Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 41
1 question then would be a matter of fact, is does the
2 nutrition guide tell the whole truth or does it not till
3 the whole truth?
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But I thought the point of nutrition guides
6 was to help the customer about the contents of the
7 food ---
8
9 MR. MORRIS: Right.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- and whether they might be adversely
12 affected by eating it, or might be given grounds to think
13 that they might be adversely affected by eating it.
14 I mean, I am putting this as devil's advocate to you. If
15 you say about someone that a nutrition guide, which is
16 designed to help a customer decide whether or not to buy a
17 and eat your food, is misleading about the contents of the
18 food and that you have been careless with the result that
19 it is misleading, is that not defamatory?
20
21 MR. MORRIS: The point is, I think we have to have a bit of
22 sense of -----
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not forget, we are not arguing now whether
25 that can be justified or not.
26
27 MR. MORRIS: Yes, I understand that, but we do have to have a
28 sense of perspective, I think, because we have a
29 multi-national that spends one and a half billion dollars
30 promoting their food, as we have heard, as nutritious every
31 year. There has to be some kind of robustness in the law
32 to prevent superfluous and, you know, trivial cases.
33
34 This is entirely what I say is the spirit of the Greig, the
35 Scottish case, because even in what you might call there an
36 absolutely clear and quite strong situation, the court was
37 saying: "We do not want this kind of case; this is not
38 defamatory. We have to protect freedom of speech". So,
39 I think to say that someone's nutrition guide does not tell
40 all the facts, it is not saying they are lying, it is not
41 saying that their food is actually adulterated or anything;
42 it is just basically saying, surprise, surprise, that a
43 multi-national corporation does not tell the whole truth.
44
45 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That must be defamatory, must it not?
46
47 MR. MORRIS: It cannot be defamatory. That is the whole purpose
48 of advertising, to put the gloss over and put the best
49 possible light on their products and that is to say -----
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But you used the word the "truth", you see.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: It does not tell the whole, well, if it says here
54 the whole, they do not make clear -- well, that is all I
55 have to say.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I understand your argument and I will
58 give if careful thought.
59
60 MR. MORRIS: Can I say that Mr. Rampton did say on that day,
