Labels: Alisher Usmanov, Campaigns, Civil liberties, Idiotarians
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Trafigura, Carter-Ruck and the Streisand Effect (UPDATED)
UPDATE: The situation has now been resolved and the Guardian ungagged. Read to the bottom of the post for further details.
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 whichTrafigura's name had, apparently, been mentioned.
Well, get comfy, guys, because you're big time now; everyone who's anyone (as well as those of us who aren't) are busily writing about you, and directing baffled readers to articles like this one, in the Independent, which says all sorts of nasty things about you the veracity of which I am not qualified to comment on. 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 (this outbreak of blogospheric solidarity, to put it into context, is akin to the Russians and the Germans taking a time-out from slaughtering each other to erect a big sign in downtown Stalingrad telling everyone that Cary Grant was a poof). Add Alex Massie at the Spectatorand Nick Cohen and Joshua Rozenberg at Standpoint magazine, and this is quickly becoming an online clusterfuck of epic proportions.
One day these highly-remunerated libel lawyers are going to wake up and realise that they aren't being paid in guineas any more and that, thanks to this thing called the Interwebs, they can't shut down freedom of speech the way they used to in the old days. On the contrary; as Barbara Streisand found to her cost, 99% of people don't give a shit about 99% of stuff, right up the moment when you start waving your arms up and down telling them to stop reading about it.
The sheer diversity and cacophony of views online is offputting to some, and barely a week goes by without snotty articles in the MSM about how indispensable they are compared to mere bloggers, and how we should all stump up to pay their inflated salaries. But while we can argue about the wisdom of the crowd, no-one can order it to be silent. If I were Trafigura, I'd ask Carter-Ruck to itemise the bill.
UPDATE: With their usual glacial speed, the BBC are now, kinda, reporting the story. No mention of the fact that the subject of the gag order can be found by anyone with a working internet connection, despite the fact that BBC employees have been reading this post all morning...
UPDATE 2: It's all over: the Guardian have been ungagged, with Carter-Ruck apparently having backed down. More, no doubt, to follow.
(image h/t Prodicus). I think Messrs Carter-Ruck might want to change the front page of their website...
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
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