Guardian, UK:
In a battle reminiscent of the McLibel trial, environmental campaigners are facing legal action from a giant logging firm – with significant implications for freedom of speech. Gwyn Topham reports from Tasmania.
Julian Burnside QC, one of the defence counsels, says: “It leaves you wondering if the purpose is simply to terrorise. The real vice is that all of the defendants have been sued together. If Gunns were seriously attempting to vindicate their rights they would have brought 10 different actions at the time in a magistrates court in Hobart [rather than in the Victoria supreme court]. Each defendant would then be faced with manageable litigation that they could defend as they saw fit.”
Meanwhile, life goes on in Tasmania. The federal government has just announced an A$60m (£25m) road improvement scheme — on a stretch of highway where Gunns is proposing to build a mill. Last month, smoke from a burnoff — the practice of torching the stumps in logged areas — was so thick that roads were closed and children in parts of Tasmania were unable to get to school. A protester was arrested by police helicopter from his base 55 metres up a gum tree, where he’d spent 51 days to stop the logging. And the lawsuit remains to be resolved.
And, that share price:
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Earlier:
Tony McCall: The industrial museum at Long Reach
