The Guardian might not be perfect, but I was very impressed by this story, highlighting the ridiculous way in which it's been banned from reporting parliamentary proceedings this week. Yes, banned. Gagged, if you will. For the first time in living memory. There is nothing right about this.
The style of the article is deliberately confusing (let's hope so, anyway - otherwise someone's going mad, and it's not me), and cleverly encourages the rest of us to find out more. My favourite bit:
"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."
Amazing.
Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for the powers that be, this is 2009 and rumours of the subject the Guardian isn't allowed to report on are spreading like... well, toxic waste. At my last check, #Trafigura was the top trending topic on Twitter, with celebrities and journalists bumping it up at every turn.
What is Trafigura? It's an oil company, accused of dumping toxic waste off the Ivory Coast. And the British press is apparently not allowed to tell us. For more details, go here.
So, the tabloids can get away with any intrusive but inconsequential rubbish if they say it's "in the public interest", but this disgrace is out of bounds? Way to draw attention to yourselves, Trafigura.
- - - - - - - -
Update: Now #Trafigura is no longer the top trending topic, but the top ten includes Trafigura, Guardian, Carter-Ruck (Trafigura's lawyers), and BBC (conspicuously not reporting this story - similarly gagged, I assume). And everyone on Twitter who's not discussing this seems hopelessly out of touch. I love the internet.
- - - - - - - -
Update 2: Victory! Hoorah. Today has been a bad day, and then a good day, for free speech. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/13/guardian-gagged-parliamentary-question
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
38 Degrees are currently running a campaign on this. Take action now by emailing your MP and asking them to take a stand and stop the bullying action of Trafigura. Take action now, it only takes 2 mins. Go to:
38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-gag
Thanks for that.
Just to make it clear, dear readers: the purpose of the 38 Degrees campaign is to tell our politicians that we're not happy about this, and to hopefully ensure it doesn't happen again. So the Guardian has won today, but that doesn't mean the campaign isn't relevant any more.
That is all.
Post a Comment