Gunns Ltd drops all legal action against the Gunns 20
Although you’d never know it from their website, with it’s warm and fuzzy greenwash, Gunns Ltd is a corporation that makes Tony Abbot look like the Dalai Lama. Not satisfied with pulping Tassie’s ancient forests and potentially polluting its waterways the company is determined to silence anyone who dares to publicly question the destruction.
This perversion of the justice system is a serious threat to freedom of speech and must be stopped (it’s already illegal in several US states). Digital Eskimo stepped up to support the Gunns 20 (the collective name given to the 20 defendants being sued which included Senator Bob Brown) with concept and creative strategy for the “Stop the SLAPP” campaign.
Gunns spent the past five years persecuting these hard working environmentalists for actions it claims have damaged the company’s business and reputation. This is a type of legal approach that has been called a SLAPP suit, which stands for Strategic Litigation to Silence Public Participation, and is every bit as sinister and damaging to democracy as it sounds. It’s a barbarically simple strategy, the company’s deep pockets allow it to drag ordinary citizens through court, draining them of finances, threatening their houses and damaging their health all in order not to win, but to crush them into silence.
Gunns did not achieve anything in relation to the defendants, all of which have had the charges dropped against them. This further proves that their actions were nothing more than a ploy to ‘sue into submission’ and overtly threaten the very nature of public involvement in democracy. Gunns’ behaviour is certainly not reflective of a corporation who (ironically) claims to take their ‘social and environmental responsibility seriously’.
Gunns Ltd stopped the lawsuit on 29th January and paid the defendants $155,088 to settle the case. Despite the financial and emotional strain that the lawsuit brought upon the victims, they can be proud that they have set a landmark precedent for the right to free speech.
To read more about the case, Greg Ogle at New Matilda has written a great article covering the disastrous five-year trial.
