Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 36
1 MR. MORRIS: By preventing us having access to transcripts.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But press access to the proceedings does not
4 have to come via you. You seem to be assuming that if you
5 do not provide something to the press the press do not have
6 access to it. Any member of the press can attend, take a
7 note; it might be a shorthand note of the proceedings; they
8 can order, and sometimes do upon payment of the appropriate
9 charges, copies of the transcript. If they put in a
10 request for the prompt transcript, as I understand the
11 position, they can obtain it as quickly as McDonald's,
12 provided they share the cost equally with McDonald's. Many
13 of the arms of the media in this country would well be able
14 to afford to do that, if they chose to.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
17
18 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not understand the implication that the
19 press only has access if it is via you.
20
21 MR. MORRIS: No, but it is trying to restrict our ability by
22 this making transcripts available to us only on condition
23 that we be banned from communicating with the press. It
24 has the effect, which we will never accept off the
25 Plaintiffs, but has the effect of sabotaging our, and they
26 must know this, sabotaging our defence of this action.
27 Therefore, they are -- well, we say that the fact that this
28 comes after a large amount of publicity on the anniversary
29 of the case and release about the negotiations that took
30 place -----
31
32 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I really do think this is becoming
33 extremely objectionable.
34
35 MR. MORRIS: No, it is an inference. They are becoming -----
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is not an inference which I can really
38 draw. It never crossed my mind, and I really find it very
39 difficult now to see that there can be any sensible
40 suggestion that the step which the Plaintiffs have taken is
41 with a view to stopping the proceedings and as a result of
42 what such extra attention as the case may have received on
43 its anniversary. Why should I assume that? It would be
44 pure speculation on my part with no good basis upon which
45 any sensible judge could begin to make a conclusion like
46 that.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: They have unilaterally broken the arrangement which
49 was set up at the beginning of this trial to all parties
50 and the court itself has a copy of the transcripts. They
51 have done it after 156 days in the middle of a very long
52 trial and, basically, they are responsible for the
53 situation reaching this present impasse. So, whether or
54 not that is -- what it is motivated by is anyone's guess,
55 but we think we understand their motives. But time will
56 show.
57
58 In any event, their breaking of the arrangement at this
59 stage is bound to have the effect of undermining our
60 ability to defend ourselves for the rest of the case. How
