from the new york times

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has ordered Dole Food Co. to pay nearly $200,000 to a Swedish filmmaker who battled the company in a free speech case involving a documentary about claims that Dole harmed workers at Nicaraguan banana plantations.

Dole had sued Fredrik Gertten for showing the documentary “Bananas” despite a court ruling that the case on which the film was based had been part of a massive extortion plot against the company. Dole sued for defamation.

But Superior Court Judge Ralph W. Dau found in a ruling issued Nov. 17 that the U.S. food giant was trying to stifle Gertten’s right to free speech and ordered the company to pay his legal fees and costs.

Dole claimed the movie was defamatory and false in its depiction of Dole’s treatment of banana workers and use of a pesticide. But the company dropped its lawsuit after the Swedish parliament denounced Dole’s action as unwarranted interference with freedom of speech and threatened to hold hearings…more