Though the SF Chronicle and Huffington Post stories from the weekend still provide the best background, the start of the trial and rally attracted a wide variety of media coverage:

ABC 7 Many protest outside Chevron gas station

A Conflict that began 10 years ago on a Nigerian oil platform continues in a San Francisco courtroom. It happened about nine miles off the Nigerian coast. Now Chevron is being sued in federal court over how it resolved a hostage situation between its workers and local Nigerians who boarded that platform.  Go to Video

CBS 5 Nigerian and U.S. Human Rights Groups Protest at Chevron Station

An alliance of grassroots human rights groups from Nigeria and the U.S. gathered at a Chevron gas station in San Francisco today to show support for the Nigerian plaintiffs in a federal human rights trial that began today.

Organizers from Global Exchange, Justice in Nigeria Now, and West County Toxics Coalition, based in Contra Costa County, gathered about 100 anti-Chevron protesters in front of the company’s gas station at 9th and Howard streets in San Francisco early this afternoon. Go to Video

KCBS Chevron Goes on Trial in San Francisco Federal Court

A federal trial began Monday to determine if San Ramon-based Chevron was responsible for a deadly clash between Nigerian forces and locals occupying an oil platform ten years ago.

The trial in San Francisco federal court concerns the death of one protestor and the injury of several others who shut down the Parabe platform for three days before armed forces flew in on a Chevron contractor’s helicopters to respond. Go to Audio

SF Chronicle Jury Seated in Chevron Trial

… In court today, Chevron won permission to offer evidence of an alleged hostage-taking incident that it says supports its overall version of events. As Nigerian forces were shooting at some of the protesters, the company says, other villagers swam to a Chevron Nigeria tugboat and forced seven employees to take the craft to a village, where they were held captive for three days.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the incident, if it ocurred, was irrelevant to the questions of whether the shootings were justified and whether Chevron was responsible. But U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said the company could present the incident to try to show that the entire protest was a violent takeover. Go to Article

Reuters Chevron on trail for 1998 platform clash

… The dispute fits into a broader political discussion about the responsibilities of U.S. companies abroad. The head of a Senate subcommittee on human rights and the law argued last month at a hearing on corporate responsibility and natural resources that the issue was not “black and white.”

“There is no doubt that American oil, gas and mining companies operating in countries with poor human rights records face difficult challenges in protecting their employees and operations,” Sen. Richard Durbin said.

“However, when American companies choose to go into these countries, they assume a moral and legal obligation to ensure that security forces protecting their operations do not commit human rights abuses.” Go to Article

Law.com: Judge: Chevron Must Remove Paid Google Link Tied to Search of Plaintiff’s Name

A widely watched trial over Chevron’s Nigerian operations featured a new online frontier Monday in the battle to influence the hearts and minds of potential jurors.

While imposing a general gag order, Northern District of California Judge Susan Illston ordered Chevron to take down a paid Google link sponsored by the company. Plaintiffs objected to the link, which directed Internet surfers to a Chevron-created Web site that provided information about the incident at issue in trial. Go to Article

Oil & Gas Journal Chevron on trial in San Francisco for rights abuses

Chevron Corp. is at the center of a legal case before federal court in San Francisco that will ask jurors to decide whether the firm sanctioned human rights abuses that resulted in the deaths and injuries of protesters at its Nigerian facilities, or whether the company was simply protecting its employees from belligerent kidnappers.

The lawsuit—identified as Bowoto vs. Chevron, No. C99-2506SI (N.D. Calif.)—alleges that Chevron, in conjunction with the Nigerian military, engaged in torture, assaults, and the killing of two protesters over Chevron’s environmental record and its failure to hire locals in the delta region near its oil drilling operations. Go to Article

Market Watch: Amazon Defense Coaltion: High-Stakes Trial in San Francisco Focuses Attention on Chevron’s Growing Human Rights Problems Around Globe

Chevron’s recent high-profile hiring of William J. Haynes, a former Bush Administration lawyer implicated in the torture scandal at Guantanamo Bay, is the latest sign that Chevron’s legal department has become increasingly callous to human rights concerns, said Kevin Koenig, an organizer with Amazon Watch, which monitors the company’s human rights and environmental record. Go to Article

Market Watch: Amazon Watch: Chevron Asked to Disclose Relationship to Pat Murphy

The environmental group Amazon Watch today called on Chevron and the San Francisco-based writer Pat Murphy to divulge their financial relationship in light of disclosures that Murphy’s website accepts fees for editorial control of news articles written under Murphy’s byline. Go to Article

CBS Censors Human Rights Group, Rejects Bulletin Board Ad Critical of Chevron

(San Francisco, CA) Last week, human rights group Justice In Nigeria Now (JINN) attempted to buy two bulletin boards owned by CBS Outdoor critiquing Chevron Corporation’s human rights abuses in the oil producing regions of Nigeria. CBS Outdoor rejected the group’s advertisement on the grounds that the ad was “critical” and “negative.”

Artwork Rejected by CBS

The ad submitted to CBS Outdoor contained the website ChevWrong.org and a parody of Chevron’s World of Chevron Cars Campaign, adding a military vehicle to the collection to depict Chevron’s role in paying the Nigerian military and transporting them to attack unarmed villagers. The ad reads: “There is nothing to love about Chevron fueling death in Nigeria,” playing on one of Chevron’s campaign slogans “Cars love Chevron with Techron” as seen on bulletin boards throughout the Bay Area. JINN contends that the public has a right to know about Chevron’s activities in Nigeria and in fact, Chevron’s links to the shooting of unarmed Nigerians is a matter of public record.

The upcoming lawsuit against Chevron – Bowoto v. Chevron -to be heard in U.S. Federal Court in San Francisco starting on Oct 27 has already addressed such attacks when the U.S District Court judge for the case, earlier this year, found evidence that’s Chevron’s personnel “were directly involved” in an attack on Chevron’s Parabe Platform in 1998 sufficient to allow the case to be heard by a jury. This incident involves Chevron paying, transporting and “closely supervising” the Nigerian military in a Chevron-leased helicopter who opened fire on unarmed villagers peacefully protesting the environmental problems caused by the company in their communities.

“The public has a right to know how this Bay Area-based company conducts business in Nigeria and elsewhere. Bulletin board ads are an effective form of conveying a message that reaches thousands of people each day. As a paying customer like any other with a factually true message, it is wrong of CBS to censor this ad,” stated JINN Coordinator, Sarah Dotlich.

San Francisco based Underground Advertising created the artwork for the ad. This is not the first time one of their clients has been rejected from displaying their ad on a bulletin board.

“When the only two choices are buying bulletin boards from CBS or Clear Channel, rejection is not
unexpected,” explained Charlie Cardillo, Creative Director for Underground Advertising. “These two companies have cornered the market, effectively shutting out public critique through this medium.”

“It becomes an issue of freedom of speech. We deserve the same rights as Chevron to display our factual message, this is clearly a form of censorship.” stated Dotlich.

Other groups have attempted to buy bulletin board ad space with a similar result. During the Republic National Convention, a group called Soldier Billboard Project entered into a contract with CBS Outdoor only to have their contract canceled a week before it was expected to run in St. Paul, MN. According to the New York Times

JINN is a San Francisco-based organization working in solidarity with communities in Nigeria and allies in the U.S. to hold multinational corporations accountable for their operations in Nigeria to act in a manner that respects human rights, protects and cleans up the environment, and enhances community livelihoods.