Monday, August 07, 2006
Affidavit from Printers of the informer
Alongside is an image of the affidavit of the course of events that took place during the printing of the first edition of the informer: click on image to enlarge.
The text reads:
On the morning Chris McGlade was due to collect his latest newsletter, we had a strange phone call from a woman asking if ‘The Informer’ newsletter had been distributed, she gave no name and ‘The Informer’ didn’t register with me at first. I thought she must have meant ‘The Advertiser’ so I said we don’t print that.
Anyway I thought, just another funny inquiry. Then about half an hour later, the phone goes again with the same woman on the line. This time saying that she had been told we were the printer of ‘The Informer’ and wondered if she could get a copy. This time I recognised the name of the newsletter and thought it must be one of Chris’s helper’s, because as far as I knew, nobody else even knew it was being printed. So I told her that we weren’t printing it and that I didn’t have a copy. This was true, we had to farm the job out to a local printers as we were too busy to print it ourselves, and we were awaiting delivery.
I now thought that this was really strange, we’ve never had anybody ring about a job before it’s been printed. It wasn’t long before the phone rang again, this time, a man on the phone saying he understood we were the printers of ‘The Infbrmer’. Well, I was now very suspicious and that this wasn’t just a normal inquiry. On instinct I just said that we weren’t printing it. He apologised for ringing and that was that.
I started work again but was distracted by these phone calls and it wasn’t long before the phone went again. This time the same woman on the phone as before, but this time giving her name and that she worked for the council and in an aggresive tone said that she had been on the phone to the firm who did the printing for us and that she knew we took the job on. I immediately confirmed that we did indeed design the job for Chris McGlade but didn’t print the job. She then forcefully went on to explain that there were defamatory remarks and untruths in the newsletter and that certain councillors were considering legal action against us for printing it. I was quite taken aback at the aggressive attitude and explained that we had no connection with The friends of Coatham Common apart from the fact that there are just one of our customers. That wasn’t enough for her, and went on, saying we must have known that there were defamatory remarks in the newsletter and we knowingly printed this and that made us responsible for them. I must say, I was now getting very upset with this call. I told her, that all we can do with anything we print is ask the customer if everything is above board, which we do with everybody, includ ing Chris McGlade, (we can only go on the trust of our customers). Once again this was just went on deaf ears. After more of the same conversation she finished with, that they wouldn’t be sueing Chris McGlade because he didn’t have any money and that they’d only be going after the ‘big boys’ meaning us (a two man concern) and we would shortly be receiving a phone call from the local MP.
Since then I have had a word with the firm that printing ‘The Informer’ for us and discovered that they too had a very similar phone call.
