L.A. County judge orders Dole to pay filmmaker $200,000

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Source: Los Angeles Times

A Los Angeles County judge has ruled that Dole Food Co. was trying to stifle free speech when it filed a defamation suit against a Swedish filmmaker who made a documentary suggesting that the company had harmed workers on its Nicaraguan banana plantations in the 1970s.

Judge Ralph Dau ordered Dole to pay Fredrik Gertten and a fellow producer $200,000 in legal fees and costs as punishment.

In July 2009, Dole sued Gertten, accusing him of unfairly demonizing the company in his film "Bananas!"

The documentary follows a 2007 trial in L.A. County Superior Court, sympathizing with the Nicaraguan plaintiffs who say that they were left sterile by exposure to DBCP, a pesticide used by Dole on banana plantations even after it was banned in the United States. That trial ended in a partial victory for the Nicaraguans.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dole-20101202,0,2357818.story