|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| UK's Freedom of Speech in Danger? |
| Trafigura case highlights dangers of libel laws |
|
James Osborne (osborne)  |
 Email Article
 Print Article
|
|
|
|
Published 2009-10-19 15:28 (KST) |
|
|
|
| This article is only lightly edited. <Editor's Note> |
UK Parliament has over 600 MPs to pass all the laws governing the country. Parliament is meant to be sovereign, meaning it is the highest authority in the land; passing the laws of the land and reporting to no one except the people via elections which must take place every five years. As far as this author is aware, in Parliament any MP is free to say what he or she thinks without fear or hindrance.
This is a pillar of our democracy. In addition, one of the most cherished principles in this country is that anyone has the right to report to Parliament and what goes on there. "Anyone" usually translates into the media although there is a Parliament TV channel here in the UK and you can watch live debating sessions. So given this history, how did we end up this week where the media were forbidden by law from reporting an MP's question in Parliament? The background to the story begins in Mexico four years ago.
 |
TODAY'S TOP STORIES |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
FROM THE SECTION |
|
|
|
|
| At a Mexican oil refinery (owned by the State company PMI), a toxic waste "coker naptha" was produced from the refining process. Coker naptha is apparently a dirty form of gasoline and this waste could not be treated on the oil refinery site. Trafigura (www.trafigura.com) is a swiss based multi national that trades in base metals and energy including oil. They have offices in many cities throughout the world. Allegedly Trafigura thought they could make serious money from refining the coker naptha and selling it but they needed to lower its sulphur levels.
Trafigura chartered a ship, "Probo Koala", to pick up the coker naptha from Mexico. While this ship was stationed off Gibralta, Trafigura allegedly poured tons of caustic soda and a catalyst into the oil to clean it. Apparently this process is known as "caustic washing" and although it is cheap to do, it produces dangerous waste and for this reason this practice is banned in many parts of the world. According to one of Trafigura's emails, "This operation is no longer allowed in the European Union, the United States and Singapore; it is "banned in most countries due to the hazardous nature of the waste". Another e-mail points out that "environmental agencies do not allow disposal of the toxic caustic". The process left a toxic sulphurous sludge in the tanks of the Probo Koala.
Trafigura's problem was disposal of the waste? First, they tried to offload the waste in the Netherlands claiming it was "tank washings". However when they started offloading the waste the smell was so strong that the emergency services were called. They were told that the waste treatment would cost hundreds of thousands of Euros. Given this cost, Trafigura found a contractor Solomon Ugburogbu, the owner of a company called "Tommy". Tommy had no facilities to treat the waste and dumped it in the Ivory Coast.
The result is that an estimated 31,000 people were injured as a result of this toxic waste. Solomon Ugburogbu is now serving 20 years for poisoning local people and Trafigura has offered to pay 100 million pounds to settle a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of the affected people. However this story didn't stop there.
The Guardian newspaper and Newsnight (one a popular newspaper, the other a popular nightly news programme) have covered this story. Newsnight is currently being sued for libel by Trafigura. Trafigura commissioned a scientific report into the alleged dumping and this came to be known as the Minton report. On September 11, 2009, Carter-Ruck (a law firm specialising in libel cases and acting on behalf of Trafigura) obtained an emergency "super injunction" from the UK High Court preventing the Guardian newspaper from reporting the Minton Report.
A "super injunction" is when the media can neither report a story, nor can they say that they have been stopped from reporting the story. So for example the Guardian would have liked to have said to its readers, "due to a high court injunction we can not print the Minton report". However, a super injunction forbids even that from being printed. According to the Guardian newspaper, "The gagging order, later confirmed by another judge, was imposed by Mr. Justice Maddison under an anonymously named court action ("RJW and SJW vs The Guardian") and the court documents were sealed. The Guardian, which had contested the action, was unable to tell its readers that it was under injunction." Meanwhile the report was published on the Internet and in other European countries.
So, this brings us to Parliament.
On Monday, October 12, an MP Paul Farrelly asked a question to the Justice minister (Jack Straw) that revealed the existence of the super injunction against the Guardian. His written question was, "To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistle-blowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by ........ Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura."
Ironically this questions appears on Parliament's own website.
Due to the super injunction the Guardian (or any media) could not report Paul Farrelly's question. This meant that we had an unprecedented situation where a super injunction prevented the media from reporting on questions in Parliament. Truly unbelievable.
What happened next?
In essence, huge anger. Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has now asked the Justice secretary to look again at UK libel laws.
It is not just this story. There are others. The UK's libel laws are becoming a laughing matter throughout the world as just this week California passed a law that bans California's state courts from enforcing British libel law. The reason? Companies and individuals have been coming to the UK to sue people for libel against media publications in their own country on the grounds that a UK citizen can read it (via online). As the UK has stricter libel laws than other parts of the world they are more often awarded damages. . This practice is called "libel tourism".
In summary our libel laws are becoming a danger to the UK and its citizens. The libel laws have also seriously damaged our reputation as a liberal democracy not only in our own eyes but also the eyes in other parts of the world. It's time for reform.
|
|
 |
|
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8259765.stm - Newsnight
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/16/trafigura-carter-ruck-the-guardian
|
|
|
©2009 OhmyNews
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Comments Note: Kindly refrain from personal attacks and profanity. |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
How worried are you about the H1N1 influenza virus? |
|
 |
| * Vote to see the result. |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
RSS
Del.icio.us
Digg 
reddit
Y! MyWeb
.jpg)
