The Independent has removed a story, published on September 17, relating to Trafigura’s dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast.
Titled “Toxic shame: Thousands injured in African city” the story by Cahal Milmo, the papers Chief Reporter, covers the companies multi-million pound payout to 30,000 people from Ivory Coast.
Milmo goes on to cover internal Trafigura emails, obtained by Greenpeace, which showed Trafigura had made numerous deals on the international markets in 2005 and early 2006 to buy cheap and dirty petroleum, which the company believed could then be cleaned up at profit of £4m per cargo.
The company then went on to a Panamanian tanker chartered by the company since 2004, as a floating processing plant while it was anchored off Gibraltar, rather than sending the cheap petroleum to a refinery. “Using an ad hoc process of adding caustic soda and a catalyst to the coker gasoline, the oil was “cleaned” to produce a sellable fuel and a toxic sludge which sank to the bottom of the ship’s tanks.”
In essence this is what started the problems for the company, and the residents living on the Ivory Coast.
The question now is why has the Independent removed this story from its site? If reader uses the newspapers inbuilt search engine they page will show up in the results, but clicking through to the story will return the following error message: “404 Sorry but we haven’t been able to serve the page you requested – please try again.” luckily the story is still available through the google cache of the page.
As I said earlier, the mainstream media has to get some balls, and soon.
It’s a bit unfair to say the msm should \get some balls\ – as they have deeper pockets than you do, they are the far more likely target of libel actions. They also have a legal duty not to fritter away shareholders’ cash… which presumably as a right-winger you would be opposed to them doing?
Richard
13 Oct 09 at 14:59
Richard
That is a pathetic response. What ever became of campaigning journalism?
Nobody suggests msm should tell lies, but failing to reveal the truth because you are afraid of arousing the wrath of the powerful is a betrayal of your readership.
Horshamite
13 Oct 09 at 15:22
[...] Politico is reporting that The Independent has removed a story, published on September 17, relating to Trafigura’s dumping [...]
Mugging the rich bastard lawyers | Online Journalism Blog
13 Oct 09 at 15:36
I’m just saying its not the job of the media to go round breaching court injunctions… if the system is flawed, ask the politicians to change it, don’t say the media should deal with the consequences.
Richard
13 Oct 09 at 15:57
Richard, you seem to forget that journalists have broke injunctions before, sometimes its part of the job. Yes there is a heavy price to pay if the paper loses the resulting court case, but that is the risk you run. In your previous post you say that because they have deeper pockets than I do, this makes them a much more likely target of libel actions; this is true but I still ran the risk of getting sued for everything I have by running the story last night. In fact the risk to me is much greater than it would be for the Guardian, I don’t have a proprietor to cover legal expenses and to payout if I lost a case.
you also say that a newspaper has a legal duty not to fritter away shareholders’ cash, I would not say that fighting a libel action, especial this action, would constitute “fritter away shareholders’ cash.”
Finally, in journalism they used to be the saying “publish and be damned,” meaning publish controversial stories in the face of all opposition and deal with the consequences that come.
Tory Politico
13 Oct 09 at 16:25
Good to hear now that the Guardian is able to report on the story now.38 Degrees are currently running a campaign on this. Take action now by emailing your MP and asking them to take a stand to stop this happening again in the future. Take action now, it only takes 2 mins. Go to:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/stop-the-gag
Tosin Aro
13 Oct 09 at 16:47
[...] Politico is reporting that The Independent has removed a story, published on September 17, relating to Trafigura’s dumping [...]
Mugging the rich bastard lawyers | Cosmodaddy
13 Oct 09 at 17:13
[...] Politico is reporting that The Independent has removed a story, published on September 17, relating to Trafigura’s dumping [...]
Mugging the rich bastard lawyers
13 Oct 09 at 19:52
[...] Politico is reporting that The Independent has removed a story, published on September 17, relating to Trafigura’s dumping [...]
Mugging the rich bastard lawyers | The Wardman Wire
13 Oct 09 at 23:54
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qtroefbr
18 Nov 09 at 09:27
[...] other media outlets including the Times and the Independent, had withdrawn stories about the case, amid concerns that the UK press is choosing to engage in [...]
…and your electron microscope!
14 Dec 09 at 23:27
[...] other media outlets including the Times and the Independent, had withdrawn stories about the case, amid concerns that the UK press is choosing to engage in [...]
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15 Dec 09 at 15:03
[...] other media outlets including the Times and the Independent, had withdrawn stories about the case, amid concerns that the UK press is choosing to engage in [...]
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15 Dec 09 at 20:06
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[...] other media outlets including the Times and the Independent, had withdrawn stories about the case, amid concerns that the UK press is choosing to engage in [...]
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16 Dec 09 at 20:58
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