Posted on 12/03/2004 9:07:26 PM PST by Pikamax
BBC reputation hit by Bhopal interview hoax
Matt Wells and Randeep Ramesh in Delhi Saturday December 4, 2004 The Guardian
The BBC's worldwide reputation for accuracy took a blow yesterday after it broadcast an interview with a hoaxer who claimed to offer a $12bn settlement to the 120,000 surviving victims of the Bhopal disaster.
Hopes were raised in India when the BBC's international news channel, BBC World, interviewed a man identified as a representative of Dow Chemical, which now runs the Bhopal plant after taking over Union Carbide.
He said Dow accepted full responsibility for the world's worst industrial disaster, which has claimed the lives of 20,000 people over the past 20 years, and left many more with chronic health problems.
But it soon emerged that Jude Finisterra was a hoaxer who has targeted Dow Chemical in the past. His interview, which was picked up and reported internationally, was shown twice on BBC World, and on BBC television and radio in Britain, before it was pulled.
"Today I am very, very happy to announce that today, for the first time Dow is accepting full responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe. This is a momentous occasion," he said in the live interview. In public, the BBC said it had moved "swiftly" to correct the mistake and stressed it had been the victim of an "elaborate" hoax.
It condemned the actions of Mr Finisterra as a "tasteless publicity stunt". But in private, some BBC journalists expressed surprise that the hoax was not identified more quickly: the apology seemed extraordinary because Dow maintains that it has "no responsibility" for Bhopal.
The corporation said a producer on BBC World had been asked to book a representative from Dow for the 20th anniversary of the disaster. He went to the Dow website, and was directed to the media relations section. Email correspondence and phone calls followed, which resulted in yesterday's interview with Mr Finisterra from the corporation's Paris office.
It appears that part of the Dow website had been hijacked in a detailed and carefully planned operation.
The corporation was keen to stress that it was the victim of a stunt. It said in a statement: "This interview was inaccurate, part of an elaborate deception. The person did not represent the company and we want to make clear that the information he gave was entirely inaccurate." Dow confirmed that Mr Finisterra did not work for the company.
The incident raises the issue of internet security, and the BBC said its procedures regarding the trustworthiness of information obtained from websites would be reviewed.
Mr Finisterra later told The World at One on Radio 4 that he was part of Yes Men group, which hoaxes businesses and governments."I was speaking on behalf of Dow in a certain way. I was expressing what they should express."
He added that he had heard Bhopal residents had broken down in tears when they learned of the report, and he felt bad about it.
Wonder how many BBC interviews with "officials", "military personnel", "diplomats", etc. condemning the war in Iraq will emerge as hoaxes?
No sympathy for the Beeb here, but I am astounded that someone would go through the effort of hijacking web pages just to pull off a spoof.
Corporate IT departments take note: It looks like you have to give ironclad protection to ALL web pages, regardless of their apparent insignificance.
Maybe he and his "Yes Man Group" should go to Bhopal and explain to the residents that it was just a joke.
Guardian is wrong, it wasn't a hijack, the BBC tool that went looking for information hit a fake website.
Well, at least they were only reporting a lie without bothering to fact check it rather then just making up stories on their own as they've become known for...
Bhopal Critics in Web Hoax Against Dow Chemical
By CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH
From The New York Times, December 9, 2002 (original here)
Last Tuesday, on the 18th anniversary of the lethal gas spill at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, that killed thousands of people, journalists received an e-mail press release claiming to be from Dow Chemical, which now owns Union Carbide. It was a fake, as was the Web site called up by a hyperlink in the e-mail.
The release supposedly explained why Dow refuses to clean up Bhopal or help people who remain sick from the spill. The link was to dow-chemical.com, a Web site that looked much like Dow's real Dow.com site, but that included such fake items as a "draft" of a speech by Dow's chief executive, Michael D. Parker, disavowing Dow's responsibility for Bhopal.
The hoax was the work of the Yes Men, a group of critics of business and government who gained attention in 2000 with Gatt.org, a bogus World Trade Organization site...
If the Beeb thinks that setting up a fake Website using a similar URL (dow-chemical.com) is an "elaborate" hoax, they really need to get out more.
Curious as to where you learned it wasn't a hijack, especially since Guardian says the hoaxers hijacked PART of Dow's web site.
Link would be appreciated. If you're right, a little more detail and conscientiousness from the Guardian wouldn't have hurt either.
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