Carter Ruck, the solicitors for Trafigura, the people responsible for dumping toxic waste in Abidjan have obtained an injunction forcing the BBC to withdraw all references to a Newsnight report on the affair from their website. Carter Ruck are the solicitors who attempted to gag reporting about questions on this subject in the British Parliament a couple of months ago. On that occasion, they withdrew their injunction after a campaign on twitter and blogs (story here and my thoughts here).
The people of Abidjan who suffered from the dumping of toxic chemical waste in the open across a large, densely populated city should not be forgotten just because a rich company can afford high-flying lawyers. Thankfully, the BBC Newsnight report on on the incident is available on YouTube (or you can read a transcript here).
Can I encourage other bloggers to post this video?
Update: Matt Wardman has the latest news on this (18 December 2009)
5 replies on “Abidjan Toxic Waste: The BBC Gagged”
Are you sure? Just did a search for Trafigura on the BBC site and there are recent reports there from October and November.
Sorry, should have been more specific – it is a Newsnight report that has been removed. I’ll correct the post. Thanks David.
Tom Harris reckons it’s just the video above that’s been removed. http://www.tomharris.org.uk/2009/12/15/carter-ruck-a-limerick-waiting-to-happen/
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