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Australian media and marketing company Mumbrella may face defamation charges from Xstrata Coal after it published a parody video of the anti mining taxes campaign, re-launched last week by The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA).
The video, which has been taken down from Mumbrella’s site, but is still available on YouTube, was made by a group backed by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, as part of an alternative campaign called “This is The Real Story.”
The piece makes fun of the “This is Our Story” advertising campaign, of which Xstrata is a strong supporter.
“Australian mining already pays 500% more taxes and royalties than 10 years ago and will soon have to pay the new mining and carbon taxes as well,” say the official ads. “Now there are calls for even more new taxes,” they say.
Less than two hours after uploading the satirical piece, Mumbrella received a letter from Xstrata Coal, stating that while the company recognized a legitimate scope for parody in public debate, it had taken exception to the piece published in the company’s website, since it makes, according to the miner, “a number of suggestions that are unfair and defamatory.”
Mumbrella editor Tim Burrowes told Xstrata that his site did not create the video nor publish it, but simply embedded it. He added that since he did not wish to “become a test case” for who was responsible for embedded YouTube content, he had taken the video off Mumbrella.
The parody, which already has over 10,500 views on YouTube, can be seen here.
Comments
Feather McGregor
Don’t tax them. Make them return the land to the same way as they found it.