The controversial Scottish oil company who are spearheading a new Arctic oil rush last night obtained an interdict (injunction) against Greenpeace. This wide-ranging ‘gagging order’ requires Tweets and Facebook updates from the environmentalists be redacted, and is apparently aimed at preventing the publication of their secret Arctic oil spill response plan.
Cairn Energy wielded their legal hammer yesterday after dozens of environmental campaigners entered their Edinburgh-based international headquarters in a search for the company’s missing spill response documents.
The court order granted to the oil company late last night prohibits “disseminating, printing, uploading, sharing, copying or otherwise publishing any images, photographs, pictures or other material (or copies thereof) taken or recorded by Greenpeace activists present within 50 Lothian Road, Edinburgh on or around 18 July 2011.”
The draconian interdict is so far ranging that the environmental group has even been banned from publishing Tweets and Facebook updates from their protest yesterday. Lawyers advising the environmental group have taken the extraordinary step of telling campaigners the injunction means they must remove Tweets and Facebook updates carrying pictures of protesters dressed as polar bears – and that photographs issued to national newspapers by Greenpeace should be retracted.
The executive director of Greenpeace UK, John Sauven, said:
“Cairn Energy is using its legal muscle to try and gag us from telling the truth about their dangerous oil drilling in the fragile Arctic environment. The company is clearly worried that our volunteers may have got their hands on their secret Arctic spill response documents and now they are determined to continue their cover up by any means they can – even if that means impinging on important freedoms of expression.”
Sauven continued:
“Cairn’s bosses can use their expensive lawyers to try and shut down our peaceful protests using chilling legal manoeuvres, but we will continue to campaign to protect the Arctic from reckless corporations who see the melting of the polar ice as a business opportunity.”
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Greenpeace UK Press Office on 020 7865 8255
