Trafigura: A few tweets and freedom of speech is restored

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk>
Date: October 13, 2009 7:39:14 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Trafigura: A few tweets and freedom of speech is restored

Hi Dave:

There's a very interesting story just broken here in the UK on how  
internet users defeated an attempt to gag, via a legal restraining  
order, an attempt by the Guardian to report on a question tabled by a  
Member of Parliament. (The fact that such an order could granted is an  
unpleasant surprise for many of us.) For IP if you wish.

Cheers

Brian

-----

Trafigura: A few tweets and freedom of speech is restored

Twitter users claim historic victory for the power of the internet  
after gagging attempt on routine act of journalism triggers race among  
bloggers to reveal all

The Guardian story announcing that it had been restricted by an  
existing high court order from reporting certain parliamentary  
proceedings had been published online for just a matter of minutes  
before internet users began tearing apart the gag.

On Monday evening, blogs and the social networking site Twitter buzzed  
as users rushed to solve the mystery of who was behind the gagging  
attempt that less than an hour earlier had prevented the newspaper  
reporting details of a question tabled by an MP to be answered by a  
minister later this week.

It would normally have been a routine act of journalism which has  
never, in memory, been prevented before.

Untroubled by the legal restrictions which had confined the Guardian  
to reporting at 8.31pm that it had been "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",  
internet users quickly reported that the gag related to a question by  
the Labour MP Paul Farrelly concerning the reporting of an incident in  
which toxic waste was dumped in the Ivory Coast.

Farrelly wanted to know which measures ministers had taken to protect  
whistleblowers and press freedom following an injunction obtained by  
the oil company Trafigura and its firm of solicitors, Carter Ruck,  
against the publication of a report into the matter.

After several requests on Monday afternoon from the Guardian's lawyers  
asking Carter Ruck to alter the terms of the injunction and thereby  
allow publication of Farrelly's question, the gag remained in place.

But just 42 minutes after the Guardian story was published, the  
internet had revealed what the paper could not.

Bloggers and the so-called Twitterati tonight claimed a historic  
victory for the power of the internet over what they saw as attempts  
by vested interests to shut down freedom of speech.

One of the quickest to reveal the full story was a 34-year old human  
rights activist, Richard Wilson. He was baking a banana cake in his  
kitchen in London when he first found out about the gag on the  
Guardian from a message posted on Twitter.

A few minutes of frantic internet searching later he published the  
fact that the gag related to Farrelly's questions about Trafigura. He  
also published the text of the questions itself and became so absorbed  
in cracking the puzzle, his cake burned to a crisp. He said it was a  
small price to pay.

<snip>

Full story at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/13/trafigura-tweets-freedowm-of-speech


--
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE1 7RU, UK
EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell




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