Day 283 - 21 Oct 96 - Page 31
1 When they questioned Helen in the witness box, she clearly
2 justified her reasonable belief on every matter and
3 Mr. Rampton made absolutely no progress in any of the
4 questioning of her on the subject, because there is not one
5 shred of evidence that could be brought to court to show
6 that we did not genuinely believe and do not still now
7 genuinely believe all the allegations which have been
8 brought up in this court based on the London Greenpeace
9 fact sheet.
10
11 I am not saying that every single fact that we alleged in
12 the pleadings has been proven, for example, in the
13 extensive justification pleadings about employment. I am
14 not saying that out of a hundred points I am convinced
15 every one out of a hundred is proven. You know, I believe
16 maybe 97 of them might be accurate and 90 of them proven.
17 You know, I do not say that too literally, but the point
18 being the substance and sting of all the allegations in the
19 fact sheet we believe has been not only proven but is
20 certainly based upon commonly held views, backed up by
21 experts.
22
23 And I think, moving on from the lack of evidence on malice
24 and lying from the plaintiffs against us, I think there are
25 some things I want to say further about the counterclaim
26 and about the malice allegations. I have said it before,
27 I will just say it again, that the context of the
28 criticisms of McDonald's, two important contexts for why
29 malice cannot apply.
30
31 The context of the fact sheet is a criticism of a whole
32 industry and type of economics personified by McDonald's,
33 who are an important factor in that industry, and,
34 secondly, that the criticisms are not made for the sake of
35 it; they are made because there is genuine concern about
36 better ways that society should be run on all these issues
37 and defending people's health and workers' rights,
38 self-sufficient farming, ecology and animal rights, for
39 example. And although McDonald's did not sue over the back
40 page, it is an essential part of the context of the fact
41 sheets and I would hope it would be read carefully to
42 inquire into that.
43
44 I think it is important also the language in the fact sheet
45 and the way it is worded, what it is trying to communicate
46 to the reader is important in terms of whether there is any
47 malice. Obviously, some of the allegations in it are hard
48 hitting. McDonald's aggressively promotes itself as a good
49 thing and it is inevitable that critics are going to have
50 strong views when putting overall alternatives. But
51 I think the language in the fact sheet is very restrained
52 and persuasive without being aggressive. And I think you
53 already know our views about the satirical nature of the
54 golden arches headings and the cartoons, and that we do not
55 believe weight should be given to what is at the most a
56 satirical comment on what the text is actually trying to
57 say.
58
59 The other thing about malice is that because these are all
60 -- I am now just going to come to some general points
