Since this summer, we have been closely following the story of the high-profile US and British public-relations agencies hired by the Bahraini regime to turn its line into "news" and "analysis". Others have caught onto the story: today Salon profiles Tom Squitieri, one of the most prominent --- in persistence, if not quality --- consultants posing as a journalist.
Now a combination of The Independent of London, the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, and bloggers Tim Ireland and Marc Owen Jones have exposed the activities of one of Bahrain's choice agencies, Bell Pottinger, as it cleans up the images of regimes around the world. Among the revelations are Bell Pottinger's re-writing of Wikipedia entries for Bahrain in the service of the "right" narrative about the kingdom.
A personal note: I had the chance to chat with one of Bell Pottinger's top executives in October. With a straight face and determined line, he explained to me that the agency was pursuing "reform" through its work with the leaders of Yemen and Bahrain. If that effort stumbled, it was not for lack of effort and goodwill by Bell Pottinger; instead it was the failure of those like Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to follow through on the agency's advice. In Bahrain, the executive continued, Crown Prince Salman was the spearhead for political change, and Bell Pottinger would be failing --- in its service to him and to the greater good --- if it did not help him.
Caught on Camera: Top Lobbyists Boasting How They Can Influence the PM
Melanie Newman and Oliver Wright
The Independent
* Claiming they have used their access to Downing Street to get David Cameron to speak to the Chinese premier on behalf of one of their business clients within 24 hours of asking him to do so;
* Boasting about Bell Pottinger's access to the Foreign Secretary William Hague, to Mr Cameron's chief of staff Ed Llewellyn and to Mr Cameron's old friend and closest No 10 adviser Steve Hilton;
* Suggesting that the company could manipulate Google results to "drown" out negative coverage of human rights violations and child labour;
* Revealing that Bell Pottinger has a team which "sorts" negative Wikipedia coverage of clients;
* Saying it was possible to use MPs known to be critical of investigative programmes to attack their reporting for minor errors.
Reporters from the Bureau posed as agents for the government of Uzbekistan – a brutal dictatorship responsible for killings, human rights violations and child labour – and representatives of its cotton industry in a bid to discover what promises British lobbying and public relations firms were prepared to make when pitching to clients, what techniques they use, and how much of their work is open to public scrutiny.
In Uzbekistan, child labour is used in cotton fields to fulfil state quotas and the country also has a terrible human rights record: the think tank Freedom House put it on its 2011 list of the "Worst of the Worst" repressive regimes.
The Bureau contacted ten London firms. Two refused to take the business, several others did not reply, while five including Bell Pottinger appeared to be keen to work with the fictitious Uzbek representatives. Bell Pottinger quoted "£1m-plus" as a fee for carrying out the work.
The "Dark Arts": Bell Pottinger Caught Rewriting Its Clients' Wikipedia Entries
David Pegg and Oliver Wright
The Independent
The extent of Bell Pottinger's internet manipulation to alter its clients' reputations online can be revealed today.
Evidence seen by The Independent and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) shows the company made hundreds of alterations to Wikipedia entries about its clients in the last year. Some of the changes added favourable comments while others removed negative content. Several Wikipedia accounts have been suspended pending an investigation by the co-founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, who last night expressed his dismay at Bell Pottinger's "ethical blindness".
Among the changes made in the past year by a user – traced to a Bell Pottinger computer – who made the alterations under the pseudonym "Biggleswiki" were:
* Removal of the reference to the university drugs conviction of a businessman who was a client of Bell Pottinger;
* Edited material relating to the arrest of a man accused of commercial bribery;
* Editing of the entries for prostate cancer expert Professor Roger Kirby and his firm, The Prostate Centre. Both are clients of Bell Pottinger. The user added Mr Kirby into a separate page on "prostatectomy" as a notable expert, and edited the entry on the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to include comments made by Mr Kirby about Megrahi's cancer.
* Editing the articles of both Chime Communications, parent company of Bell Pottinger, and Naked Eye Research after the former company bought 55 per cent of the latter.
In other cases, damaging allegations against clients of Bell Pottinger, which The Independent cannot publish for legal reasons, were removed from Wikipedia.
Open Letter to Bell Pottinger
Tim Ireland
I have just sent this email to Bell Pottinger:
From: Tim Ireland
To: info@bell-pottinger.co.uk
Date: Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 8:45 AM
Subject: Your Wikipedia editsI think the most charming thing about the Wikipedia account of yours that I uncovered was the author’s inclination to accuse others of being biased and/or of having a hidden agenda, when all along he/she was making edits according to a hidden bias/agenda dictated by money:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Contributions&limit=500&target=BiggleswikiI have issued a public challenge for you to declare all of your Wikipedia accounts:
This is a public challenge to #BellPottinger to declare their Wikipedia accounts. Or I can ferret them out for you (eg http://j.mp/vv29KG)
http://twitter.com/#!/bloggerheads/statuses/144334898826715136Alternatively, as I suggest in my tweet, I can ferret them out for you and name them without your permission.
Your call.
Cheers
Tim Ireland
www.bloggerheads.com
Truth Massages & the Intelligence Unknown
Marc Owen Jones (with contributions by @subaitybh and @billmarczak)
Two days ago the Independent published an expose on the PR firm Bell Pottinger which documented, among other things, the existence of a team who edited out negative coverage of their clients in Wikipedia. It was then brought to my attention that the Wikipedia entry for both John Yates and John Timoney, Bahrain’s new police consultants (both of whom have been implicated in controversial past events), was made more positive* on December 1st – the date the appointment of Timoney was announced. As far as I can tell, the announcement of John Yates only appeared in mainstream press on Dec 2nd....Can we attribute this oddity to time difference, or just coincidence? It seems unlikely. Also, the edits don’t mention that the two men have been appointed to work in Bahrain, which is odd considering the user who edits them exclusively edits articles related to Bahrain.
PetersBah, who has been editing articles since July (and who makes edits on weekdays between 10:00 -18:00), seems to make changes that conform to the government’s version of events. Some of these are subtle, such as an edit saying Ahmed Jaber was killed in a ‘protest’, to Ahmed Jaber was killed in a ‘riot‘ (a new piece of rhetoric that gained popularity after the London riots). Other changes include making sure Iran is mentioned when possible, especially when pertaining to the Bahrain Freedom Movement, Saeed Shahabi and Maryam alKhawaja. While many say that PetersBah is simply offering up ‘the other side’ of the argument (an awkward phrase that seems to imply equal validity in all arguments), it seems unusual that he should dwell on terms like protest versus riot, or even bother mentioning that although Bahrain failed to sue the Independent for libel, Prince Nayef of Saudi was successful in doing so.
Obviously there is no way of knowing if PetersBah is just your day-to-day punter, or a paid-up PR goon.
Revelations: How Lobbyists' Tentacles Spread throughout the Government
Melanie Newman and Oliver Wright
The Independent
Senior executives at Bell Pottinger claimed they could arrange meetings with the Business Secretary's special adviser on behalf of a client.
Tim Collins, managing director of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, told undercover reporters that the best way to get to Vince Cable was through his political adviser Giles Wilkes. And Mr Collins's colleague suggested that as a result of Bell Pottinger's intervention, Mr Cable had visited a factory owned by one of the firm's clients that was looking for Government assistance.
Mr Collins said in taped conversations with undercover reporters from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism – who were posing as representatives of Uzbekistan's government in a bid to find out what promises British lobbying companies make when pitching for business – that the Business Secretary could be cantankerous and the best way to approach him was through Mr Wilkes. Mr Collins added that one of Bell Pottinger's staff used to work for the Liberal Democrats and had close relationships with all of the party's special advisers working in Government.
"Stephen Lotinga, my colleague, knows Giles [Wilkes] very well, he headed up the Liberal Democrat home policy unit until the time of the general election so all the people who went into government and became Liberal Democrat special advisers all worked for him," Mr Collins said. "So he knows all of them, still talks to them socially. We actually took a client in to see Giles last week, last Thursday, so it's not something that is difficult for us to do."
Mr Collins said of Mr Cable: "Vince's starting point on a lot of these issues is he will think about politics and the presentation first and substance second.
"Giles spent a lot of time in the City; he's quite a hard-headed business person... he will say let's actually look at what's in it for UK PLC first and foremost and worry about the politics slightly afterwards. I would suggest we get Giles onside first and then we think about approaching Vince."
One of Britain's largest lobbying companies has been secretly recorded boasting about its access to the heart of the Government and how it uses the "dark arts" to bury bad coverage and influence public opinion. An undercover investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, published in The Independent today, has taped senior executives at Bell Pottinger: