The Minton report itself is available on the internet from the anti-corruption group Wikileaks.
Trafigura and Carter-Ruck have mounted a desperate campaign to stop the media from reporting on the illegal dumping, which is said to have caused vomiting, choking and skin eruptions in some 100,000 people and killed at least 12 Ivorians. As well as the injunction against the Guardian, the firm issued a libel writ against BBC2’s Newsnight, which also reported on the dumping, and threatened journalists from Norway, the Netherlands, Estonia and The Times. The Dutch Greenpeace campaigner Marietta Harjono has said she was told not to mention Trafigura on a British radio interview for fear of libel claims.
Carter-Ruck (known to readers of Private Eye by a slightly different name) specialises in protecting clients from “adverse or intrusive” media coverage, and boasts involvement in more than half the libel and privacy claims issued in the High Court in any given year. It offers a 24-hour “media alert” service, threatening media outlets in order to change or block unwanted stories before publication, and often works alongside PR agencies on behalf of clients facing “sustained and hostile media interest.” Obviously, the firm has found that its approach works — or why would it be so clumsy as to block a campaigning newspaper from reporting on Parliament?
Maria Margaronis is London correspondent for The Nation.
