by global poverty alleviation nonprofit Oxfam, saying: “It appears MSR’s modus operandi is to do what it wants to do, regardless of the regulatory environment within which it exists or the priorities of other role-players.”
One example of defamation the mining companies are suing for was allegedly made in a 2017 lecture at the University of Cape Town’s Summer School. Reddell, Davies and Cloete presented lectures as part of a series called the “Mining The Wild and the West Coast: ‘Development’ at what costs?” It said that for the “academic project to succeed, academics and students must be able to freely exchange ideas. If they fear being sued for defamation for what they say in the classroom, or what they write in journals or textbooks, the academic project will grind to a halt — the production of knowledge.”