Day 248 - 13 May 96 - Page 13
1 groups who were criticising you?
2 A. Ms. Steel, I mentioned this my first day in the witness
3 box, in this current session. Following a read again of
4 the aims and objectives of London Greenpeace, and incidents
5 involving animal liberation ----
6
7 Q. I am talking about other groups, not that one in
8 Greenpeace.
9 A. No, there is no logic to the dates, per se, 'are we
10 going to do something now'. I think this was probably the
11 issue at hand. Rainforest, as I remember back in those
12 dates and timeframe, was a primary one, and environment was
13 too. Being spoken about by many people.
14
15 Q. At that time that was all you were concerned about, the
16 rainforest and the environment?
17 A. I am concerned about anything that is said about my
18 company which is wrong.
19
20 Q. You were concerned about them because they were
21 particularly topical?
22 A. They were.
23
24 Q. That is why you want to stop the Company being criticised
25 on those fronts?
26 A. A company can be criticised any time people feel so,
27 just do it in the proper terms for the right reasons with
28 the right facts. I have no problem with criticism per se.
29
30 MR. MORRIS: Can we ask a question through the judge about the
31 solicitors? This file, the 'words complained of', does not
32 identify the words in each document that are complained of,
33 and we just assume that legal action has been taken on each
34 of these of some kind.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know whether that is a right
37 assumption.
38
39 MR. RAMPTON: It is not, my Lord.
40
41 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It might just be to show as a platform for
42 suggesting that the allegations which it is alleged
43 London Greenpeace were making were the subject of quite
44 wide dissemination, I do not know.
45
46 MR. RAMPTON: That is right, and I think it did in fact say
47 something to that effect when I opened the case two years
48 ago. If one looks at them, for one thing one notices a
49 broad coincidence of date, 1989.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That may be. I do not want you to develop it
52 now, Mr. Rampton, but it does not purport to be
53 publications in respect of which some solicitor's letter or
54 some legal action or preamble to the preliminary to legal
55 action was taken, if that is what you are saying.
56
57 MR. RAMPTON: No, no. Sometimes a letter was written, sometimes
58 I think even proceedings were issued, we know they were in
59 relation to Jungle Burger. But by no means in every case.
60
