Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 14
1 people have different views on. I can remember one of the
2 pretrial hearings. Mr. Justice Drake said something about
3 that the leaflet made a charge that McDonald's exploit
4 their workers. He actually said 'exploit...' -- I cannot
5 think of the word now -- 'unethically', but not, I cannot
6 think of the word now. It is really frustrating. I cannot
7 remember the word now. Anyway, the indication was that, I
8 don't know, some types of exploitation, there was nothing
9 wrong with them. So I don't know, I am just aware that,
10 you know, a lot of people would see it as a comment. I
11 don't really know, to be honest, whether or not it is a
12 comment or a fact, or both. I mean, yes, really, it is
13 both.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The note I am making is, a lot of people
16 would see it as a comment, i.e. an expression of opinion.
17
18 MS. STEEL: Yes.
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20 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause again, please.
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22 MS. STEEL: I just remembered what the phrase was, actually.
23 It was that 'they exploit', and then he said 'improperly
24 exploit their workers'.
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26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I have used the word 'unconscionably'. But
27 'improperly exploit'?
28
29 MS. STEEL: Yes. Which indicated that he thought that you
30 could be proper and exploit workers, which would not be a
31 view we share.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you can, if you were to look up
34 'exploit' in the dictionary.
35
36 MR. RAMPTON: Certainly you can, you can exploit a coal miner.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: The point is, if it is a view, if it is a comment,
39 an opinion, if we say, you know, companies exploit workers,
40 that is something which we think to be a bad thing, and we
41 are entitled to say it is a bad thing. The fact that all
42 companies do it does not take away the fact that we are
43 entitled to say that companies exploit the workers.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I don't find it at all as simple as that.
46 I have to be able to see it as a question as a comment.
47 All statements of fact, or alleged fact, may be matters of
48 opinion, because you have to reach some judgment on whether
49 the material at your disposal justifies you in making the
50 statement of fact which you make. So I do not think it
51 helps just to say, as you have done, "we reasonably believe
52 that" or "we are of that opinion" or "someone might hold
53 that opinion". One has to look and see how it is actually
54 expressed in the article itself. As I say, if you set out
55 a number of alleged facts and then say, "Well, for all
56 these reasons, we think that so and so was a bad employer",
57 it may be quite clear that it is comment. But if you just
58 say "X is a bad employer", query, is it a statement of fact
59 or a comment? It is not easy, in my view.
60
