BRITAIN: Two activists convicted of libelling the US fast food chain McDonald's after the longest court case in English legal history did not get a fair trial, the European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday.
Ms Helen Steel and Mr David Morris, whose 1984 pamphlet accused McDonald's of starving the Third World, destroying rainforests and selling unhealthy food, were also deprived of their freedom of expression by their 1997 conviction, it said.
The Strasbourg-based court ordered Britain to pay them a total of €35,000 and offer them a retrial, it said. London has three months to appeal the decision.
In its ruling, the court said the denial of state legal aid to the defendants, a part-time barmaid and an unemployed single father, had skewed the case from the start.
"The denial of legal aid to the applicants had deprived them of the opportunity to present their case effectively before the court and contributed to an unacceptable inequality of arms with McDonald's," it wrote.
The ruling also argued there was "a strong public interest in enabling such groups and individuals outside the mainstream to contribute to the public debate".
The original decision had rejected the idea the activists enjoyed the same freedom of expression as journalists.
The original "McLibel" trial was the longest in English legal history, running for 313 days of testimony, eight weeks of closing speeches and six months of deliberation. There has been a longer trial under Scottish law.
Yesterday afternoon a Department of Constitutional Affairs spokeswoman said: "We are studying the judgment very carefully."
Meanwhile, Mr Morris and Ms Steel were celebrating the end of a 15-year legal saga triggered by their part in distributing anti-McDonald's leaflets outside a branch in Charing Cross, central London.
They were back there yesterday afternoon with a banner proclaiming: "Celebrate 20 years of global resistance to McWorld."
Mr Morris, (50) said: "Obviously we are elated. It is a total victory in terms of the ruling. The campaign has gone from strength to strength with leaflets handed out in millions around the world.
"The government will have to change the law, but our overall objective is to encourage people to speak for themselves.
This (verdict) encourages people to speak up and defend their own interest." Ms Steel, now a trainee electrician, said the battle had been "exhausting" and a "complete nightmare".
Ms Steel said: "We never paid any money to McDonald's and we've got absolutely no intention of paying them anything.
"It's them, we think, that need to apologise to the public."