After Free-Speech Complaints Flare Up, Dole Foods Drops Its Defamation Suit Against Filmmaker's Movie About Banana-Worker Health Issues
As Swedes started taunting Dole Foods with complaints that it is trying to limit free speech, the food manufacturer backed off from a defamation lawsuit it had filed against a Swedish filmmaker, whose documentary film "Bananas!" shows the plight of Nicaraguan workers who say they were made sterile by a pesticide used at Dole banana plantations in the 1970s. The lawsuit incited protests in the country, led by critics who claimed Dole was prohibiting freedom of speech.
Dole decided to withdraw the lawsuit "in light of the free speech concerns being expressed in Sweden, although it continues to believe in the merits of its case," the company said in a statement, the LA Times reports. "While the filmmakers continue to show a film that is fundamentally flawed and contains many false statements we look forward to an open discussion with the filmmakers regarding the content of the film," Dole's executive vice president and general counsel, C. Michael Carter said, according to the Times report.
The filmmaker, Fredrik Gertten, told reporters in Stockholm he was very happy about Dole's decision and hoped the film can now continue to be screened in the U.S. and Canada. "We have cut a very balanced film, we haven't done a propaganda story," he said, the Times reports. "Really we did everything right."
