Now more than ever. They want to shut us up. They are ruthless but we are many. The people vs. illegal logging. The people vs. Schweighofer’s lawyer
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Dear friend,
In Romania, Cristina Trăilă, the lawyer of the large Schweighofer timber company, is also a member of parliament (MP). She sits in the parliament’s powerful legal committee. She is taking us to court because she wants to stop us from reporting on how the chainsaw lobby influences bills and amendments; including a new Forestry Code intended to halt illegal logging. The legal committee has a strong voice over the new Forestry code and she wants to make sure that the debates are behind closed doors.
With this in mind, Cristina Trăilă initiated legal proceedings against me as editorial coordinator of the online news portal ‘Romania Curata’ and the Romanian Academic Society (SAR) our publisher. She wants damages in the amount of 10,000 euros and, she wants all articles that show her parliamentary work for the benefit of Schweighofer to be deleted from the ‘Romania Curata’ news portal.
In the articles cited by Mrs. Cristina Trăilă, we showed that, while being a member of Romania’s Parliament she is also paid as a lawyer by the Austrian company Holzindustrie Schweighofer (more recently renamed HS Timber Group). Many associate this company with illegal logging and for being responsible for the sad state of our forests. Our news portal showed that Mrs. Cristina Trăilă’s income as a lawyer (700,000 euros in three years) is more than 8 times higher than what she received as a deputy (which, in turn, is not little). She participated in lobby events for the lumber industry and denies the extent of illegal logging. As MP she is a member of the parliament’s legal committee, where she voted against a bill fighting corruption and bribery in the forestry sector and where she will have a decisive vote on the new Forestry Code.
All the above can be easily verified from publicly accessible information, so from a logical point of view Schweighofer’s lawyer has a small chance of winning against us.
The real reason for the SLAPP suit against us is to stress our small team with legal costs and proceedings to prevent us from doing our work at an extremely important moment for Romania’s forests, namely when the parliamentary debate and vote on the new Forestry Code is to happen.
We need your help to hire a lawyer to defend us in court so we can continue the fight for Romania’s forests. The more chip in, the stronger our voices against those who want to stop us from defending our forests.
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Since last spring, we have participated in the debates on the New Forestry Code. The final decision is, however, with parliament and the all important legal committee, of which Schweighofer’s lawyer, Cristina Trăilă, is a member.
Of course, the SLAPP suit will not stop us. We have been involved in the fight against illegal logging and in revealing the role of Schweighofer for far too long. But we need your solidarity and support to continue! Forests belong to everyone and only together can we save them from the chainsaws of thieves and their accomplices.
Please chip in whatever amount you can spare. Every little helps. The more chip in, the stronger our signal that we won’t be shut up by corporate lawyers!
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The trial, with all its phases, will be long. Even if our lawyer charges us a modest fee (we thank Dumitru Dobrev, one of Roșia Montana’s lawyers, for accepting this case), we need to secure the funding for the case now and this up to its final settlement. This means that we need to raise it now, because we can’t take the risk of being unable to defend ourselves midway through the trial.
Our news portal ‘Romania Curata’ is financed via projects on the topics we cover via our journalistic work and investigations. They cannot be allocated to other expenses, such as lawsuits. Much of our investigations and work related to illegal logging is supported by individual donations, received from citizens all over Romania.
In the last six months alone 300,000 Romanians read our investigations on illegal logging; the new Forestry Code or the way in which the chainsaws lobby and Schweighofer try to influence the vote in parliament. The fact that we reach some many bothers them real hard.
We will carry on the fight until the end but we need you. Together we can defeat those who don’t want anyone to know who destroys our forests.
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With determination,
Mihai and the Romania Curata team
P.S. From Schweighofer and other clients of her law firm, Cristina Trăilă earned over the past three years 700,000 euros which, theoretically, covers her time as MP! We don’t need such an amount for our lawyer or to continue to save our forests from illegal logging! If we raise 5,000 euros then we can fight in court until we win and since we won’t shut up, we will have taken the fight further – both in court and in parliament.
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