power of twitter

For me, the jury is still out on the value of Twitter to my work – i’m still experimenting.  However, for some things Twitter has demonstrated quite amazing power.

The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.

Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.

The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented ‘ for the first time in memory ‘ from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.

The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.

link to full article here.

After an avalanche of tweets and retweets, we heard from the Editor of the Guardian:

RT @rusbridger (Gdn editor) Thanks to all tweeters for support over past 16 hours! Victory for free speech. #guardian #trafigura #carterruck

Amazing demonstration of the power of Twitter …

See also Richard Lyle’s blog article here.

Tagged as: #carterruck, #guardian, #trafigura, democracy, free speech, justice, law, mobiilzation, mobilisation, power, public opinion, social media, twitter, victory, web 2.0