Day 307 - 27 Nov 96 - Page 32


     
     1        about this paragraph as well.
     2
     3        Even if they could prove all those things, which we say
     4        they simply cannot, those matters are all within the court
     5        case and, therefore, all the interrogatories, witness
     6        statements, and so on, are all within the court case and,
     7        therefore, not known to the public.  So, how can they
     8        justify a public statement which relates to us making
     9        claims publicly that we are not involved or that we do not
    10        have prominent roles in the campaign or leading roles in
    11        the campaign?  The allegation in the press releases -- the
    12        clear implication is that we have been publicly stating
    13        that we are not involved with the campaign; we are not
    14        leaders of the campaign, or whatever.  It is about public
    15        statements, not about what is going on behind the closed
    16        doors of the court.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:   Can I just say, while I think of it, just in case
    21        I forget.  This paragraph in the press release is almost
    22        impossible to understand, actually, what it does mean.  But
    23        it can only really mean, as you say, it is something to do
    24        with publication up to 1990.  But then, in that case, of
    25        course, anything that happened, you know, say six months or
    26        more before this press release cannot really be relevant to
    27        privileged self-defence, which would only be if someone is
    28        under attack and unable to deal with that attack in any
    29        kind of coherent way, so they are given the privilege to
    30        lash out, you know, immediately to respond, because they
    31        are so under threat they have to be able to respond.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Has Ms. Steel not just said that?   What she
    34        says is that you cannot justify a public counter attack by
    35        reference to an attack which is not made public, or a
    36        matter which was made public.
    37
    38   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, or was made years before, whatever; yes.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Anyway, we will adjourn there and resume at
    41        two o'clock.
    42
    43                        (Luncheon Adjournment)
    44
    45   MS. STEEL:   I can't remember where I got up to.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   You were making various comments on the end
    48        of paragraph 7 on page 10, and the last one was you asking
    49        rhetorically how they could rely on matters in your
    50        statements and answers to interrogatories to justify the 
    51        making of their public counter attack, in inverted commas. 
    52 
    53   MS. STEEL:   OK.  The other point I wanted to make about the
    54        paragraph is that since I have got it available to hand at
    55        the moment, in terms of them asserting that we are lying by
    56        -- well, there is a completely confused bit in the press
    57        release that says about "contrary to their claims that they
    58        are not actively involved, they have for many years taken
    59        leading roles in a consistent campaign against McDonald's
    60        including responsibility for organising demonstrations and

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