CBC News in Canada reports that bankster-associated gold miner Barrick Gold is shutting down critical writing on the Canadian mining industry. (Thanks to Chris Cook).
An excerpt:
“The threat of legal action from mining giant Barrick Gold has forced Vancouver-based Talonbooks to postpone publication of a book about the Canadian mining industry.
Publisher Karl Siegler calls it a clear case of “libel chill” by one of Canada’s largest mining companies.
The book, Imperial Canada Inc.: Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Industries, was to be published in spring 2010, but in February, the publisher and everyone else involved with the book got a threatening letter from Barrick lawyers.
Siegler described Imperial Canada as an examination of the political, legal and banking environment that has led 70 per cent of the world’s mining companies to register in Canada.
Defamation suit launched in Quebec
The letter gave Talonbooks seven days to hand over the manuscript of the book, which was in the process of being translated from French to English.
“We ignored it initially,” Siegler said in an interview Wednesday with CBC Radio’s Q cultural affairs show.
“As far as we were concerned, they had no right to demand or see copies of manuscripts that were in development prior to their public release. Anyone working on a book has a right to privacy and should not be subject to this kind of supervision.”
But after receiving a legal letter, the translators immediately stopped work on the book. Siegler consulted a lawyer, who told him if he proceeded with the book, he could face years in court fighting an opponent with very deep pockets.
“Everyone involved stood to lose millions of dollars,” Siegler said. “In the publisher’s case, we stood to lose not just the company but all of the titles we have in print, roughly 500 titles dating back to the 1960s, many of which are Canadian classics.”
Imperial Canada Inc. was inspired by a French-language book published in Quebec called Noir Canada: Pillage, corruption et criminalité en Afrique by the same lead author Alain Deneault .
Barrick Gold and another mining company, Banro, sued the authors and publishers of Noir Canada for $11 million claiming defamation for the book’s description of Canadian mining practices in Africa. That case is still before the courts and Canada Noir remains available in print in French only.
Talonbooks is still considering publishing Imperial Canada, possibly among its fall releases, but it first has to convince the translators and everyone else involved with the book to continue working on it, Siegler said.”
Conclusion: Libel laws are evil/absurd/anti-free-speech?
No, not at all, although in this case, Barrick is all wrong.
There’s nothing libertarian about fraudulent speech and saying something willfully malicious and damaging to your reputation.
Libel laws are good.
But misusing libel laws to shut down criticism that is legitimate is a different matter.
Truth is a valid defense.
Put it like this. If you write a book describing the private sexual history of the owner of a corporation, a history that has no public value, then I think, even if it’s true, the individual has a right to his privacy.
But if you write a book accurately describing corrupt or illegal activity that the public has some interest in knowing (say, about Goldman Sachs manipulating the government), then there is no right to privacy.