Bhopal anguish as BBC hoaxed

[emad]

Telegraph
By Robin Gedye
(Filed: 04/12/2004)

The BBC was forced to apologise yesterday for a story claiming that tens of thousands of victims of the Bhopal gas disaster and their families would receive compensation from a $12 billion fund.

A man purporting to speak for the Dow Chemical company told the BBC that its Union Carbide subsidiary, which owned the chemical plant when the gas leak killed 3,500 people immediately and later up to 15,000, would be liquidated and the proceeds used for compensation.

The BBC had been seeking to mark the 20th anniversary of the world's worst industrial accident and had contacted what they believed was a Dow Chemical spokesman via a name and telephone number on what appeared to be the industrial giant's website.

A man calling himself Jude Finisterra was contacted and interviewed live.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/12/04/nbeeb04.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/12/04/ixhome.html

[Flammable Materials]

1. Wouldn't it be great ...

... if this whole fiasco led to a real compensation fund?

Right. Dream on.

[Ardee]

2. Off the top of my head

Didnt Dow close that plant, selling it or giving it back to the government making India responsible for the cleanup and reparations if any? (the article does mention a dollar amount I note)

Im surprised that Bush and Rumsfeld have not asked Dow to build such a plant in Iraq, as it would be a way to kill even more innocents.

[NashVegas]

3. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1041854

[emad]

4. Sorry...and I looked...