An interesting story broke this morning.
The Guardian, in essence, were to report proceedings from Parliament which would have revealed the existence of a hitherto secret injunction.
The injunction stopped the media reporting a story unfavorable to oil traders Trafigura.
The question, which the Guardian attempted to report, was:
Labour MP Paul Farrelly,
"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."
This questioning would, through Hansard and wider reportage, therefore reveal the existence of this injunction and the secret Minton report.
Urgent questions seemed to have been bound around Parliament this morning, eventually seeing the law firm representing the oil company withdraw its opposition to the Guardian reporting the story.
It is interesting to see the actors in civil society at work here, with the press once again bolstering their claim to be the guardians (excuse the pun) of democratic ideals.
Maybe the producers of the BBC's new series of The Thick of It should consider Carter-Ruck as publicity agents rather than a bog-standard law firm...
