Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 21


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  I have nearly finished on the context.  What I was
     3        trying to say is that, if we take the "McGarbage" symbol at
     4        the top, the Plaintiffs are going to say:  "Oh, it is not
     5        what the leaflet says", the fact of whether tons of their
     6        packaging ends up littering the cities of developed
     7        countries, that what it really must mean is that McDonald's
     8        deliberately do it and throw it all around, because the
     9        heading, you know, if it relates to that section, implies
    10        that it is the kind of deliberate, fundamental purpose of
    11        the corporation to create environment/index.html">litter.  It just becomes a kind
    12        of dangerous exercise.  What the Plaintiffs are doing, what
    13        I would like to say, is a dangerous exercise in terms of
    14        the chilling effect on freedom of speech, to pick out
    15        headings or cartoons which are clearly journalistic tools,
    16        as I have said, hyperbole or satire or eye catching tools,
    17        and then try to use those to elevate something that is not
    18        defamatory -- clearly not defamatory -- to elevate it into
    19        something which they would argue is defamatory.  So I think
    20        it is a slippery slope in this case, and probably
    21        elsewhere.
    22
    23        If I can just finally give a couple of examples, before we
    24        go back to Helen's argument.  Another of the cartoons which
    25        was shown, which was disclosed, had a figure of someone
    26        about to crush people protected by the minimum wage; and,
    27        in the text of the article, the only organisation that
    28        seems to be identified with that figure is in the first
    29        column: "Tomorrow the CBI will reaffirm its opposition to
    30        the minimum wage"; and that is about an inch and a half
    31        down that first column. If I was a CBI, I could say, well,
    32        that clearly means that CBI, you know, want to crush people
    33        to death.  Again, that is just a satirical tool to attract
    34        people to an article, and it is up to them to read the
    35        article to find out what the actual issues are about.
    36
    37        Probably half the cartoons in the national press have the
    38        same potential.  There are a couple of other...  (Pause)
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Why do you not let Ms. Steel resume, and if
    41        you remember your extra points you can pick them up later.
    42
    43   MR. MORRIS:  It is just that there was -- if I may show this
    44        rather than disclose it -- there was a heading in The Times
    45        of 27th October 1995, which I think was just before the
    46        last hearing we had on this issue -- I was going to bring
    47        it up -- "Cashing in on sick children", about newspapers
    48        paying money for the story of a girl who needed specialist
    49        treatment; just as a general point about, people are
    50        expected to read the text to find out what the issues are. 
    51 
    52        My last point I was going to make was the famous "Smoking 
    53        causes heart disease", in this case, which -- I cannot
    54        remember what company this is -- Silk Cut.  It does not
    55        really matter, except that Silk Cut is being accused of
    56        causing heart disease.  The point is, it is fair comment to
    57        link even a particular company (as this does) with a
    58        disease, because it is part of the general problem of
    59        people smoking too much; and I have just changed it
    60        to "eating junk food causes heart disease".  That is

Prev Next Index