Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 05
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2 MR. MORRIS: On that last point which you made, I could not
3 quite grasp what the result was of what Lord Reid said,
4 or -----
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6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is that ---
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8 MR. MORRIS: I have it in front of me.
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10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: -- it seemed to me, one has to judge what the
11 meaning is according to various rules of law in relation to
12 that. The one thing one cannot say is: It could not mean
13 that, because the reader would not believe that. It would
14 still be defamatory to say of some patently honourable
15 public figure that he had strangled two wives already, even
16 though someone reading that would never ever believe it; it
17 would still be a defamatory statement. Do you understand?
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19 MR. MORRIS: Right.
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21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It might have some relevance in this sense
22 that if the first meaning which hits you off the page is
23 one which seems pretty outlandish, that may lead one to
24 think that the ordinary reasonable reader would read the
25 text more carefully to see if that really can be so. But
26 that would be an argument which might be in your favour in
27 this case. Anyway, let us start the argument on meaning.
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29 MS. STEEL: I wanted to start by saying that we believe that
30 the meaning of the nutrition section, particularly the
31 first paragraph or first block of text, has been approached
32 in the wrong way. The feature of the text is what comes
33 first, i.e., rebutting McDonald's portrayal of their food
34 as a useful and nutritious part of any diet; and that is
35 really the context for the remarks on diet and disease.
36 The purpose is to show how McDonald's food fits into the
37 picture, that it is not a useful and nutritious part of any
38 diet. It is the part that health bodies or health
39 professionals, medical professionals, are advising us to
40 cut out or reduce.
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42 I would like to say on that, however, within the leaflet
43 itself there is no motive ascribed to that. I mean by that
44 that the leaflet does not say that McDonald's are lying; it
45 merely says that their portrayal is inaccurate; it just
46 says they do not give full facts.
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48 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
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50 MS. STEEL: We have already given -- obviously, there was the
51 first pleaded meaning, and then I put down a meaning in
52 November last year, I think it was. To me, they are
53 basically saying the same thing. I think the one that
54 I gave last year possibly explained it better, probably
55 because more words were used, so it just makes it a bit
56 easier to understand. I do not know, but I gathered you
57 thought that meaning was a bit too long or complicated.
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59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. The note I made -- it was on page 5 of
60 day 53 -- you said: "It is clear that the leaflet is
