Climate Camp NOT Covered by Injunction (AKA: Press Misrepresentation)

From the Climate Camp mailing list...


Here is a bit more information about what actually happened with Monday's
injunction outcome, which should hopefully clear up any confusion based on
unclear and misrepresentative press stories!

First and most important: the camp is NOT covered by the injunction, and
you will not be breaking the law by coming to the camp! The camp is going
ahead as planned – not because it’s ignoring an injunction, but because it
is not affected by the injunction.

Second, this was a victory for us and for freedom to protest, not for BAA.
BAA originally sought an incredibly wide-ranging, draconian injunction
that could have affected 5 million people and that covered a wide
geographical area including the Piccadilly line and parts of the M25
motorway. What they got was an injunction that is civil and not criminal
(ie. no additional powers of arrest), against 3 named individuals and the
group Plane Stupid, and with a much reduced geographical area over which
the injunction applies. EVERYONE is free to come to the camp WITHOUT
breaching the injunction, including those named on the injunction. In
other words, the judge denied most of the original injunction, and gave
BAA something much smaller and much less powerful.

However they tried to spin the story on Monday (by the way, the reason
their ‘BAA wins injunction’ story got out first is because they sneakily
started talking to the press before the hearing was over!), BAA are
definitely not the winners in this case. The entire hearing has been a
farce, with the judge at times confused, at times thoroughly unimpressed
at BAA’s inability to decide exactly what the injunction covered.
Embarrassment continued as BAA was denounced across the board, by everyone
from the big NGOs to Ken Livingstone and the political parties to civil
liberties groups. And finally, BAA were ordered to pay all court costs,
apart from Plane Stupid’s.

So, BAA got very little of what they were originally seeking, got nowhere
in attempting to stop the camp, gave the camp loads of free publicity, and
are now out of a considerable chunk of change. We won, not BAA.

Loads of people have now heard about the camp who might not have
previously; but equally some people might be worried that this injunction
will affect them if they come to the camp. Please forward this email and
help to spread the word amongst your networks that the camp is not covered
by the injunction, and the outcome was in fact a real victory for protest
at Heathrow this summer.

UPDATE:

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