Day 248 - 13 May 96 - Page 54


     
     1   Q.   Again, this comes from the press office of the so-called
     2        McLibel Support Campaign.  That is for immediate release,
     3        and the second paragraph on page 2 says this, "Steel and
     4        Morris are faced with libel laws which are complex,
     5        oppressive and expensive to fight and no option but to
     6        represent and finance themselves.  They are determined to
     7        resist censorship and defend the truth."  So far as you are
     8        concerned Mr. Preston, whether now or in March of 1994 or
     9        when you issued the writ in this action, have the
    10        Defendants been defending the truth?
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Is it necessary?
    13
    14   MR. RAMPTON:  OK, well, I would like to read the next bit which
    15        is in quotes.  They said, "We have had to fight every stage
    16        to defend our legal rights and freedom of speech.  The
    17        business practices of multi-nationals should be subject to
    18        public scrutiny without fear of censorship.  Robert
    19        Maxwell's dependence on legal intimidation to silence his
    20        critics was eventually shown to have not been in the public
    21        interest.  This case is also of great public interest".  Do
    22        you remember that passage, Mr. Preston?
    23        A.  I do.
    24
    25   Q.   Thank you.  Yes.  Thank you, Mr. Preston.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Thank you, Mr. Preston.
    28
    29   MR. MORRIS:  Can I just say, if you remember while we were doing
    30        cross-examination -- before Mr. Preston is released --
    31        I was going to put a leaflet, an A5 leaflet, to Mr. Preston
    32        to see if he could show anything in inaccurate in it, or
    33        that was both inaccurate and that we knew it, and it was
    34        one that was dated June 1994.  Do you remember?  And it was
    35        said that I should not need to do that.  It was directly
    36        relevant to what Mr. Rampton was doing, because the
    37        leaflets that were in circulation on the eve of the trial
    38        by the McLibel Support Campaign, or whoever, do not form
    39        part of this action except inasmuch as they are the
    40        leaflets which were actually available around the time that
    41        McDonald's were putting out its 300,000 leaflets attacking
    42        the Defendants for circulating lies.
    43
    44        So, what status does that leaflet have, and, if it has any
    45        status, the one that was put out by supporters of
    46        London Greenpeace, or whoever, on the eve of the trial, if
    47        it has any status then we should be able to put it to
    48        Mr. Preston.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL: But what is the basis; put it for what 
    51        purpose? 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  Well, because Mr. Rampton is making a great big
    54        confusion here whether the fact sheet is uppermost in
    55        Mr. Preston's mind when he authorised the issuing of the
    56        McDonald's leaflet, and much of the material referred to,
    57        for example, in the questions he put to him about the
    58        25,000 leaflets available for distribution in London, he
    59        asked Mr. Preston if that was something that was on his
    60        mind, and he said it was, then it would have to be relevant

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