Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 14

     
     1        you are putting and Mr. Nicholson can give an answer to it
     2        for better or for worse.
     3
     4   MS. STEEL:  Has your company always been sensitive about
     5        criticisms about the food that you sell?
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am sorry, I am not going to let this
     8        cross-examination continue unless you put questions to that
     9        effect.  I must know what you are getting at.
    10
    11   MS. STEEL:   It is a simple question.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Please, I will put it if you will not.
    14
    15   MS. STEEL:  I do want to put it.  I want to get the background
    16        situation before I put it.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You must get to it very quickly because there
    19        is a limit of time we can spend cross-examining any one
    20        witness.  However important it must be, however important
         his evidence may be potentially, there must be a limit on
    22        the amount of time we can take.  If you get to your point
    23        quickly, you can go back and check if there is something
    24        you do not think has been candid in the answer, but there
    25        must be a limit to the length of the approach work.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:  McDonald's would not have wanted people to put
    28        information out which it considered to be untrue about the
    29        nutritional quality of its food and things such as food
    30        poisoning, would it?
    31        A.  I would not have thought so.
    32
    33   Q.   An it would not have wanted to people to be putting out
    34        information which it considered to be untrue about welfare
    35        of animals, would it?
    36        A.  I am not sure.  I mean, we would be concerned about the
    37        welfare of animals.
    38
    39   Q.   Right, but would not want people to put out inaccurate
    40        information about animals reared for the Company's
         purposes?
    42        A.  No, I do not suppose we would want that.
    43
    44   Q.   You would not have wanted people to be putting out
    45        inaccurate, or what you considered to be inaccurate,
    46        libelous material about your advertising techniques?
    47        A.  No, that is right, we would not.
    48
    49   Q.   Right.  So, if you had come across something that you
    50        considered to be libelous, you would have taken action over 
    51        those things? 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What do you say about that?  It has been put
    54        to you that, as I understand it, wherever something which
    55        you might think is libellous about any of these topics
    56        appeared, you would take action over it?
    57        A.  Not necessarily.  It would depend on how we felt it
    58        would affect us.
    59
    60   MS. STEEL:  Did you think that criticisms about rainforest, and