Day 307 - 27 Nov 96 - Page 10

     
     1        together.  But I just kind of thought they would be kind of
     2        separate -- it is a bit confusing.
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   No, it is just the way that counsel is
     5        obliged to plead it following the authorities in the
     6        matter.  There is no hidden agenda, to use Mr. Morris's
     7        phrase.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   OK.  I wanted to go through the two sets of
    10        meanings.  I will go through ours.  I might do them one by
    11        one, actually.
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Are you going to start with your own?
    14
    15   MS. STEEL:   Yes.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.  Paragraph 17.
    18
    19   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  Paragraph 17:  "The said words in their
    20        natural and ordinary meaning meant and were understood to
         mean that the Defendants and each of them...", and then it
    22        has got '(a)'.
    23
    24        Just if I say something on the general point about "mean"
    25         -- "and were understood to mean that the Defendants and
    26        each of them...".  If I just say that the press releases
    27        and leaflets are clearly about us.  There is nobody else
    28        fighting a big libel case against McDonald's, and, whether
    29        or not individual members of the public would know our
    30        names, our own reputation can still be defamed to them.
    31        You do not have to know somebody's name in order to have
    32        your opinion of them lowered.  If you are somebody who is
    33        known for a particular reason, i.e. we are known as the
    34        Defendants, people do not have to know our names.  If it is
    35        a matter that is in the public eye, then, you know, people
    36        can have their opinions lowered of the person in the public
    37        eye without necessarily remembering or knowing their name.
    38
    39        The second thing is that the press releases were sent to
    40        newspapers who -- you know, they were distributed by
         McDonald's with a view to being reported; if a story was
    42        reported in the paper, it would print our names and any
    43        journalist who was interested in receiving one of these
    44        documents, or who received a document or who received one
    45        of McDonald's press releases and was considering doing a
    46        story on the case would know our names.  I mean, I do not
    47        know whether or not the Plaintiffs are going to try-----
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not anticipating that you are going to
    50        be faced with a problem about that.  One thing I would like 
    51        you to say at some time, because you have been through the 
    52        question of publication, is whether there is any 
    53        suggestion, and if so remind me of what the evidence is,
    54        that in fact any of these were published by a newspaper or
    55        on the radio or on television.  In other words, assuming
    56        that you are quite right, that publication has been
    57        admitted to the extent it is set out in the defence to
    58        counterclaim and the further and better particulars, plus
    59        the evidence you have got about distribution of Background
    60        Briefing, until at least quite recently, whether there is