Day 300 - 14 Nov 96 - Page 11
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Which part are you thinking of now?
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4 MS. STEEL: Well, that they use a lot of advertising aimed at
5 children.
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7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where do you say I get the particular
8 susceptibility of children?
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10 MS. STEEL: I think that is just a matter of common sense.
11 People know that children are vulnerable and have
12 impressionable minds.
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14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So you say that is as a matter of common
15 knowledge?
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17 MS. STEEL: Yes. I mean, obviously, that is recognised by the
18 fact that advertising of alcohol and cigarettes is not
19 allowed to children, for example. It is just that
20 obviously, our view is -----
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22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is that susceptibility or that they are not
23 supposed to have them at all?
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25 MS. STEEL: Obviously susceptibility is part of it.
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27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I understand that.
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29 MR. MORRIS: Can I ask a question? The common knowledge
30 justification for a comment, is that part of the picture
31 that we are allowed to rely on, what we could say is common
32 knowledge?
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34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You may give me some help on that, because
35 I may still have to do some reading. I will listen to
36 anything Mr. Rampton wants to say about it. But somewhere
37 I have come across comment. I cannot remember it now.
38
39 If we go back to what I was saying on the first day, I will
40 put it in these very neutral terms, that if you are saying
41 fair comment, you can rely on matters of fact which you
42 have proved to be true which are stated in the leaflet,
43 which are sufficiently referred to in the leaflet, or it
44 may well be which are of matters of common knowledge. I
45 have not heard Mr. Rampton about that yet. But there is a
46 possibility of that.
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48 MR. MORRIS: It makes sense.
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50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It makes sense.
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52 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I think it is probably right. I don't
53 think -----
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55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It has got to be something which is quite
56 clearly of common knowledge, not just that you would say to
57 me a lot of people must know that.
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59 MR. RAMPTON: That is what I was going to say. If I said
60 "I don't think Adolf Hitler had a very good war", I would
