Verdict on Trafigura libel action against BBC due today

Posted by Jennifer Lush on December 17, 2009 at 11:50 AM

A verdict in the High Court is expected today on the libel action brought against the BBC by British-based oil traders Trafigura, reports the Guardian. The hearing for the case is scheduled before Mr Justice Eady this morning and BBC lawyers are reported to have been engaged in a mediation process with Carter-Ruck, Trafigura's law firm.

In May earlier this year, Trafigura's lawyers announced that they had brought libel proceedings against the BBC over its BBC Newsnight broadcast on Trafigura, which accused the company of a toxic waste dumping scandal in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast. The report claimed the dumping has made several people in the area ill, even causing deaths.

The libel action was taken on the latter point- that the oil traders had been wrongly accused of causing deaths, (they acknowledge causing sickness), despite the fact that official statements by a UN investigator, the Ivory Coast government and the British government referred to deaths directly related to the dumping in Abidjan.

The BBC program has since been removed from Newsnight's webpage, though can still be found elsewhere on the web. Judith Townend writing for Journalism.co.uk asks: "Where has the BBC's Trafigura feature gone?", and reports that a spokesperson for the BBC said: "We haven't got anything to say on this. As discussed earlier we are often not able to comment if there's a live legal action."

Trafigura, however, is more eager to get its perspective into the public domain, with Media Guardian's Mercedes Bunz observing that in the meantime, "Trafigura is buying relevant sponsored links on Google's search page to promote its side of the story."

The case had initially gained attention in March when Trafigura's solicitors sought a court injunction to prevent the Guardian newspaper from reporting on public governance proceedings. Carter-Ruck, specialists in suing the media, eventually lifted the gag, possibly in response to a massive public uproar primarily heard and raised through the blogosphere and Twitter (#Trafigura).

Source: Guardian