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

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