Mowi vs Staniford Heads to the Sheriff Appeal Court in Edinburgh!

The Sheriff Appeal Court in Edinburgh on Thursday (1 February) is the venue for Mowi vs Staniford with lawsuits filed by Scottish Sea Farms and Bakkafrost sisted (a stay or suspension of legal proceedings) until after the outcome of Mowi’s SLAPP.

“These cases are a threat to the rights we all have to freedom of expression and to navigate on the open sea,” said retired lawyer Ewan Kennedy who has closely followed Staniford’s case. “It’s essential that the salmon farming industry should not succeed in preventing the public from finding out what’s going on in our waters. Combining tenacity with a strong scientific background, Don Staniford has been carrying out work which governmental regulators have signally failed to do, and in the process has exposed countless instances of animal abuse and pollution. Time and again the video evidence which he has gathered has provided the basis for articles in the mainstream press and on television. Staniford’s secret filming is clearly in the public interest.”

“Please help stop Norwegian-owned companies using the Scottish courts to shut down secret filming at salmon farms across Scotland,” explains a Crowd Justice fund-raising page. “Take a look at the horrors uncovered in 2023 and you can see why salmon farming companies are desperate to stop the public from seeing the ugly truth about Scottish salmon.”

“If these foreign-owned companies win permanent interdicts (injunctions) against public access it will severely limit public scrutiny of the welfare and environmental conditions in which salmon are being farmed,” warns Staniford’s Crowd Justice page. “Interdicts against me will establish a precedent for restraining other coastal users such as fishermen, kayakers, swimmers, tourism operators, wind surfers, yacht people and other boat users from crossing parts of the sea. The salmon farming giants are also, chillingly, seeking to prevent anyone I might otherwise help, instruct or encourage from undertaking covert surveillance. If you've watched the film ‘Supersize Me’ or read the books ‘McLibel’ and ‘Buying Silence’ you'll know how massive corporations work so hard to stifle and silence public criticism. I firmly believe that these lawsuits have fundamentally been brought to protect these companies from reputational damage rather than being to ensure the health and safety of their operations.”

It's going to be an interesting week – off to Edinburgh to face salmon giant Mowi in the Sheriff Appeal Court. Please help stop Norwegian-owned companies using the Scottish courts to shut down secret filming at salmon farms across Scotland! https://t.co/UIjV2C3NHP #Mowi #SLAPP pic.twitter.com/relKXNqg5X

— Don Staniford (@TheGAAIA) January 29, 2024