Trafigura and Carter Ruck: How social media can guard against misuse of libel
13th October, 2009 - Posted by admin - 11 Comments
As a public interest service, I am including links below to any articles and resources I come across relating to the press gag injunction made by Carter Ruck in the interests of their client, Trafigura.
I strongly recommend reading these articles, as they inform about the use of libel as action to prevent reporting on alleged instances of corporate neglect. I would also strongly advise people to cache a copy of these articles for themselves, in case the sources linked to are required to take down these histories.
MEDIA & REPORTS
- Original history of the Trafigura case: September 16 article in the Guardian.
- 14 September 2006 full Minton Report. (pdf)
- 16 September Guardian article, ‘Inside Trafigura’.
- 17 September Guardian report on peer severing ties with Trafigura.
- 20 Setember article in BBC news reporting compensation for people made ill by toxic waste dumping.
- 18 September Guardian report that victims of toxic dumping offered just £1000 each as compensation.
- 16 September Guardian aggregated links on emails from Trafigura.
- Guardian gagged from reporting Parliament.
- Spectator article reporting on gag to British Press.
- Irish Times reports the Guardian will fight gagging in court.
- BBC Newsnight report on 16 September.
- The Carter Ruck press release on proceedings against the BBC. (thanks @willjordan)
- Wikileaks article from September 13 on the Minton Report.
- BBC reports on condemnation of gagging. (Edited: Thanks Patrick!)
- Press Gazette reports on gagging.
- Guardian reports they are seeking urgent court hearing over parliament gag.
- BBC reports on LibDems response to gag.
- Guardian reports lifting of ban on reporting in Parliament. (YAY!)
- BBC reports on Guardian gag lift.
- BBC explains why they did not report on Trifigura until the ban was lifted.
BLOGS WITH COVERAGE
- The question Carter Ruck don’t want you to see reported from Parliament (care of Richard Wilson’s blog)
- San Francisco Guardian Blog discussing the issue (good content in the comments section)
- Politics.co.uk report on the twitter frenzy.
- Inthenews.co.uk report on the outcry on twitter.
- George Monbiot’s blog at the Guardian on defamation laws and the Trafigura case.
- journalism.co.uk reports that Carter Ruck have withdrawn their gag.
SOCIAL MEDIA
- Telegraph reports on top twitter terms.
- Daily Kos calls for Streisand Effect against trafigura.
- E-consultancy report on the social media backlash.
- Trending terms in Europe (pic).
- Newser coverage of social media response.
- Ungag the Guardian twibbon campaign.
- The Blog Herald covering power of twitter.
- Jagaree reports on the twitter effect.
BACKGROUND
- Greenpeace Trafigura background.
- Ministry of Truth background article.
- Emails pdf from February – December 2006.
- What Trafigura says about its own risks and responsibilities.
On twitter, the term #trafigura has been trending all morning. The full feed for all #trafigura posts is available here.
There’s also the silent protest being staged on Thursday at 1pm in Chancery Lane outside the offices of Carter Ruck. Anyone who is available and interested in making a statement about misuse of libel is invited to attend. Full details at: http://tweetvite.com/event/gagcarterruck
An e-petition is now in place to ensure capacity of the media to report Parliament at all times.
Alan Rusbridger reported at 12:53pm London time that Carter Ruck have caved in and removed injunction against the Guardian from reporting the parliamentary gag.
Please feel free to contact me through the comments to this post, via email or on twitter at @joannejacobs if you want your article or content added to this list.
EDIT: Alan Rusbridger published his final analysis of the “super-injunction” on 20 October.
EDIT: Guardian report Trafigura is returning to court to suppress lawsuit documents (January 2010)
Tags: bbc, carter ruck, guardian, libel, trafigura
Posted on: October 13, 2009
Filed under: events, social media
11 Comments
Patrick
October 13th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Thanks for this, Joanne. Great service.
Just a pointer: your link “BBC condemns gagging” is inaccurate. The BBC did not condemn the gagging, they merely reported that a “newspaper” (meaning The Guardian) had condemned its own gagging. The BBC’s own report is timid to the point of #fail.
Tosin Aro
October 13th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
38 degrees is running a campaign on this day email your MP in 2 mins. Let them know you care about this important issue.
More information online
http://38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-gag
lets take a stand together
Liberal Conspiracy » High Court in Contempt of Democracy
October 13th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
[...] provide links to here, here and here for anyone wanting to get the full skinny on what Trafigura are alleged to have been involved [...]
adil
October 13th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
hi, we’ve had people using our voicebot robot inside Parliament all morning to send in messages to MPs about #trafigura http://bit.ly/WXC7T
http://twitpic.com/ld8nd
http://twitpic.com/ld8m6
as @currybet said, you can’t gag robots
5 Points To Consider — Twitter Can’t Be Gagged #Trafigura « New Thoughts About Economics
October 13th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
[...] Lots of curated sources here >> (Blog) JoanneJacobs.net – Trafigura and Carter Ruck: How social media can guard against misuse… [...]
High Court in Contempt of Democracy (Updated)
October 13th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
[...] provide links to here, here and here for anyone wanting to get the full skinny on what Trafigura are alleged to have been involved [...]
caz
October 13th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Carter-Ruck are not dissimilar to Schillings
In fact, at least three lawyers at Carter-Ruck have come from Schillings, Hanna Basha, Felicity Robinson and Michelle Riondel.
Schillings have attempted to effect a gag order on various websites on the internet to prevent the public from knowing that that there is a clear (electronic) connection between Ark Academies and the Dutroux scandal (about the sexual abuse, torture and murder of children scandal in Belgium in the late 1990’s).
Ark Academies sponsor schools in the UK.
First Schillings letter:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Schillings_legal_demands_to_EUTruth.Org_over_EIM_Chair_Arpad_Busson
Censored video:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/EIMConsult_censored_video
Refutation:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Talk:EIMConsult_censored_video
Second Schillings letter:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Schillings_legal_threat_re_Arpad_Busson%2C_EIM_Group_and_ARK_Schools_to_911forum.org.uk_hoster%2C_16_Dec_2008
Refutation:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Talk:Schillings_legal_threat_re_Arpad_Busson,_EIM_Group_and_ARK_Schools_to_911forum.org.uk_hoster,_16_Dec_2008#ARK.2C_Ron_Beller.2C_and_subprime_mortgages
Ark’s eugenics programme now in place in UK schools:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxQpft5F_k
Twitter is a force to be reckoned with « Learning Technologist jottings at Goldsmiths
October 14th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
[...] Twitter had already alarmed a variety of platforms, and the question about Trafigura got picked up by a number of prominent blogs, including Guido Fawkes, Richard Wilson’s Don’t Get [...]
links for 2009-10-15 « Sarah Hartley
October 15th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
[...] joannejacobs.net » Trafigura and Carter Ruck: How social media can guard against misuse of libel As a public interest service, I am including links below to any articles and resources I come across relating to the press gag injunction made by Carter Ruck in the interests of their client, Trafigura. (tags: guardian legal libel trafigura) [...]
Changing the World (part n…) « Patrick’s Blog
October 25th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
[...] Then we saw the Trafigura/Carter-Ruck gagging order farce, and the way the twitterverse and blogosphere reacted. (Joanne Jacobs has pulled together lots of different reports and responses to Trafigura here.) [...]
Social media turns toxic avenger for The Guardian (#trafigura) | NEWS Gate
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:33 pm
[...] Jacobs has posted an excellent article called ‘How social media can guard against the misuse of libel‘, replete with lots of juicy [...]
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