Day 305 - 25 Nov 96 - Page 48
1 distribution within the jurisdiction and, therefore, it
2 would not be an act of distribution relevant to -----
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You mean an act of publication?
5
6 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, I mean an act of publication, and, as far as
7 I know, obviously in terms of mail-outs -- and I am going
8 to check the transcript tonight -- there was no effective
9 evidence showing that I had put a copy of the fact sheet.
10 Of course, the evidence was generally to the contrary that
11 the fact sheets were not put in in replies to letters,
12 unless it was specifically a specialist one, which would
13 have gone to Mr. Gravett or Ms. Laporte. But, in any case,
14 it is up to the Plaintiffs to show the destination of those
15 letters in any event.
16
17 Another point I would like to make is that -- this is a
18 legal point; I am trying to clear up as much as I can -- it
19 is up to the Plaintiffs to demonstrate, because it is their
20 burden of proof, that the public were present at a
21 meeting. Obviously, we will not dispute that the public
22 were present at the fayre, but in terms of any particular
23 meeting, whether or not it was held at Caledonian Road or
24 at Endsleigh Street, it is up to them to demonstrate that
25 there were demonstrably members of the public present if
26 they are saying that a distribution took place, a
27 publication took place at such an event. They have to
28 demonstrate, through evidence, that there were people that
29 were clearly third parties, if you like, and members of the
30 public present separate from people that in theory they
31 have claimed we are acting in agency with, because you
32 cannot act in agency with people by publishing to those
33 people.
34
35 Another point is that McDonald's agents are not members of
36 the public and they were there for the purpose of getting
37 material for McDonald's. We submit that them receiving a
38 copy of the fact sheet, even though we are challenging of
39 course that and they have failed to bring the documents to
40 court, but even if they have received a copy of the
41 fact sheet, or did, that would not be publication, we
42 submit, as they are agents of the Plaintiffs.
43
44 I made one point about the -- this is illustrative about
45 what I said earlier on, that it was not just lack of
46 hierarchy, it was a positive rejection of such, if you
47 recall, about the phone call which allegedly came from me
48 and I was meant to be trying to influence a meeting by
49 making a phone call. The response in the notes at the
50 relevant time, if you remember, was that people felt it was
51 none of my business unless I was prepared to attend the
52 meeting. So, this was a positive approach to people taking
53 responsibility for themselves and that if some people are
54 going to organise something they were going to organise it
55 because they had met together. So that is that.
56
57 There was also the point about Mr. Gravett which we have
58 not dealt with, I do not think, about him speaking at a
59 public meeting, a public event, about the anti-McDonald's
60 campaign. If you remember, people rejected the idea that
