Wednesday, October 14, 2009

News from Absurdistan

Gentle readers in the Old Country are forbidden to read the following:
60 Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the Court of Appeal judgment in May 2009 in the case of Michael Napier and Irwin Mitchell v Pressdram Limited in respect of press freedom to report proceedings in court.
(292409)

61 Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): 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.
(293006)

62 Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will (a) collect and (b) publish statistics on the number of non-reportable injunctions issued by the High Court in each of the last five years.
(293012)

63 Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what mechanisms HM Court Service uses to draw up rosters of duty judges for the purpose of considering time of the essence applications for the issuing of injunctions by the High Court.
(293013)
The questions (which I have copied from the estimable Lefthandpalm) are taken from the House of Commons Order Paper. The Guardian has been prevented by injunction from printing these questions or reporting anything about them, save that the case involves Carter-Ruck Solicitors, which has sued Private Eye (Pressdram) more times than anyone can remember. No Right Turn also has irredeemably liberal comments to make on the matter.

Make of this what you will.



Thought you were smart when you took them on, But you didn't take a peep in their artillery room:


5 comments:

sas said...

brilliant! the guardian front page this morning reported this superbly well. ridiculous that such a ban is allowed in a democracy. and nonsensical given that anyone with a computer can search elsewhere for the information anyway.

Peter in Dundee said...

Yipee! I have broken the law. Come and get me Carter Ruck.

Peter in Dundee said...

I should add more seriously that I have this day emailed my MP to register my strong concern about the matter.

Philip said...

Carter-Ruck and their clients, Trafigura, have backed down on the Guardian but are now huffing and puffing at the BBC. This kind of thing is, of course, the main reason why the internet will have to be privatised ("deregulated") at the earliest possible opportunity.

Word Verification: Sublya, George W Bush's subtler sister.

Paul said...

They have at least succeeded in making themselves and their client household names.