McUpdate

On September 3rd, the McLibel Defendants lodged their Notice of Appeal after serving it on McDonald's solicitors. The Notice of Appeal responds to the 800 page Judgment of the McLibel Trial judge.The Defendants believe that they won a great legal and moral victory against McDonald's who have abandoned all legal action to try to recover costs or halt the publication of the leaflet, What's Wrong With McDonald's? . It seems that the company had recognised defeat after being found guilty of exploiting children with their advertising; of falsely promoting their high fat, high salt food as nutritious; of paying low wages and of being 'culpably responsible' for cruelty to animals. Their defeat is all the more obvious by the fact that half a million leaflets were handed out worldwide in the week after the verdict.

The Defendants are appealing against the parts in which the judge failed to find for them and are calling for fundamental changes in the UK libel laws to protect the public's right to criticise and challenge the practices of multinationals. The full appeal hearing may not be until 1999.

Many of the issues will be raised again when the McDefendants take the British Government to the European Court of Human Rights. Contact McSpotlight