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Should a corporate bully be allowed to silence criticism using the courts? Next week's Gunns 20 trial should be watched closely by anyone who cares about free speech, writes Liesel Rickarby

After more than five years, the Gunns 20 case finally goes to trial next week. It will be the biggest case of its type in Australian history and is an excellent example of a SLAPP suit. (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation)

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Last week the case against the Gunns 20 was dropped. Will the failed case deter other corporations from taking protestors to court? Greg Ogle reviews a five-year-long corporate PR disaster

The so-called Gunns 20 lawsuit dates back to December 2004 when Tasmanian forestry giant Gunns Ltd sued 20 environmentalists, including Bob Brown and the Wilderness Society. The case lasted more than five years, turned into three different cases and had 52 appearances in court. Pleadings ran to thousands of pages and millions of dollars worth of costs accrued.

The Tasmanian timber company, Gunns, says it will not take legal action against protesters who chained themselves to equipment at the company's east coast woodchip mill.

Two forest activists have been charged with trespass after a raid on Gunns' mill at Triabunna yesterday.

Gunns' Sustainability Manager Calton Frame says the mill was forced to shut down for five hours, which meant timber contractors missed out on a day's pay.

HVEC comments on the impact of taking 200,000 tonnes of forest from the Huon if the Gunns Ltd pulp mill starts.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2009/05/19/2575320.htm

Conservationists who were removed from a logging coupe in southern Tasmania today deny they'd planted booby traps.
Forestry Tasmania says police were sent to the Weld Valley after they received reports that booby traps were discovered.
Jenny Weber from the Huon Valley Environment Centre says 20 police evicted conservationists from the area.
Ms Weber denies any type of traps were set; she says protesters merely attached ropes to tree structures

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In a Directions Hearing this morning in the Victorian Supreme Court, Gunns Ltd asked for the case to be set down for trial. His Honour Justice Kaye rejected this and ordered the parties to continue with mediation.

Huon Valley Environment Centre has reignited it's campaign for the threatened Weld Valley forest adjacent to the World Heritage Area.

For the past two weeks people have been camping in the threatened south weld forests, dubbed by Forestry Tasmania as WR15F, a new tree sit has been established in a tall eucalypt forest.

Logging is imminent.

You are welcome to join the camp, contact me for more information, and head out and spend the day, night or more.

With thanks

Jenny Weber
Huon Valley Environment Centre
centre@huon.org