Day 312 - 11 Dec 96 - Page 38
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2 MR. MORRIS: Yes, have a read. (Pause).
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4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, when I get to the bottom at page 8,
5 I do not think Mr. Rampton has persisted in any objection,
6 but whoever wrote this wrote it as if he or she were you,
7 Ms. Steel, and you, Mr. Morris.
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9 MR. MORRIS: It is for us.
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11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is done for you?
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13 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
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15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: By all means, I have read that, but I was
16 entirely familiar with what Lord Keith said and also the
17 parts quoted from Mr. Justice French because I have read
18 them. This is the report of the two cases?
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20 MR. MORRIS: Right, I will not-----
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22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You just add anything which you want to
23 stress yourself.
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25 MR. MORRIS: Yes.
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27 MS. STEEL: Can I say, in respect of what you just said and
28 just about the bits that are blanked out, if-----
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30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not concerned with those, you need not
31 explain them at all.
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33 MS. STEEL: No, no, but there was just like one bit which by way
34 of example, on page 3 the bit that is blanked out, the note
35 said, 'was it a surprise to you', i.e. as a surprise that
36 most people that corporations can sue for defamation, and
37 obviously it was a surprise to us, we had absolutely no
38 idea, so...
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40 MR. MORRIS: It was.
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42 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Life is full of surprises. It does not
43 necessarily help me to decide what the law is. Yes.
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45 MR. MORRIS: Right. So, on page 2 of that document we have just
46 looked at we say that it is up to the Plaintiffs to
47 prove... Well, in arguing against our point here that
48 multi-national Corporations should not be allowed to sue
49 for libel, that it is a pressing social need that they be
50 allowed to do so, and that in that same paragraph the
51 balancing act exercised that was required to balance the
52 protection of reputation and rights of others, which we
53 have already indicated anyway in our earlier arguments, is
54 not a strict balancing exercise of six of one and half a
55 dozen of the other because the weight of the balance should
56 be towards the protection of the public's rights.
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58 That balancing exercise was done in the Derbyshire case,
59 and it was not a question of the public authority's right
60 being balanced against the public's right to criticise and
