Twitter 2; Mainstream media 0 – Lessons of Trafigura and Gateley

For those who do not follow the British media, there have been two major stories involving Twitter within the last few days that offers lessons for the rest of the world including Australia.  

The first story broke on October 13 when Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian tweeted: “Now Guardian prevented from reporting parliament for unreportable reasons. Did John Wilkes live in vain?”

John Wilkes had campaigned in the 18th century for the right to report parliamentary proceedings.

Rusbridger’s tweet was a clue to the blogosphere that the Guardian had been served with an injunction so wide ranging it could not even report the existence of the injunction, or subsequently a question that was asked about it in Parliament. The tweet related to a question asked by the MP Paul Farrelly (himself a former journalist) about a company called Trafigura and the dumping of toxic waste in Africa.

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