Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 34
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You may have a specific point which relates
3 to Mr. Nicholson which you could not put to Mr. Preston, or
4 there may be matters which you think you which you consider
5 to be relevant which Mr. Nicholson may know an answer to
6 and Mr. Preston did not. I have not got any particularly
7 in mind but you may have ones in mind.
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9 MS. STEEL: Yes.
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11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But I would have thought, apart from anything
12 like that, you could probably go straight to the point that
13 Mr. Preston said that he did not think that he would have
14 needed to use the words "lies" to achieve his object, point
15 1. Point 2 he said that he did think they were lies and
16 his definition of "lies" was saying something -- this will
17 not be word perfect -- which you knew to be inaccurate and
18 knew to be untrue.
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20 MS. STEEL: Right
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22 MR. MORRIS: And that was untrue.
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24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: By all means, since you have named Mr.
25 Nicholson as one of the embodiments of the second
26 Plaintiff's malice, you might want to see if he takes the
27 same view as Mr. Preston, but it seems to me that that is a
28 main point that you are aiming for.
29
30 MS. STEEL: Would you agree with Mr. Preston that it was not
31 really necessary to use the word "lies" in the leaflet?
32 A. Can you direct me to the leaflet?
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34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You will remember that the word "lies" was
35 used on a number of occasions in the press releases?
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37 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I do think it is best if he sees it.
38
39 MS. STEEL: I was just about to tell him where it was. There is
40 one behind tab 2.
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42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
43 A. Yes, right.
44
45 MS. STEEL: That is the leaflet.
46 A. This is about the right to stop people telling lies,
47 yes.
48
49 Q. Then also behind tab 3?
50 A. Yes?
51
52 Q. There is a background briefing where ----
53 A. At the very end it says: Nor is it about the freedom
54 of speech. It is about the right to stop people telling
55 lies"?
56
57 Q. Before we get to the very end. In the fifth paragraph the
58 last word in that paragraph is "lies". In the seventh
59 paragraph the word at the end of the third line is "lies",
60 and the ninth paragraph, first line, towards the end of the
