Dole sues filmmakers from Malmö for defamation

The dissertation I’m working on this summer is on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in particular of multinational companies. The term is quite fuzzy and can include everything and anything from the environment, to community development to the safety of employees.

A running theme in my paper is the difficulty of holding large powerful corporations to account. The recent story of Dole suing two fellow Malmöites who made a film about their alleged improper use of pesticides illustrates this very well, see the article in Business Respect or local newspaper Skånskan.

When irresponsible practices are exposed in the media it’s important to tread carefully and not give in to sensationalist claims. While issues such as not paying banana growers a fair price for their products (buy Fairtrade bananas instead of Dole!) and a long but now old and thus less exciting history of environmental and human abuses (see a good article in (Global Issues) may not create the buzz necessary to finance a film such issues are nevertheless just as important.

A new lawsuit was filed against Dole in April this year regarding a story reminiscent of Shell's abuses in Nigeria - hope this lawsuit gets the attention it deserves without having to exaggerate the story. And that the story can help expose the very unfair production and trade system of bananas.