Carter-Ruck: EPIC FAIL (Updated)

What’s this? Carter-Ruck gagging The Guardian from reporting Parliament? Tsk, tsk. Have they not heard of the Bill of Rights 1689? Anyway here is what Carter-Ruck on behalf of their clients Trafigura have tried to suppress:

[Question 61] Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): 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.

Oh my, all highly embarrassing stuff. To be honest I’ve never even heard of Trafigura until now. Most people probably haven’t either. It would have more than likely stayed that way too if it wasn’t for this assault on the freedom of the press to report on Parliamentary business. Now it’s backfired spectacularly. With the blogosphere talking about now it far more people know about Trafigura’s dodgyness. It’s even trending on Twitter. Whoops.

An EPIC FAIL on the part of Carter-Ruck.

UPDATE: Mere hours after I posted this Alan Rusbridger, the Editor of The Guardian, announced over Twitter that the gagging order has been lifted. This is a victory for freedom of the press and further demonstrates the growing power of digital media as a force to be reckoned with. As Tory Bear puts it: owned.