Trafigura

There’s a big crack in the dam of official censorship today. An attempt by one of Britain’s most formidable law firms to stop media coverage of one of its clients backfired spectacularly when the information it was seeking to suppress was distributed around the internet to millions of users in a matter of hours.

Media and the Houses of Parliament in London

In what will become a case study for how the internet has changed the balance of power in the control of information, solicitors Carter-Ruck and their client Trafigura were forced to drop an attempt to gag media coverage of an 87-word parliamentary question about the alleged dumping of toxic waste off Ivory Coast.

The question was on the public record and available on the internet yet The Guardian was prevented from reporting the question, who asked it, or why it was being gagged.

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  • Dadio D says:

    10:49am | 20/10/09

    the green glow re-appeared in Dublin’s Seapoint’s swimmers paradise just few day’s ago. Research it. Read more »

  • Old Fart says:

    01:34pm | 14/10/09

    Many moons ago, I used to work for the federal government. And there were a lot of issues that were swept under the rug. Read more »

 

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