Special undercover investigation: Executives from Bell Pottinger reveal 'dark arts' they use to burnish reputations of countries accused of human rights violations
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:
* 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.
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