Day 284 - 22 Oct 96 - Page 17


     
     1   MR. MORRIS:   That is what McDonald's have pleaded.
     2
     3   MR JUSTICE BELL:  I appreciate that is what you say.  So there
     4        you have given me something of the kind I am looking for.
     5
     6   MR. MORRIS:   Right.
     7
     8   MR JUSTICE BELL:   You say that that leaflet means that by one
     9        means or another McDonald's have caused small farmers to be
    10        evicted from their land in the three countries?
    11
    12   MR. MORRIS:   Yes.  Exactly.  And that is the important point.
    13        Have small farmers been evicted and are they responsible?
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I am not sure McDonald's have agreed with
    16        that, by the way they have pleaded, that by purchasing
    17        large tracts of lands in poor countries they have done
    18        this.  Please listen to me, I am trying to help you.  What
    19        you say is, 'We are not interested in that bit, because the
    20        essence is that by one means or another they have caused
    21        the eviction of small farmers and that is part of the
    22        meaning.'  Now, what I want you to do, because it will help
    23        me -- and I do not really mind whether you do it this
    24        morning or some other time, you have got to do it at some
    25        other time and if you can do it now while we are on the
    26        topic it will be much better -- is to look at the bit on
    27        economic imperialism and look at the bit on rainforest and
    28        give me the meanings which you say are there but not
    29        actually pleaded by McDonald's as meanings, but which you
    30        think you can justify so that at the end of the day you can
    31        say, 'Well, look now we have just justified that, whether
    32        the rest of it is true or not it did not make a jot of
    33        difference to McDonald's reputation', which is section 5 of
    34        the Defamation Act.
    35
    36        What I suggest you do is, I will make it five past twelve,
    37        because you have got the CaseView monitor in court.  I have
    38        to say, I think it would be much better in your row and
    39        Miss Steel's than with your helper's behind you.
    40
    41   MR. MORRIS:   The other CaseView has not been brought in yet by
    42        the stenographers.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   What I suggest you do is look back over what
    45        I have just said.  Take a minute or two.  You are very
    46        familiar with this leaflet, and we have touched on this
    47        before.  Then just tell me - bang, bang, bang, 'These are
    48        the meanings that it has, which we can justify, which
    49        McDonald's have not actually set out in their pleadings'.
    50 
    51   MR. MORRIS:   OK. 
    52 
    53                         (Short Adjournment)
    54
    55   MR. MORRIS:   That point had not really sunk in before today but
    56        I have just quickly gone through, identifying what probably
    57        defamatory points have not been mentioned by the
    58        plaintiffs.  On the economics page, first paragraph in the
    59        third world section, is the last sentence about challenging
    60        the power of multi-national corporations, that

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