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p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Britain’s Guardian newspaper says it’s being gagged.

It’s been, “prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights,” it says, noting,  “The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck.”

But, “those rascals on Twitter have foiled our plans!” – says a less than genuine Carter-Ruck Twitter page.

Meanwhile, “Mainstream media outlets, except the Spectator, have yet to report the gag,” says Journalism.co.uk, going on »»»

The First Post today carries a profile of Carter-Ruck’s late founder, Peter Carter-Ruck: ‘The man who invented the London libel industry’.

As noted by InTheNews.co.uk, #trafigura was a top trending topic on Twitter this morning, with Carter-RUCK, #carterruck and Trafigura all trending highly as well.

Last month the Guardian reported how UK firm Trafigura had tried to cover up a ‘pollution disaster’ in the Ivory Coast. Writing for the title, George Monbiot also commented on the paper’s lengthy legal battle with Trafigura.

Says the Spectator, from whence came the clip on the right

This country’s libel laws have been a disgrace for years and one can only hope that egregious abuses of an already abusive system persuades folk that, dash it, something must be done.

UPDATE: The Twitterverse is going mental for #trafigura and I suspect that by the time all this is over far more people will be aware of the controversy swirling around Trafigura’s African adventures than would have been the case had they kept quiet and not attempted to silence the press. Combatting this sort of bullying, however, is one thing the blogosphere is good at.

UPDATE 2: There is, at the time of writing, no mention of this story on the BBC’s website. Why on earth not? (There is now – and of course, as commenters point out, Newsnight has covered Trafigura’s African exploits before. And been sued for their troubles. So my criticism of the Corporation was somewhat unfair. Mea culpa.)

“UPDATE,” it adds.

“3: 1.20pm: Carter-Ruck have abandoned their attempt to prevent the reporting parliamentary proceedings. The Twitterati and the Blogoshpere have prevailed in the great Battle of Trafigura. But it is ridiculous that such a battle for such an elementary press freedom had to be fought in the first place. The Lib Dems are quite right to call for a parliamentay debate on this.”

Of course, it’s not only British libel/defamation laws which are a disgrace.

Canada’s are nothing to get excited about either.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Guardian – Guardian gagged from reporting parliament, October 12, 2009
Journalism.co.uk – ‘Firms like Carter-Ruck have become expert at pressing certain legal buttons,’ says David Leigh, October 13, 2009
Spectator – British Press Banned from Reporting Parliament. Seriously., October 13, 2009

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