[October
13, 2009] Great news: the
gag order was lifted. See the news story:
The Questions the London Guardian was forbidden to report on
(commentary by Timothy Horrigan; October 12, 2009)
[October
13, 2009] Great news: the
gag order was lifted. See the news story:
[October
21 2009] The questions were partially
answered during a debate on the floor on October 21, 2009:
As a free-speech advocate and as a legislator I was alarmed to see that the London Guardian and British Labour MP Paul Farrelly were being gagged. Farrelly published four questions in the House of Common's weekly calendar (or "Order Book") that the Guardian was forbidden to report on or even to acknowledge the existence of. In their words: "The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found."
The questions are, evidently, those being asked on October 14th by Paul Farrelly, who represents Newcastle-Under-Lyme. The questions are directed to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw (who was not named after the Grateful Dead song.)
Questions 60 through 64 on the October 14th calendar touch on issues which are relevant even in New Hampshire: e.g., judicial misconduct, corporate malfesance, and transparency of government. Oh, and toxic waste as well.I am not forbidden from reporting these questions, so here they are.
Paul Farrelly
(Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice,
what assessment he has made of the Court of Appeal judgment in May
2009 in the case of Michael Napier and Irwin Mitchell v Pressdram
Limited in respect of press freedom to report proceedings in
court.
(292409)
Paul Farrelly
(Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice,
what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to
protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the
injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and
Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of
internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes
and (ii) 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.
(293006)
Paul Farrelly
(Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice,
if he will (a) collect and (b) publish statistics on the number of
non-reportable injunctions issued by the High Court in each of the
last five years.
(293012)
Paul Farrelly
(Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice,
what mechanisms HM Court Service uses to draw up rosters of duty
judges for the purpose of considering time of the essence
applications for the issuing of injunctions by the High
Court.
(293013)
Question #61 is related to a controversy which has some connection to the United States:. Back in 2006, he British oil company Trafigura bought sulphur-contaminated Mexican gasoline in Texas and tried to take the sulphur out of it while en route to Europe. They eventually dumped a large amount of toxic waste near Abdijan, the capital of the Ivory Coast and got caught and were sued. Thousands of people were severely injured.
The Guardian told the story in its September 16th issue:
The damning emails can be read at:
Several months ago, on May 13, 2009 the BBC also ran a shocking story on the scandal. The BBC, like the Guardian is being sued.
Trafiguar are being represented by the infamous law firm Carter-Ruck, who specialize in protecting rich people from having their misdeeds exposed in the press. This is not the first time Carter-Ruck has gone after the Guardian.
Carter-Ruck's practice is not limited to defending shadowy multinationals who dump toxic waste in the Third World. They also defend has-been pop stars, like (in case settled just a few weeks ago in September 2009) Liam Gallagher of the currently-defunct band Oasis. A Guardian reviewer reported that Gallagher had abruptly stormed off stage while his brother Noel (the band's lead guitarist) sang two songs. This was supposedly libelous because Liam didn't abruptly storm off stage when Noel sang his two songs: supposedly he just quietly left the stage like he always does when Noel sings a lead. According to his lawyers, Liam Gallagher "has decided to donate the damages to charity."
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See also:
Paul
Farrelly's web site
one thing which amused
me, given the uproar in the States over socialized medicine, is that
he refers to his office hours, the first Saturday of the month from
9am-12noon at the Newcastle-Under-Lyme city hall, as "Surgeries."
May 6, 2010 election results: Paul Farrelly represents a relatively safe Labour seat, but he faced a close re-election race in the May 6, 2010. He loses his ministerial job because the Tories will be heading a coalition government, without the Labour party. He won by about 1500 votes (or 3.6%) over a young American-educated Tory.
The "Minton
Report"
Trafigura was
evidently trying to suppress the publication of the socalled "Minton
Report"which was a memo prepared by a
consultant named John Minton, detailing what actually happened
during the summer of 2006. This is not something Trafigura or
Carter-Ruck wants to see published. The gist of the story is that
Trafigura purchased a tankerload of "coker naphtha" and
converted it to gasoline at sea, using a crude variation of a
technology normally carried out safgely (but not inexpensively) in
an oil refinery. This produced about half a million kilograms of
very nasty stuff, including sodium hydroxide, mercaptans (i.e., the
smelly stuff in skunk spray and natural gas) and many other lovely
ingredients.
"BBC High Court defence against Trafigura libel suit": a brief filed on September 11, 2009 by BBC's inhouse lawyers in defense of a libel suit brought against them by Trafigura. This suit was prompted by a May 2009 new story on the BBC's Newsnight program. The BBC settled out of court, but the brief shows they had a very strong factual case.
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