Today it was reported, through a Bureau of Investigative Journalism sting, that Bell Pottinger, one of Britain’s largest lobbying companies, is able to influence public opinion on behalf of governments that violate human rights. Uzbekistan is one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world, and its ongoing use of state-sponsored child slavery during the annual cotton harvest attests to that.
Tim Collins, a senior director at Bell Pottinger, claimed to have access to key UK politicians like William Hague. He alleged that they would be able to manipulate Google to push negative coverage of human rights violations away from the front page of a search, although this is against the code of conduct that Bell Pottinger has signed.
News that a lobbying firm may have influence on government and public policy has spread across the media like wildfire. This coverage raises questions around how lobbyists may influence the EU's decision-making process and allow Uzbekistan to continue with business as usual.
Uzbekistan continues to benefit from EU preferential trade tariffs despite violating international law through the use of state-sponsored forced labour to collect its cotton harvest each Autumn. Tomorrow we will be handing in a petition to the European Parliament calling for these preferences to be removed. We must show them that this is not acceptable.
No comments:
Post a Comment