Are you fucking kidding me
The British Parliament has placed a gag order on the newspaper The Guardian forbidding it from reporting on... something. It has to do with freedom of speech under the UK Bill of Rights. Seriously. They're banned from reporting about an issue that concerns freedom of speech.
A couple people seem to think it has to do with Toxic waste dumps off the Ivory Coast. That's what Wikipedia and Order Order (linked through Daily Kos) seem to say, at least. Chances are wiki's going to get some vandalizing, but this is what it has up right now: NEVERMIND, it got changed before I could even submit this post.
The question subject to the gagging order would appear to be:
"N Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura." (Was here.)
So basically it sounds like they're trying to prosecute whistleblowers. Because god forbid some corporations have to pay for their tax avoidance schemes and toxic waste dumps that affected thousands of people.
I don't usually like to post about politics, even though that's more or less my major, but this is kind of fucking huge. Nothing new, but it definitely pisses me off.
ETA: #Trafigura is now the number one trending topic on Twitter, and Guardian is fifth.
ETA THE SECOND: And now #Trafigura has been pulled from the trending topics. What. The. Fuck. (4am CDT)
Son of the return of the ETA: The gag order has been rescinded! And it was about Trafigura. Now if we could get people this interested in US toxic waste dumping off of Somalia that would be awesome.
A couple people seem to think it has to do with Toxic waste dumps off the Ivory Coast. That's what Wikipedia and Order Order (linked through Daily Kos) seem to say, at least. Chances are wiki's going to get some vandalizing, but this is what it has up right now: NEVERMIND, it got changed before I could even submit this post.
The question subject to the gagging order would appear to be:
"N Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura." (Was here.)
So basically it sounds like they're trying to prosecute whistleblowers. Because god forbid some corporations have to pay for their tax avoidance schemes and toxic waste dumps that affected thousands of people.
I don't usually like to post about politics, even though that's more or less my major, but this is kind of fucking huge. Nothing new, but it definitely pisses me off.
ETA: #Trafigura is now the number one trending topic on Twitter, and Guardian is fifth.
ETA THE SECOND: And now #Trafigura has been pulled from the trending topics. What. The. Fuck. (4am CDT)
Son of the return of the ETA: The gag order has been rescinded! And it was about Trafigura. Now if we could get people this interested in US toxic waste dumping off of Somalia that would be awesome.