Monday, December 14, 2009

Freedom of Speech: Trafigura, the BBC and Carter-Ruck The Silencers

Wikileaks reports that the BBC appear to have deleted a news article on the toxic-waste dumping of commodities giant Trafigura.

Trafigura and their lawyers Carter Ruck had been pursuing an ongoing libel case against the BBC over a news story from on the case that aired in May 2009.

In the story "Dirty Tricks and Toxic Waste in the Ivory Coast", the BBC's Newsnight programme stated: "It is the biggest toxic dumping scandal of the 21st century, the type of environmental vandalism that international treaties are supposed to prevent. Now Newsnight can reveal the truth about the waste that was illegally tipped on Ivory Coast's biggest city, Abidjan".

Although the link appears to have stopped working on Dec 10 or Dec 11, at present the cached version can be seen here

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Blog will be on holiday Dec 23 - Jan 04 (Sydney time)