Essential Information
P.O. Box 19405
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202-387-8034
Fax: 202-234-5176
Email: [email protected]
____________________________________________________________________

May 26, 1999

Cyrus Mehri
Mehri, Malkin & Ross
2120 L Street, NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20037

Dear Cyrus:

This is in response to your May 19, 1999 letter, asking that Essential Information remove from its web site the plaintiff's complaint and exhibits in Abdallah vs. Coca-Cola Company, as well as information pertaining to your firm.

Essential Information's web site, www.essential.org, is intended to function as a public forum to air important public policy debates and to promote ideas. The complaint in the Abdallah vs. Coca-Cola case is posted on the page of Essential Action, www.essential.org/action, a project of Essential Information. Essential Action was created to alert activists to current corporate campaigns and related activities.

We believe there is a First Amendment principle at stake in keeping the complaint on the web, and that we are performing a valuable function in publicizing the complaint, which is a public document. We are not willing to remove the complaint and exhibits from the web site.

As a courtesy to you and your clients, however, we are willing to make changes to the web site. We will delete items that refer to your firm. We will remove your letter head, which appears at the top of the Coke index page (www.essential.org/action/spotlight/coke/index.html). We will remove the contact information for your firm, which appears on the same index page. We will also remove your April 23 press release which appears on the corporate spotlight index page (www.essential.org/action/spotlight/index.html).

Sincerely, John Richard, Executive Director

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