Day 248 - 13 May 96 - Page 24
1 which letters which were written to Head Office were as a
2 result of people seeing material produced by
3 London Greenpeace or the McLibel support campaign and which
4 were as a result of you putting out leaflets in your
5 stores?
6 A. Without seeing the material I could not comment.
7
8 Q. In tab 26.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us take our 5-minute break there.
11
12 (Short adjournment)
13
14 MS. STEEL: If we just have a look at the leaflet that appears
15 in tab 26. If you compare it with the one in tab 28, which
16 is the one, I think -- finally that was produced, sorry.
17 The one in 26 says, "To our customers, McDonald's goes to
18 court to stop lies." and the final paragraph in the leaflet
19 says, "We believe that the truth is worth defending, and
20 that you should know the facts". The one in tab 28 says,
21 "To our customers, why McDonald's is going to court",
22 which is different, and the final paragraph, "This is not
23 about freedom of speech, it is about the right to stop
24 people telling lies". Do you know why those changes were
25 made?
26 A. No.
27
28 Q. You do not know. Is it basically because it was us who
29 were saying that we believed the truth was worth defending
30 and that the reality is that you do not want people to know
31 the facts?
32 A. I do want people to know the facts. I could speculate
33 on why it was changed. I do not know that I should
34 necessarily do that. I would guess, again, it was
35 something we did in our stores after you yourselves had
36 done press releases and issued statements. This was in
37 response to that, and the defence of freedom of speech and
38 the 'why we are going to court' issue was a question we
39 were certainly being asked and we dealt with it. This was
40 a way to respond to that which you yourselves had said
41 first, nothing more than that. It was after you, not
42 before you. But, again, I am speculating. I was not part
43 of the draft -- first draft, second draft, third, final.
44 I gave it the final blessing, but that is all.
45
46 Q. Right. You were here for Mr. Rampton's opening speech were
47 you not?
48 A. Yes
49 Q. Do you remember a video being shown?
50 A. Yes.
51
52 Q. It was made by some school children?
53 A. I remember a video.
54
55 Q. Your company participated in the production of that video
56 did you not?
57 A. I do not remember if we did or not.
58
59 Q. Or supported it. When I say 'participated' I do not mean
60 you filmed it, I mean you made facilities available?
