January 10 1999: Complaints filed by Monsanto against The Guardian newspaper for a July 1998 article have been rejected by the UK Press Complaints Commission. The Commission found all five points of objection Monsanto raised against an article analysing mounting opposition to GMOs were unfounded. Indeed, the ruling noted that consumer and pressure groups had expressed anger over lack of consultation by Monsanto; that Monsanto had unsuccessfully restrained protestors. The ruling also held that the Guardian could not be held responsible for inaccuracies in a map overviewing GMO field trials in the UK that had been drawn from government information. The Guardian editor, Brian Whitaker noted: "We are well accustomed to vigorous lobbying from public relations companies, but Monsanto seems to put enormous pressure into complaining every time we write about its activities". In the same month as the July 1998 article was published, The Guardian reported a different response strategy by the company to the paper's coverage on genetic engineering. "Just over a week ago, three representatives of Monsanto [...] were thumping the table in the editor's office at The Guardian. They also demonstrated a vocal range that visitors to the paper rarely exhibit. Monsanto's reps were oncerned about the paper's coverage of developments in biotechnology. The coverage was too negative, they suggested." (The Guardian International, June 16 1998)

MONSANTO VOTED AMONGST WORST CORPORATIONS - AGAIN

Monsanto was amongst Multinational Monitor's 10 worst corporations of 1998 for "introducing genetically engineered foods into the foodstream without adequate testing and labelling, thus exposing consumers to unknown risks".

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