Court Decision.
Morning All
As many of you are aware British Gas filed an emergency Motion in The Court of Session yesterday, seeking to have this Blog discontinued and removed. During the Hearing that Motion was amended "at the bar" (during the Hearing) subsequent to the Judge (Lady Poole) indicating her desire to ensure the order not be any wider than necessary to protect the pursuer's [British Gas/British Gas agents] interests. What the amended Motion requested of The Court amounted to this: That the Blog does not proceed in the manner set out in the Introductory and that the Blog's creator discontinue issuing his "opinion" of the material he publishes in his Blog. In short, the writer should not be allowed to publish a letter containing demonstrably dishonest information and then claim the author of that letter is a "pathological liar" or that the letter was written for the specific purpose of misleading the recipient and was therefore, "criminally fraudulent".
British Gas was successful in persuading The Court to impose those restrictions.
On the other hand, the Lady Poole in her written adjudication said this: "In considering the terms of the orders to make, I was mindful of the importance of the right of freedom of expression. It would not be appropriate to prevent the defender from saying anything at all about the events which have passed between him and the pursuers, because of this right. There is nothing to prevent him publishing full copies of correspondence sent to him by the pursuers. He is entitled to say things that are true, and make fair comment (as legally defined) on them.".
As you would expect, it would not occur to me to disobey a Scottish Jurist's Order. The remaining Episodes, therefore, will be published with strict adherence to that order. Letters, emails and recorded phone calls will be published as promised, however subsequent analysis highlighting dishonesty contained therein will no longer include my judgement on what that dishonesty reveals about its author. Finally, I will be grateful if "commentators" too, attend to Lady Poole's adjudication.
Thanks to all, see you Monday.
As many of you are aware British Gas filed an emergency Motion in The Court of Session yesterday, seeking to have this Blog discontinued and removed. During the Hearing that Motion was amended "at the bar" (during the Hearing) subsequent to the Judge (Lady Poole) indicating her desire to ensure the order not be any wider than necessary to protect the pursuer's [British Gas/British Gas agents] interests. What the amended Motion requested of The Court amounted to this: That the Blog does not proceed in the manner set out in the Introductory and that the Blog's creator discontinue issuing his "opinion" of the material he publishes in his Blog. In short, the writer should not be allowed to publish a letter containing demonstrably dishonest information and then claim the author of that letter is a "pathological liar" or that the letter was written for the specific purpose of misleading the recipient and was therefore, "criminally fraudulent".
British Gas was successful in persuading The Court to impose those restrictions.
On the other hand, the Lady Poole in her written adjudication said this: "In considering the terms of the orders to make, I was mindful of the importance of the right of freedom of expression. It would not be appropriate to prevent the defender from saying anything at all about the events which have passed between him and the pursuers, because of this right. There is nothing to prevent him publishing full copies of correspondence sent to him by the pursuers. He is entitled to say things that are true, and make fair comment (as legally defined) on them.".
As you would expect, it would not occur to me to disobey a Scottish Jurist's Order. The remaining Episodes, therefore, will be published with strict adherence to that order. Letters, emails and recorded phone calls will be published as promised, however subsequent analysis highlighting dishonesty contained therein will no longer include my judgement on what that dishonesty reveals about its author. Finally, I will be grateful if "commentators" too, attend to Lady Poole's adjudication.
Thanks to all, see you Monday.
Does that mean you you can publish material which reveals that British Gas personnel were writing letters to customers with false information, but that you can't tell us what the false information is? If so, is that not taking away your right to free speech?
ReplyDeleteNo, that's not what it means exactly. I can publish letters emails and recorded phone calls and I can point out any "inexactitude" contained therein. I can even make fair comment (so long as it complies with the the legal definition of "fair comment"). But to ensure I cannot be accused of testing Lady Poole's orders far less violating them, I intend merely publishing letters by British Gas and its agents and alerting the readers to information in those communications which is clearly "inaccurate".
ReplyDeleteAlso please feel free to send the link for this Blog to all your contacts. You could even ask them to do the same!
It seems to me that this judgement while claiming to defend the right to free speech has restricted it and made it more difficult for individuals in society to seek justice when challenging multi-nationals like British Gas.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good fight!
It appears to me that the defence of 'fair comment' has in effect been withdrawn in this case. I presume you intimated the 'fact' that your opinions, with regard to the subjects of those opinions, were 'Honestly held".
ReplyDeleteWeird that the blogger hasn't posted the full text of the opinion but just snippets...
ReplyDelete