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15 December 2009updated 04 Oct 2023 10:27am

Trafigura story disappears from BBC website

Newsnight investigation withdrawn from website

By George Eaton

Carter-Ruck may have suffered a humiliating defeat when it attempted to prevent the Guardian and others from reporting on parliament, but it never abandoned its attempt to sue the BBC’s Newsnight over a feature on the alleged dumping of toxic waste by Trafigura.

Now Newsnight has apparently removed a video of the investigation from its website. Bloggers have attempted to evade the gag by posting a YouTube video of the feature and have attacked BBC executives for caving in to Carter-Ruck’s client’s assault on free expression.

Other media organisations, including the Times and the Independent, have previously withdrawn stories about the case, but this may mark the first time the BBC has removed material on the story.

The Newsnight press office was not responding to calls at the time of publication.

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Update: Judith Townend of journalism.co.uk has heard from a BBC spokesperson, who said: “We haven’t got anything to say on this. As discussed earlier we are often not able to comment if there’s a live legal action.”

 

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