Björk did not lie! On the contrary - she simply stated the well known fact that Ross Beaty's company Pan American Silver has a less than shiny record in South America. She never mentioned Magma Corporation in this context.

Ross Beaty's response was to threaten Macleans with a libel case if they did not withdraw the interview and placed a correction - which Macleans did. Macleans took the interview off their website - and then the correction as well, probably hoping the whole affair would be forgotten.

But it will not be.

Below is the press statement from Björk's action group www.orkuaudlindir.is which to date has the support of more than 20.500 Icelanders to reverse the sale of the power company HS Orka to Magma Corporation.

see also this article in the English language Grapevine:

http://www.grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Canadian-Publication-Retracts-Bjork-Interview-After-Magma-Threatens-Libel-Suit

PPRESS STATEMENT FROM OKUAUDLINDIR.IS

MAGMA CORPORATION’SBOSS

ROSS BEATY THREATENS

CANADIAN PUBLICATION WITH A LAWSUIT FOR

PUBLISHING BJÖRK’S COMMENTS

November 18th 2010

In an interview with the Canadian publication MACLEANS (Macleans.ca) Björk Gudmundsdottir stated that companies owned by Ross Beaty had a reputation for breaking laws on human rights and labour unions in South America.

Shortly after the publication of the interview on Maclean’s website, Ross Beaty contacted Macleans and demanded that Björk’s statement be withdrawn or he would sue the publication for libel.

The Macleans journalist, Tom Henheffer, who did the interview with Björk, chose to publish a “correction” on the Maclean’s website on the 12th of November: “ On the 9th of November Macleans published on its website an interview with Björk where she claims that Ross Beaty and Magma Energy Corp. have broken laws in South America. This is not correct and we apologize to Ross Beaty and his company”.

What Björk said in the interview was the following:

“Companies owned by Ross Beaty have a bad reputation for breaking serious humanitarian and union laws in South America”

Björk does not name Magma Energy Corporation in this context, as she is refering to Ross Beaty’s company Pan American Silver.

Despite the fact that Björk provided Macleans with several public references to Pan American Silver’s reputation in South America, Macleans chose to change the print version of the interview, remove it entirely from the web and apologize to Ross Beaty.

This is yet another example of how big business uses its power to influence the press and use legal threats to quelch free speech. Several such examples can be found on the website of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (www.immi.is)

The fact is, that several references critical of Pan American Silver can be found on the internet. Pan American Silver and other Canadian mining companies have been widely criticized for their conduct in South America and elsewhere and Björk’s statement is based on these public sources about Pan American Silver and the company’s operations in South America.

Ross Beaty’s threats of legal action against Macleans do not change the facts.

As Macleans has removed both the original interview with Björk as well as their “correction” from their website, screenshots of both documents are included with this press release, as well as email exchanges with Macleans and references to websites who have published articles about Pan American Silver.

Here are some of the references to Pan American Silver, found on the internet:

"For example, a recent study of a Canadian subsidiary, Pan American Silver, operating in the department through a shared-risk contract with the state company COMIBOL (COMIBOL effectively controls about 30% of the project), shows that the company will pay merely 17% taxes and royalties on projected gross sales value over the next 30 years. The taxes going to the municipality where the company is located, one of the poorest in the country, are just over 0.5%. This is straightforward looting. By comparison, in various shared risk contracts in Chile (hardly a socialist haven) taxes and royalties going to all levels of the state amount to up to 51%, whereas, in Peru, it's on the order of 26%.”

http://www.cedla.org/obie/system/files/boletin_OBIE%209.pdf

“The devastation and violence perpetrated by Canadian mining corporations has been documented clearly with links to human rights violations in Guatemala, Peru, Romania, the Philippines, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Ghana, Suriname, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, India, Indonesia, Zambia and Sudan.”

http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmld2010/D40057.htm#4

Both Gold Fields (GFI) and Pan American Silver (PAA.to) (PAAS) have plenty of mine worker deaths on their track records. Here's the latest from GFI, meanwhile the 14 deaths suffered by the PAAS workforce in Peru since 2006 (in many and varied accidents) are noted here.

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2010/10/gold-fields-gfi-and-pan-american-silver.html

“One problem faced by Pan Am was the failure of the old tailings dam. The fugitive tails spilled over an area nearly a kilometre long, including the local river. Not only does reclaiming the spill cost money, a new dam is being built in another location at additional expense”

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/issues/story.aspx?aid=1000038560

“Mining is a positive thing for society and the good players in the industry should be supported, but the modern responsible miners are still offset by those that are using dubious practices to forward their bottom lines. People should ask serious questions of companies such as Pan American Silver (PAAS) (PAA.to),Volcan (VOLCABC1), Buenaventura (BVN) and any other company with a clear, long-standing track record of neglect towards their workforces.

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2010/02/perus-roll-call-of-shame-reaction.html

“Next on the roll call of shame comes Pan American Silver (PAAS), which should bring shame upon those up North. This large North American silver company is quoted on both the US and Canadian exchanges, but strangely doesn't make much mention of the thirteen Peruvian deaths at its operations since 2006. This company is a stain on those who talk the good talk about responsible mining practices but can't walk the walk.”

http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2010/02/roll-call-of-shame-perus-most-dangerous.html