British Press Banned from Reporting Parliament. Seriously.

lord gnome

Countdown until you receive a writ from the Carter-Fuck! 10... 9...

Private Eye seems to have been previously injuncted and mentioned that an MP would be asking these questions.

I wonder if they'll print as the Guardian clearly doesn't have the stones

Peter Walker

Thanks for having some guts and breaking cover. This is a disgrace.

Jamie Potter

We should 'gag' Carter Ruck on Thursday, the day the question is due to be read in Parliament. Flash mob/blockade outside their office in London.

Herbert Thornton

I know absolutely nothing of the matter but it sounds fascinating.

I look forward not just to reading more about it in the Spectator, but even more eagerly to reading what Private Eye will say about it......

Pam Nash

My congratulations for publishing the Parliamentary question. Although it is, apparently, on Wikileaks, and is floating around the blogosphere, with various links on Twitter, I believe you are the first from the MSM to publish. Kudos! There is a campaign on Twitter to get #trafigura as a Tending Topic on Tuesday. Bring it on!

Tim

Anyone have any links to where we can find the docs online? Can't spot them on wikileaks (yet)...

Hysteria

just check out Guido ....

I love teh interwebz !

Larry

"UPDATE 2: There is, at the time of writing, no mention of this story on the BBC's website. Why on earth not?"

Perhaps the BBC has been barred from reporting that it too has been barred from reporting?

Britain has become the United Kingdom of Kafka!

Morus

Alex - great piece, thanks for getting this out to a wider audience.

Anyone who wants to make a fuss out of this should (if they haven't already) sign up for a free Twitter account and include the hashtags #trafigura and #carterruck in each and every 'tweet'

The British media (except the Speccie, God Bless Her) might be a little cowed, but if we can publicise this to foreign media, this awful company and their lawyers can get something approaching just desert for trying to stifle press freedom in a democracy.

dearieme

"This country's libel laws..", meaning England's I presume? May we assume that the Scottish Law on defamation is a superior beast? Are you the boy to tell us, Alex?

Pongo

I wonder when the judge will publish his reasons for granting this injunction.

kein

never argue with a man who buys his ink by the gigabyte.

Maarten

@Tim the report has been on wikileaks for a while now: http://www.wikileaks.com/wiki/Minton_report:_Trafigura_toxic_dumping_along_the_Ivory_Coast_broke_EU_regulations%2C_14_Sep_2006

Prodicus

The Parliamentary Question from Paul Farrelly MP is online. Open Government, don'tcha know.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmordbk2/91013o02.htm

John Adams

WikiLeaks released the "Minton report" some weeks ago. The UK press has been secret gagged all this time from mention that the report is on WikiLeaks. Goto http://wikileaks.org/ and search for "minton report"!

Meat me later

Yes the documents in question are on the obvious site, but they were uploaded last month (report 'A') and 6 months ago (report 'B') so you'll have to dig/search

RMH

Is the Judicary the issue, or is it the law?

adil

if you want to tell MPs what you think of this censorship, you can use our robot :] it's in Parliament now, in the upper waiting gallery. You can send it a message via the website and it will write it out for MPs to read. Have your say on gagging www.vinspired.com/voicebox

SteveEllwood

well done. No. 1 trending topic on Twitter at the moment #trafigura

Umar Ahmed

'I suspect that by the time all this is over far more people will be aware of the controversy swirling around Trafigura's African adventures than would have been the case had they kept quiet and not attempted to silence the press.'

I had never heard of Trafigura before this. A classic example of how doing nothing can often be better!

Fred

This is a really hot topic on Twitter.

kaleidoscoptics

Thank you for breaking the gag order. This is a terrible precedent to set.

Colin McLaughlan

Is it the Trafiga question or the Barclay's one ? Remember the Guardian was previously banned from posting or telling people where to get the documents showing their tax-avoidance plans "Project Knight" can be found online. (wikileaks thx)

JackPT

I'm in a very similar situation to others, I hadn't been following the Trafigura libel question. But I think gagging a newspaper from reporting parliament is a red line, and well done The Spectator for covering it. Shame on The Independent and others with pretensions of giving a toss about press freedom, yet haven't even got blog entries on the story.

Prodicus

11:20 on Tuesday and no CoffeeHouse (main page) posts. At all.

Grumpy lawyers been keeping you busy, Fraser?

Albert O'Balsam

BBC Newsnight ran a report on the affair back in May. Do keep up.

Fold

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8304483.stm

L

http://tinyurl.com/yl2bcoy

There's the Wikileaks document. :)

Ian Stuart

Maybe we're all looking at this the wrong way... maybe Waterson & Hicks were so appalled by the Trafigura action that they too action to highlight it... and brought the gagging action *deliberately*?

(simply invert the politicians technique of burying bad news by releasing it when something else is grabbing the headlines)

Is it time to scurry off and see what else has been released by the government?

CrackerJacker

I thought there wasn't a mention of the story on the BBC site, but there is - painfully brief and omitting the background of the story atm, but it's there. Or here, rather.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8304483.stm

He's Spartacus

Well done, The Spectator, for having the sand to tread where The Grauniad would not!

Jess The Dog

It's on my blog.

Sod them. Parliamentary privilege and reportage underpin our democracy (what there is of it). Lawyers can't take them away, writs are just pieces of paper and need compliance and obedience to be effective.

http://jess-the-dog.blogspot.com/2009/10/gagging-guardian-dumping-along-ivory.html

Richard Lawson

Great to see that Carter-Ruck and Trafigura have succeeded in uniting left and right in revulsion at their action.

Ian Williams

@bbcnews get round to reporting on #trafigura http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8304483.stm

Kitchen

Well done.

anon

Too late to try and gag and injunct all this now - the Barbra Streisand Effect wins out yet again.

afcone

Haven't Carter-Ruck heard of the Streisand Effect? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Paul A Davies

This is brave and important reporting, well done. The gagging order has sparked such anger that the banned question has, ironically and joyously, been given far more publicity via the Internet than would ever have been the case.

kel d

The BBC have sort of covered it, bless them. They have come at it from "newspaper has been gagged" sort of angle, playing safe...

Paul A Davies

MediaWatchWatch.org.uk has an embedded link to the Minton report, for those interested.

Soon, we'll have people trying to obtain gagging orders as a deliberate publicity stunt. In this case, though, I reckon it was just a crass error.

Austin Barry

Congratulations to Alex and Fraser.

Mark

BBC article on this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8304483.stm

Claire

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8304483.stm

LibDems urge "press gag" debate. I suppose that's something.

Prodicus

Congratulations.

Orla Robinson

CarterRuck haved caved in. No need for Guardian court hearing and Media can now report Paul Farrelly's PQ about Trafigura. Once info was viral, no injunction was possible whatever other merits of case. What a clever little paper the Guardian is.

Orla Robinson

need to credit legal blogger Jack of Kent for the last two lines of my previous comment.

Stephen

Richard Lawson on left and right uniting.

How right you are. The Guardian, the Speccie, usually such unhappy bedfellows, working with others to expose this appalling state of affairs. Perhaps there is hope after all.

Alex (and perhaps Stephen Fry who used his influence make this a trending topic on twitter) deserve our appreciation.

Orla Robinson

the Guardian publish the PQ that was subject of (now lifted) gagging order
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/13/guardian-gagged-parliamentary-question

Hermann Weber

This is nearly as good as some Ministry guy here in Australia wants to exorcise the Australian Parliament. Just because it is under the influence of Satan as he claims. Evidence is legislation supporting homosexuality, push for a Bill of Rights as well as the number of politicians with serious marriage problems. Can you better this?
Cheers
Hermann Weber

Wayne Barnes

Well done Spectator! At least you have shown the courage and loyalty to our country that is sadly lacking amongst Cice's swine who currently roll around in their own filth, feeding on expenses, in Westminster.
More of the same please!

offshore

Excellent posting - well done for having the guts to stand up to this.
Great news that CR has dropped, but don´t let the heat go out of the story...there are a couple of issues that really should be let lie..
1) why was the injunction granted in the first place ?
2) why did the BBC and Telegraph not report the substance of the matter ? cowardice ? injunctions ?
3) why were the Speaker not grant time to debate such an important threat to press and parliamentary freedoms ?

I think we should be told !

An American

Obviously, Massie does not even begin to understand the real American view point. The American that is willing to sacrifice for freedoms that we have enjoyed since 1776. He says Beck is all entertainment? Stay tuned Massie..change IS coming In the USA and it will start in Nov 2010.

Eigernordwand

Totally and utterly speechless

Elaine Decoulos

Good work. This is not a one off. I'm also being gagged in the High Court with secret hearings and worse. And it all started with a bogus injunction served on me in Massachusetts.

There are revolutionary monuments on nearly every street corner in Boston and it truly felt like the British were coming! And I thought the Revolution was over.

The nature of the court orders I have received are particularly draconian. I recently commented about this with regard to 'the special relationship' on the official State Dept blog:

http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entires/us_uk_shared_values/#Comments

Also submitted Memoranda to the UK Parliamentary Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport, of which Paul Farrelly MP, is a member:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmcumeds/memo/press/ucps3902.htm

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmcumeds/memo/press/ucps5302.htm

Would be so grateful if anyone in the mainstream media would like to take up my story.

Sam Johnson

It is so worrying that a Global Corporate Company can so easily overide - Freedom of Speech and the Sovereignty of the People in the Commons. Although I know that this has been going on for very many years, this super injunction is a step too far. Hooray for the People of the World who are on this! What more can we all do as individuals to counter these Laws?

Amadeus Plonquer

Sirs,
Without wishing to prejudice myself or any party to the receipt, viewing or reading this comment, I must inform you that under no circustances whatsoever did I send this comment whether by electronic or any other means. And if you publish this I'll deny it.

Heck

From Ben Fulford's blog:

"Queen Elizabeth may soon abdicate her throne

A source in the UK royal family says that Parliamentary debate is closed to the public for the first time since 1688 because they are debating removing the House of Windsor from the Throne of England. The Windsors are actually German and changed their name from Battenberg a century ago in order to appear more English. The Earl of Wales is the leading contender to be the new King of England. However, the debate is still under way and nothing has been finally decided."

Verity

Here’s another gem from Ben Fulford: "The secret government of the US and EU has promised a major overhaul in the wake of the warning it got from the Chinese secret society, according to a senior Japanese public security police officer and Freemason who has been acting as an intermediary with the Chinese secret society."

To me, the biggest surprise in this multinational plot was, I didn’t know they had Freemasons in Japan.

I wonder if he was writing plots for Saturday matinees in the Forties. The only thing he didn’t throw into the above paragraph was visitor King Zog, from a planet far away ...

dave

Here's the injunction itself, issued by a Justice Maddison. Although secret in the UK, apparently Carter-Ruck emailed the text of the injunction to some Norwegian journalists.

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Minton_report_secret_injunction_gagging_The_Guardian_on_Trafigura%2C_11_Sep_2009

eddie

It should also be of note that an american talk show host, Michael Savage has been banned in Britain for being 'politiclly incorrect' by the Brown-[shirts].

Brooks

remember remember the fifth of november

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