The Observer newspaper has been sued for libel by a Canadian
gold mining company. The company also demands that the newspaper
and its parent, Guardian Newspapers, force the journalist behind
the article to remove it from his US web site.
The article looked into the activities of companies behind the
finances of the Presidential campaigns for George W. Bush and his
father. Barrick Gold Mining, which backed Bush Senior's campaign,
claims libel because the Observer quoted an Amnesty International
report which alleged that 50 miners might have been buried alive in
Tanzania by a company now owned by Barrick.
The mining company is also demanding that the investigative
journalist Greg Palast should be forced to remove his offending
article from his own US web site, gregpalast.com. Palast says that
Barrick wants the Observer "to state what we know to be untrue:
that independent investigation found the charges completely
baseless."
As Palast observes, UK defamation law does not allow a defence
of repetition. US law, backed by the Constitution's right to
freedom of speech, is more liberal in this field.
