Guardian Gagged from Reporting Parliment.

Jaemi · 13th October 2009, 10:50am

It appears as if the world of twitter and plenty more are going nuts about this..

Quote:

The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.

Today's published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. 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.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

It's all to do with a company called Trafigura and the dumping of toxic waste in the ivory coast.
http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?q=Tra...pe=all&start=2

What's really striking is that the BBC haven't got mention of it anywhere.

**Shannow** · 13th October 2009, 10:51am

This is a bit, um, frightening.

Jaemi · 13th October 2009, 10:53am

http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassi...eriously.thtml

Runt · 13th October 2009, 10:59am

I noticed a post on twitter about this yesterday but I totally disregarded it as bullshit coz like, they can't do that....surely.

Jaemi · 13th October 2009, 11:01am

Should be fine so long as this doesn't make TV or Radio.

Rio Ohki · 13th October 2009, 11:04am

This I don't like.....

**Shannow** · 13th October 2009, 11:04am

Not only is thei fucking ridiculous, how on earth does anyone think 'if we put this gag order on, noone will find out' in the age of the twitternet?
Shady stuff.

triggerhappy · 13th October 2009, 11:05am

They're not very good at keeping a secret, it's still on the Parliament website:

http://www.publications.parliament.u...2/91013o02.htm

(near the bottom, highlighted in red)

I wonder if the BBC will respond to all the comments being made about their lack of reporting?

Jaemi · 13th October 2009, 11:06am

I was just thinking about that.
Then I thought, what difference will it make?
It's a trending topic on twitter but if there is no one in the mainstream media willing to report it, it's not really going to change anything. This is wher the BBC should be stepping in.

triggerhappy · 13th October 2009, 11:10am

Lib Dems have tabled a request for an ugent debate:

http://www.markpack.org.uk/guardian-...ion-trafigura/

Mwezzi · 13th October 2009, 11:18am

Wikileaks is all over this as well. I really don't understand some information that's so readily attainable from publicly available Parliament documents should be censored in the media.

Apparently, the #trafigura trending topic has been deleted, so the hash was removed and that's still there.

Jaemi · 13th October 2009, 11:19am

This company (and it's associates) have got previous for this.
They've also got previous for bribing MPs in Africa.

pANDAS Radio · 13th October 2009, 11:20am

Quote:

Originally Posted by triggerhappy

They're not very good at keeping a secret, it's still on the Parliament website:

It has to be, the question is tabled to be asked. It's just the reporting of the question that the gagging order covers, though that gagging order only covers the Grauniad - that's why other publications and blogs are totally free to cover the story.

**djtoast** · 13th October 2009, 11:20am

holy crap.

the liberal in all of us likes to think of freedom of speech as something that should very rarely be curtailed. yeah, i guess shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre (when there isn't one) ought to be prevented, and dannii minogue crassly implying someone is a bufter when (whether true or not) they haven't said so themselves is unfair i guess...

we do sometimes prevent discussion of ongoing legal procedings when it might make the chances of a fair trial more difiicult, don't we? but it's hard to see how this might prejudice a trial in that sense... but it's the only grounds that would make any sense at all i imagine.

Bobzilla · 13th October 2009, 11:22am

Quote:

Originally Posted by triggerhappy

They're not very good at keeping a secret, it's still on the Parliament website:

http://www.publications.parliament.u...2/91013o02.htm

(near the bottom, highlighted in red)

I wonder if the BBC will respond to all the comments being made about their lack of reporting?

Of course it's still on there. The question will most likely still be asked. Noones stopping it being asked. The guardians just being stopped on reporting on it in any way shape or form. That's the issue.

Aside from that if they dropped that question then we would know it was the correct one. As is noones confirming it but it looks highly likely that it is.