[Huon Forests] Media Release - Victorious Gunns20 call on Gunns and Victoria to stop the SLAPP

[jenny weber]

*MEDIA RELEASE*

Tuesday, 2 February 2010



     Victorious Gunns20 call on Gunns and Victoria to stop the SLAPP



Victorious ex-defendants from the original Gunns20 lawsuit gathered on the
steps of the Victorian Supreme Court today to celebrate the end of the case
and call on Gunns to cease their legal proceedings against 13 people accused
of protesting at Gunns Triabunna woodchip mill (‘the Triabunna 13’) in
January 2009.    The defendants released a score card on the case which is *
attached.*



Gunn Ltd, Australia’s largest woodchipper,agreed last week to drop the case
against the four remaining Gunns20 defendants and pay them $155,088, and the
infamous five-year long case officially ended yesterday when the paperwork
was filed in the Victorian Supreme Court.



“The result in the Gunns20 case was a victory for free speech and Tasmania’s
forests.



“Gunns ought to take this opportunity to improve their corporate image by
immediately dropping their case against the Triabunna 13”, said Adam Burling
defendant #1





Peg Putt, former Tasmanian Greens leader and Member of the Tasmanian House
of Assembly said:



“The Gunns 20 defendants decided to be public and feisty and to fight all
the way in order to undermine any apprehension that we would be silenced by
the Gunns action. We also felt a duty not only to each other (after Gunns
introduced us all) but to do our best to ensure that others would not in
future feel intimidated.”





The Gunns20 are writing to Attorney-General Rob Hulls asking him to take
anti-SLAPP legislation to the Victorian Parliament.

* *

* *

*For more information on the Gunns20 case, contact:*

Adam Beeson, Legal Coordinator of *Friends of Forests and Free Speech*,

Ph *0428 217 707*

www.gunns20.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.huon.org/pipermail/huon/attachments/20100202/a09aed3b/attachment.htm>