Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 13

     
     1
     2   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I repeat my ----
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Please, Mr. Rampton, you do not even give me
     5        a chance to -- I am waiting to see if there are any more
     6        questions.
     7
     8   MR. RAMPTON:  I see.  Very well.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL: There may be more questions.  Certainly I want
    11        you to put what the inference is that you want me to draw
    12        from that to Mr. Nicholson.  That is the point.  Now, you
    13        made your checks.
    14
    15   MS. STEEL:  Is it fair to say that those were the parts of the
    16        leaflet which you considered libellous at the time in 1987
    17        but it took until 1988 to resolve, so from 1987 to
    18        1988 ----
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What is being put to you is that those are
         all the matters, which are no more, which you considered to
    22        be libellous at that time.  What do you say about that?
    23        A.  They were the ones we considered at that time to be
    24        contentious and of public interest.  The rainforests and
    25        the method of slaughtering cattle were of common interest
    26        at that time and they were the issues we were at that time
    27        dealing with.
    28
    29        Whether or not we considered at that time that other parts
    30        of the document were libellous, I cannot now quite
    31        remember, but, at that time, they were the popular
    32        allegations being made against McDonald's and they were the
    33        ones we addressed.
    34
    35   MS. STEEL:  Right.  This came after the Transnational had been
    36         ----
    37        A.  Can I go back to the front of that.  I cannot remember
    38        if it was at the same time.
    39
    40   Q.   About the same time?
         A.  Yes.
    42
    43   Q.   So, working conditions would have been something you were
    44        considering as a topic of public interest and something of
    45        importance.  You would not want McDonald's criticised
    46        wrongly on ----
    47        A.  Well, looking at the chronology here, I would say we
    48        were investigating the transnational publication at this
    49        time but, in so far as the Veggies document was concerned,
    50        we were dealing with what we perceived at that time was 
    51        most in the public eye, which was the rainforest issue and 
    52        the slaughtering issue. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you should go on and put to Mr.
    55        Nicholson what your case is out of that.  That is his
    56        answer but put the whole of your case out of this, whether
    57        it is that, if it be, the Company was agreeing to every
    58        other allegation being continued to be published, or
    59        whether you are suggesting that they knew it to be true, or
    60        whatever the bottom line is, so I can see precisely what