Trafigura gagging order lifted as Twitter and Guardian win free speech victory

Davey Winder
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 18:49

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So what is going on here and why has the traditional British freedom of the press been trodden upon with such a big boot. Ask any British journalist and they will tell you that Media 101 says 'you can report on parliamentary proceedings without fear of legal repurcussion' it's a fundamental right.

Which is why journalists, who now inhabit Twitter like seagulls at a rubbish tip, quickly started digging up whatever they could and posting their thoughts as tweets. The reference to Carter Ruck solicitors in the original Guardian story was enough for them to discover that an MP was to ask a parliamentary question (today) regarding how the British Government would protect whistleblowers and reporters.

Now the gagging order has been lifted, we can publish the full text of the question concerned and you can see exactly what all the fuss has been about:

"To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura" to be asked by Labour MP Paul Farrelly of Justice Secretary, Jack Straw.

Back in September it was The Guardian which covered the toxic waste dumping story and claimed that UK oil trader Trafigura's libel lawyers, Carter-Ruck, had blocked it from reporting beforehand. Only after Trafigura announced it was paying millions of pounds in compensation, but without admission of any liability over the allegations from 2006, was The Guardian finally free to publish its account.

Now Twitter is back on the case after it got wind of the Guardian gagging order over reporting a parliamentary question. Not only were important questions asked about how this had been allowed to happen but there were even 'Ungag the Guardian' twibbons being worn by many users to show support.

Those tweets not only called for MPs to debate the matter, but also for the mainstream media to cover it. Pleas that did not go unanswered. Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, has today tweeted that he was very concerned about the story and his party was "planning to take action on this".

It would seem that all the pressure paid off, and I for one am convinced that the power of Twitter played a large part in common sense prevailing in what was a vital case concerning freedom of the press. It's nice to see that the political power of Twitter has not been diminished by recent cases where The Powsers That be have tried to prevent it from being used as a tool for the people.