Wonderful news that the new media has helped to scupper one of the most outrageous attempts at a gag in British history - oil trader Trafigura's injunction through law firm Carter-Ruck against the Guardian newspaper, which for a time prevented them from reporting... a parliamentary question. That's right, a question asked by an elected member of a democratic assembly. The free speech implications of this were and are monumental. In fact, the company has succeeded only in drawing millions upon millions of people's attention to its nasty practices concerning pollution and the Ivory Coast - the opposite of its intention. Barclays and Tesco are among those who have used legal action against the Guardian in the past for gagging purposes. It is vital that such attempts to misuse corporate power fail. And ordinary people can help by defying them and using the technology at their disposal to do so. Now Gordon Brown is calling for reform of super-injunctions. Here, for the record, is the follow up to the original parliamentary question (no. 61) Transfigura wanted to keep quiet. Let the noise continue.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
GAG SHOOTS ITSELF IN THE FOOT
Wonderful news that the new media has helped to scupper one of the most outrageous attempts at a gag in British history - oil trader Trafigura's injunction through law firm Carter-Ruck against the Guardian newspaper, which for a time prevented them from reporting... a parliamentary question. That's right, a question asked by an elected member of a democratic assembly. The free speech implications of this were and are monumental. In fact, the company has succeeded only in drawing millions upon millions of people's attention to its nasty practices concerning pollution and the Ivory Coast - the opposite of its intention. Barclays and Tesco are among those who have used legal action against the Guardian in the past for gagging purposes. It is vital that such attempts to misuse corporate power fail. And ordinary people can help by defying them and using the technology at their disposal to do so. Now Gordon Brown is calling for reform of super-injunctions. Here, for the record, is the follow up to the original parliamentary question (no. 61) Transfigura wanted to keep quiet. Let the noise continue.
Wonderful news that the new media has helped to scupper one of the most outrageous attempts at a gag in British history - oil trader Trafigura's injunction through law firm Carter-Ruck against the Guardian newspaper, which for a time prevented them from reporting... a parliamentary question. That's right, a question asked by an elected member of a democratic assembly. The free speech implications of this were and are monumental. In fact, the company has succeeded only in drawing millions upon millions of people's attention to its nasty practices concerning pollution and the Ivory Coast - the opposite of its intention. Barclays and Tesco are among those who have used legal action against the Guardian in the past for gagging purposes. It is vital that such attempts to misuse corporate power fail. And ordinary people can help by defying them and using the technology at their disposal to do so. Now Gordon Brown is calling for reform of super-injunctions. Here, for the record, is the follow up to the original parliamentary question (no. 61) Transfigura wanted to keep quiet. Let the noise continue.
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