Looks like Carter-Ruck solicitors should be in the PR business, because neither I nor, I’ll wager, you, had ever heard of Trafigura until they allegedly slapped an injunction on the Guardian prohibiting them from – get this – reporting proceedings in Parliament in which Trafigura‘s name had, apparently, been mentioned…
In no particular order, you’re now famous to the readers of, inter alia, Iain Dale, Guido, Dizzy, Next Left, Unity, Chicken Yoghurt, Harry’s Place and Timmy, as well as here and at the Kitchen; between them, they can’t be a kick in the arse off having a higher daily readership than the paper you’ve tried to gag…
Marketing experts were stunned today at the success of media law firm Carter-Ruck’s high profile ‘gagging order’ campaign, designed to generate buzz around their client Trafigura’s latest toxic waste product. Brand awareness for the British oil company, described as ‘absurdly evil’ by insiders, rocketed after a cryptic viral ‘seed’ appeared in yesterday’s The Guardian.
The stupid restrictions were removed before the Guardian got to court.
Carter-Ruck may have gone that step too far. The Law Society and their Lordships perhaps have more than a little to whisper in their shell-likes re a legal firm’s interpretation of Parliamentary Privilege.
The story as was:
The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.
Mainstream media versus old school lawyers. New media wins…
Image: the great Matt Buck
