Day 311 - 06 Dec 96 - Page 52


     
     1        a time when three out of the five defendants had settled;
     2        so, the two remaining defendants were Ms. Steel and
     3        Mr. Morris.
     4
     5        This is the McLibel support campaign.  Its date, if one
     6        looks at the bottom of the page, to be February 1991.  One
     7        knows in any case from the internal evidence of the
     8        document that the only two remaining Defendants were these
     9        two.  Can I ask your Lordship to read to yourself the first
    10        two paragraphs, in particular the paragraph headed
    11        "intimidation"?  (Pause).
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
    14
    15   MR. RAMPTON:  Then it gets worse and worse as one goes on.
    16        McDesperate gets McNasty, which leads over the page, and
    17        some little bits that I have mentioned this morning about
    18        the McDestroyers, and then McWasteful are lying about their
    19        use of recycled paper.  Six points, that McCancer mislead
    20        the public about the nutritional content of their food,
    21        about the chemicals contained in it and about the health
    22        risks associated with the diet.  One point about
    23        McBrainwashing, using advertisements to entice children
    24        into their restaurant.  One point about McDeadly's torture
    25        of animals, and finally three points about McSlavedrivers,
    26        exploitation of workers, and so on and so forth.
    27
    28        Then it says in the next paragraph "let us make them pay.
    29        Let us make McLiars prove their claims and answer for their
    30        crimes.  McDirty know they are guilty and not the caring
    31        green company they try to make out, so they have turned to
    32        the legal system to suppress free speech and fair
    33        criticism.  Here they do not have to prove anything, it is
    34        just those being sued who have to prove everything, and not
    35        just with quotes and sources but with witnesses and
    36        experts", and then down to the last paragraph, "Fight
    37        back.  McWrits may win in court, they are there to protect
    38        the interests of the rich and powerful but we can win on
    39        the streets.  What McDonald's fear most is bad publicity
    40        and loss of custom.  The fight against their evil empire
    41        must continue.  The campaign needs your support".
    42
    43        Now, that is a response to the complaint by the
    44        Defendants.  That was published in February of 1991.  If
    45        one looks into the mind of whoever it was on behalf of
    46        McDonald's who wrote the responsive documents in March and
    47        April and May of 1994 and asked the question: was it
    48        reasonable for that person to suppose that the Defendants'
    49        response to the complaint was not only unreasonable but
    50        defamatory, one comes up, I would suggest, with two 
    51        answers: a reasonable person would say that such a response 
    52        was entirely justified, in other words that the sting of 
    53        that allegation in the counterclaim documents is true, but
    54        that it cannot conceivably be suggested, even if it is not
    55        true, that such a person was dishonest.
    56
    57   MS. STEEL:   Can I just say, just as a matter of context,
    58        looking at the page before those, where Mr. Rampton read
    59        out all the points about McDestroyers and so on, just that
    60        the bottom line on the page before does say, given the

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