Day 270 - 28 Jun 96 - Page 41


     
     1        admissible for the purpose of proving it.  So she has to
     2        come here and give evidence if she is to prove what the
     3        inspectors -- well, she can prove what the inspectors said
     4        but there is no purpose in that since unless what they said
     5        is relied on as being a version of the truth, they are
     6        irrelevant, because the fact that they said something is of
     7        no significance in this case, it can only be that what they
     8        said might be true.
     9
    10        My Lord, can I ask your Lordship to look at the statement
    11        of the journalist?  The first paragraph, I say, gives the
    12        game away.  I mean, that is not fair because she is not a
    13        lawyer, but it holds the key in its last few words.
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  What are we looking at now?  The statement?
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, her letter to Ms. Steel, 25th April
    18        1996.  You must have it because you were going to read it
    19        to me.
    20
    21   MR. RAMPTON:  She confirms the contents of her article but the
    22        article is no different case from her own statement.  They
    23        are both written documents and she is not here, so they are
    24        on precisely the same condition.  She says:
    25
    26        "I hereby confirm the article and quote in it to be a true
    27        and accurate record of what I would...."  So far so good.
    28        Then she goes on:  "And was told by the various persons
    29        quoted".
    30
    31        I will not read anything more until I get to the bottom of
    32        the page.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can we --
    35
    36   MR. RAMPTON:  Can I just ask your Lordship to read the next
    37        three succeeding paragraphs?
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Well, I have read them.  What do you say
    40        about those?
    41
    42   MR. RAMPTON:  They are all plainly a report by her of what she
    43        has been told.  None of those, as far as I can see, is
    44        direct observation by her.  This is perfectly proper on
    45        behalf of a journalist, that she should gather her sources
    46        from --
    47
    48   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So you say the clear inference of paragraphs
    49        2, 3 and 4 is that they rely on what she has been told?
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:  Well, my Lord, it must be so, in fact, if one 
    52        looks at it, she cannot possibly, as a matter of reality, 
    53        have any direct experience of the matters she recites in
    54        those three paragraphs.  She does not work for the
    55        Department of Agriculture, she is not a meat inspector, she
    56        does not work in the meat industry.  It is inconceivable
    57        that she could have any direct knowledge of those matters.
    58
    59        But, my Lord, perhaps the key to it is the end of that
    60        first page, where she starts:

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