Tuesday 13 October 2009

Kafka: alive, well and living in London

Newspapers have had the right to print anything said in Parliament since 1688. MPs have used this to circumvent libel laws and identify bad guys by naming them in speeches/questions in Parliament, which the papers then print.

Until now. How's this for a blanket ban on free speech? Essentially, the Guardian can only report that something might be said. Nothing about the subject, the speaker, the time…


Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. 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 Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.
The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.


I'd love to know what the subject is.

5 comments:

Ewarwoowar said...

If you were on Twitter, you would know what the subject is.

The Plashing Vole said...

Ewar, so cruel. Do tell!

Ewarwoowar said...

Can't say Voley! Can't say.

In other news, I've just got a job at Trafigura. Aren't they awesome? Trafigura Trafigura Trafigura.

Trafigura.

The Plashing Vole said...

Thanks Ewar. I just found it over at Guido Fawkes. It could be the Trafigura case (they dumped toxic waste in an African country and sickened 30,000 people) or the Barclays element of this question, by decent Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Paul Farrelly:

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.

The Plashing Vole said...

And now it's disappeared from Twitter, which has obviously been leant on:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/6315133/Trafigura-tops-list-of-Twitter-trending-topics.html