Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 43
1 going to defend it. When I say you are reserving your
2 position, what I am saying is, although if you were counsel
3 I would expect you to say now, I am not asking you
4 categorically and finally to say now. But at some stage
5 you have to.
6
7 I have to say that my own reaction so far -- and I think
8 I have indicated as such -- is, where what is said could be
9 treated as a statement of fact, is to treat it as a
10 statement of fact and see whether it is justified. Now,
11 that may not be the right approach, but if you want to say
12 to me, "No, do not treat that as a statement of fact, treat
13 it as a comment", I would like you to make clear before you
14 get to end of your submissions.
15
16 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I should, in fairness, add this -- only
17 because this page or so is one or two that the defendants
18 will have -- I do believe it to be right, as I just said,
19 that the Defendant must choose how primarily he is going to
20 defend the document, the libel; thus, he would say, "I say
21 that it is comment." But I think he is entitled to
22 say: "Nevertheless, if I be wrong about that, in the
23 opinion of the court, and it is a statement of fact after
24 all, despite my primary submission, nevertheless, on the
25 evidence in the case, it is a true statement of fact."
26
27 MR JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Press on. (Pause)
28
29 MR. MORRIS: One point I was going to make about the
30 contributing to a major ecological catastrophe line is that
31 that implies a continuing damage; it contains within it the
32 prospect that the damage is ongoing.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: For example, if as a result of the damage to
37 forests, people in 40 years' time do not have enough oxygen
38 to breathe, whatever, it is part of that kind of process of
39 ongoing damage; and that is the same with the "wrecking the
40 planet" phrase, that the previous page and that section all
41 go to justify the fact that the planet is being affected
42 through deforestation, through imbalance in waste of
43 resources, through methane generation, CFC production, its
44 effect on the ozone layer; that it is an ongoing damage,
45 not just a question of: well, show us, you know, how many
46 hundred people have had skin cancer this year from the
47 destruction of the ozone layer. I think McDonald's would
48 have accepted anyway that all those things are serious
49 global environmental problems that are ongoing.
50
51 The last thing -- well, couple of other things about
52 meaning -- and then I will move on, maybe, to McDonald's
53 import/export US labelling policies tomorrow, which might
54 be appropriate -- is that my understanding of what comment
55 is, is that it has to be honest opinion, one that is
56 capable of being held by a reasonable person.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, that may be. I do not know. You may
59 be right about that. You may be going too far, because it
60 could be held by an honest person even if he actually is
