Day 288 - 28 Oct 96 - Page 24
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2 MS. STEEL: Right.
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I do not want to do is spend time when
5 you could be getting on with your submissions just checking
6 that I know where every document is. (Pause)
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8 MS. STEEL: I think when you are considering this section of
9 the leaflet and McDonald's view of it, I think that the
10 incident with Veggies should be taken into consideration,
11 which was that McDonald's complained about just the
12 heading, the heading "in what way are McDonald's
13 responsible for torture and murder", and they did not
14 complain about all the facts that were stated underneath
15 that heading, and that they were satisfied when Veggies
16 changed the heading to "slaughter and butchery", rather
17 than "torture and murder". But I will deal with that in
18 more detail later.
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20 I think I have finished on the meaning section. I was
21 going to move on to chickens, but it would actually be
22 helpful if I did not start that until after lunchtime.
23 I think Mr. Morris has a few additional points he wants to
24 make about the meanings.
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26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, very well.
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28 MR. MORRIS: I want to make the general point about the
29 McDonald's global position as the world's largest user and
30 promoter of meat products specified in that section,
31 responsibility for the general conditions that occur in the
32 industry. I will not go into it because that was gone
33 through in the rainforest section.
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35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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37 MR. MORRIS: The deaths being barbaric, referred to in the
38 leaflet, the fact sheet, they are barbaric because they are
39 completely unnecessary. The animals are not dying
40 willingly and they are not dying of natural causes or old
41 age. It is systematic exploitation and killing of animals
42 for profit and that, by any honest view, could be described
43 as barbaric.
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45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Maybe it could, but, you see, one has to
46 look at what the actual meaning is, defamatory meaning
47 which one justifies.
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49 MR. MORRIS: Yes. You know, I mean ----
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51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I mean I quite frankly ----
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53 MR. MORRIS: ---- is it defamatory to say that an organisation
54 is responsible for the deaths of millions of sensian beings
55 that is completely unnecessary and, not only is it
56 unnecessary, but their whole lives are manipulated and
57 moulded in order to satisfy that organisation.
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59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is where I wonder, because you may think
60 that it reflects very badly on the company, but I have to
