Legalbrief | your legal news hub Monday 27 September 2021

Gupta-linked PR firm gets damning indictment

In what amounts to the most damning indictment yet handed out by UK’s Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), the Gupta-linked PR firm Bell Pottinger’s membership has been terminated for bringing the industry into disrepute – and there are no guarantees it will be reinstated, notes Legalbrief. This follows an investigation into the work it did for Gupta-owned Oakbay Investments. The trade association for the UK public relations sector said this was its ‘most serious sanction’ and meant Bell Pottinger would not be eligible to reapply for membership of the regulator for five years. This comes a day after the findings of a review of Bell Pottinger’s work for Oakbay, done by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, that material created for an economic-emancipation campaign was ‘potentially racially divisive and/or potentially offensive’. A Business Day report says the findings were released yesterday, a day after Bell Pottinger CEO James Henderson resigned. Bell Pottinger has been accused of fuelling racial tension in SA to promote a campaign of economic emancipation in the country, known as ‘white monopoly capital’, which has been seen as an attempt to divert attention from allegations of state capture involving the Gupta family. The DA lodged a complaint against Bell Pottinger with the PRCA in July. The regulator had never before passed down such a damning indictment of an agency’s behaviour, Francis Ingham, the association’s DG, is quoted as saying.

The law firm’s investigation concluded 'certain material that we have seen that was created for the campaign was negative or targeted towards wealthy white South African individuals or corporates'. According to a Fin24 report, Herbert Smith Freehills found that the PR firm did not, however, invent the term ‘white monopoly capital’. ‘Whilst that phrase was, on occasion, used by the BP account team as part of the economic emancipation campaign we have seen no evidence to suggest that the term was one that BP invented.’ It added: ‘While we do not consider that it was a breach of relevant ethical principles to agree to undertake the economic emancipation campaign mandate per se, members of BP's senior management should have known that the campaign was at risk of causing offence, including on grounds of race.’ Bell Pottinger was not behind the massive social media campaign to drive the narrative of white monopoly capital, found Herbert Smith Freehills. ‘We have not seen any evidence to suggest that, as has been alleged, the BP account team used or instructed others to use so-called Twitterbots in the promotion of the economic emancipation campaign.’

Save SA has said Bell Pottinger ‘should hang its head in shame’. According to a News24 report, the organisation said it's delighted at the news that the PRCA gave the ‘harshest possible punishment’ to Bell Pottinger for the work it had done for Oakbay and the Gupta family. ‘The global merchants of alternative facts, fake news, dirty tricks and hate speech have finally got what they deserve – expulsion by their peers,’ said Save SA. The organisation, however, called for the full disclosure of the scope of the controversial PR firm's activities in our country. This disclosure, they said, should include details on ‘what brief they were given by the son of President Jacob Zuma, Duduzane Zuma; what their specific mandate was from Oakbay and the Gupta family,’ among other activities. ‘We still believe that what has been revealed so far – through Bell Pottinger’s own statements, the report by the law firm it paid to investigate the matter, and the PRCA investigation itself – is just the tip of the iceberg. ‘Only through full disclosure will we be able to unravel the labyrinth of deceit, disinformation and hate that was built by Bell Pottinger, working hand in hand with Duduzane Zuma and the Guptas.’

The entire board of Bell Pottinger should resign, says Bell Pottinger co-founder Lord Tim Bell. Bell, who quit as the company’s chairperson in August 2016, was speaking to Bruce Whitfield on Talk Radio 702's Money Show, notes a Fin24 report. Bell said it was a ‘great pity’ that Bell Pottinger had been kicked out of the PRCA due to the work it had done for Oakbay and the Gupta family. ‘They had done something very stupid to get themselves in that situation,’ he said. The report adds that Henderson is so far the only member of staff to resign over the Oakbay account. Four employees, including partner Victoria Geoghegan, were dismissed in July. However, Bell said he expected more resignations. ‘I think it is the beginning of a tide of resignations,’ he said.

The pressure on the firm is set to increase, with Peter Hain, the former Labour MP who became a peer in 2015, tabling a string of questions in the House of Lords today asking the government whether Bell Pottinger’s actions contravene any UK trade policies. A report in The Guardian notes the severity of the PRCA ruling raises questions over the future of one of the City’s best-known PR firms, which was founded almost 30 years ago by Margaret Thatcher’s favourite spin doctor Lord Bell. It adds that the PRCA has banned Bell Pottinger for five years regardless of whether the PR company sells up or changes its name – both of which have been rumoured as possibilities – and even then its return to the fold is far from guaranteed. ‘It is not a given if they reapply in five years’ time (we) will say yes,’ the PRCA's Ingham said. ‘Membership needs a two-thirds majority of board approval and the board is pretty clear in its anger and indignation about this piece of work.’