Secrets & Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR
Campaign in NZ
8/17/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Secrets & Lies: The Anatomy of an Anti-Environmental PR
Campaign in NZ
Source: Oregon Natural Resources Council
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 17, 1999
Byline: Nicky Hager and Bob Burton
Today the new book "Secrets & Lies: The anatomy of an anti-
environmental PR campaign" was released in New Zealand, based on
hundreds of pages of leaked internal documents from the state-owned
Timberlands logging company and its consultant, the New Zealand
subsidiary of the giant British-based firm Shandwick.
Secrets & Lies is by Nicky Hager and Bob Burton, the latter a
frequent contributor to PR Watch. Because the book is based on
leaked documents, the element of surprise was important to its
release and there has was no advance publicity.
Below is information from the authors about the book. For more info
contact the authors at:
nicky@freemail.co.nz
or by phone: (NZ country code 64) 4 384 5074
John
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SECRETS AND LIES
The anatomy of an anti-environmental PR campaign
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Background information on the writers
Nicky Hager is best known in New Zealand for his role as a researcher
and critic on public issues such as nuclear and military policy and
intelligence. However his main work, for the last decade, has been as
a writer. In 1998 he was judged fourth in a United States
investigative journalism award and his 1996 book, Secret Power,
documenting New Zealand's role in a previously unknown international
spy network, was a best seller. It has been published in translation
in Europe and a revised version is due to be released in Europe and
the US in 2000. World-wide publicity from that book earnt him the
description of being the New Zealander who had 'received the most
overseas coverage in 1998'.
During 1997 and 1998, Nicky Hager gave some time to assist the
environmental campaign to have all the public native forests of the
West Coast reserved. His interest in this subject dates from the
early 1980s when he worked for the DSIR Ecology Division studying and
writing about these forests.
Nicky Hager was born in Levin and has degrees in physics and
philosophy from Victoria University. He lives in Wellington.
Bob Burton is a journalist specialising in environmental issues and
the PR industry. He has written extensively about public relations
and the use of PR campaigns to counter public movements, including
articles for Consuming Interest and US based magazines PR Watch and
In These Times. He edits Mining Monitor, a quarterly newsmagazine on
the mining industry in Australia, Asia and the Pacific for the Sydney
based Mineral Policy Institute.
He was born and educated in Sydney, gaining an Arts degree from
Sydney University. He has previously been a researcher for various
Australian environment groups, publishing numerous papers on minerals
and energy policy. He lives in Canberra.
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TIMBERLANDS WORKED TO "NEUTRALISE" ENVIRONMENTALISTS
The main priority of the Timberlands public relations campaign was to
"neutralise" the effect of the environmental groups that threatened
its logging plans. The book Secrets and Lies, released today, reveals
the anti-environmental agenda behind Timberlands' "sustainable
management" public image.
A secret Timberlands PR strategy states that a "primary objective
must be to limit the [environment] movement's ability to influence
public and policies". (see p. 30)
The tactics employed to undermine environmental opponents included:
. monitoring groups (including arranging infiltration of
environmental groups);
. targeting their sources of finance (including concerted actions
against the Body Shop); and
. making numerous legal threats to deter people from joining
conservation protests (these are all detailed in Chapter 2).
"Timberlands followed deliberate strategies to discredit
environmentalists. For example, it repeatedly claimed that the groups
opposing Timberlands were small, extreme and spreading
misinformation," said co-author Nicky Hager, "although the company
was aware that almost all the large environment groups opposed the
logging, including Forest & Bird, ECO, Greepeace, Federated Mountain
Clubs and Native Forest Action."
The book reveals that Timberlands' main PR firm, Shandwick New
Zealand, was paid to monitor all opposing actions and media
statements and devise ways to counter them. Secrets and Lies
reproduces dozens of internal papers showing the efforts Shandwick
went to counter every critic of its client. It employed tactics as
varied as attempting to create problems for critics with their
employers, to legal threats, to writing articles and letters to the
editor attacking the motives of the critics and their statements.
"The effort to stop criticism of the company even extended to paying
contractors to remove graffiti and posters from walls and lamp posts
in the capital city (see Chapter 4). The companies showed no respect
for freedom of speech," Mr Hager said.
"The nastiest tactics were direct actions against the tree-sitting
protesters in Charleston Forest in 1997." Chapter 3 reveals details
of "Operation Alien" ("alien" being the term for protesters in the
internal papers), in which Timberlands launched an aggressive logging
operation suddenly one morning in the middle of the protest area.
Timberlands' own minutes of the operation record the attempted
destruction of a tree-sitter's platform using a 5-tonne log swinging
under the logging helicopter - without checking to find out that one
of the tree sitters was under the tree. The action put her life
seriously at risk. Later Timberlands denied the potentially lethal
event occurred and paid Shandwick to lobby the Civil Aviation
Authority informally during the official investigation into the near
accident. The final CAA investigation appeared highly inadequate and
the helicopter pilot was not prosecuted on a technicality.
"As a state-owned company, Timberlands should be censured for its
actions by its shareholder, the government, on behalf of the public
of New Zealand. Shandwick should also be held to account by the
public relations industry for its unethical PR practices," said Mr
Hager.
"All their tactics, ranging from keeping issues secret to directly
attacking critics, were part of an attempt to exclude people from
legitimate political activity which is highly questionable in a
democracy."
For more information, contact Nicky Hager and Bob Burton at 04 384
5074
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STATE COMPANY TARGETS LABOUR PARTY
For the last year the primary target of Timberlands' PR campaign has
been the Labour Party, owing to management fears that a change of
government in November would lead to its native forest logging being
stopped. The new book, Secrets and Lies, shows the company worked
frantically to reverse the direction of Labour Party policy (chapter
10).
Co-author Nicky Hager said, "Since a state company cannot openly
lobby a political party, Timberlands worked through a variety of
allies to put pressure on Labour. The main target of this campaign
was Helen Clark."
The book cites a confidential PR strategy from December 1998, written
by Timberlands communication manager Paula de Roeper, called "Public
relations strategy - Where to from here?" The paper stated that a top
PR priority was persuading Labour leader Helen Clark to visit the
West Coast for a Timberlands PR tour. The pressure on Helen Clark
began soon after. Straight after Christmas Timberlands' front group,
Coast Action Network, launched a letter writing campaign to Helen
Clark demanding that she visit the West Coast. It distributed
hundreds of form letters addressed to Clark and arranged
advertisements on local radio stations urging locals to write to
her.
Timberlands mobilised other allies too. Its chief so-called
"environmental" ally, Guy Salmon of the Ecologic Foundation (formerly
the Maruia Society), lobbied individual Labour MPs in favour of
Timberlands' logging plans, challenged Helen Clark in the Society
newsletter and was guest speaker at a pro-Timberlands public meeting
in Greymouth where his speech concluded with an appeal to the
audience to write letters to Helen Clark (pp. 191-192).
Timberlands' scientific allies, who had been carefully cultivated by
Timberlands according to plans set out in the leaked PR documents,
wrote letters to the Labour leader and her colleagues attacking
conservationists and her party's anti-native logging policies. Other
organisations identified as useful allies in the leaked PR plans,
such as the New Zealand Furniture Association and other timber
organisations, likewise wrote to Labour MPs at key stages in the
party's internal debate over its policy.
The company cannot claim that it does not lobby. The leaked PR papers
contain lobbying plans, with key targets being the relevant
ministers, "advisers and government officials" and "caucus
leaders/relevant spokespeople". The plans aim to "identify relative
influence among key players, their respective portfolios and
viewpoints", "scaling up [lobbying] effort for MPs whose opposition
is likely to be most damaging, and those whose support is likely to
be most influential" (Chapter 11).
------------------
JENNY SHIPLEY: BEHIND STATE-OWNED COMPANY'S POLITICAL LOBBYING
Prime Minister Jenny Shipley needs to explain why she and staff in
her office supported and assisted Timberlands' politically-motivated
multi-million dollar anti-environmental PR campaign but in response
to a question in Parliament in July denied there had been any
involvement.
Jenny Shipley and her office assisted Timberlands to lobby other MPs
and bureaucrats to enable the logging of native forests to continue,
say the authors of Secrets and Lies, Nicky Hager and Bob Burton.
"Shipley was also aware of and supported the state-owned company's
efforts to undermine public opinion against their logging of native
forests."
Secrets and Lies reveals details of confidential ministerial meetings
in which Mrs Shipley argued that the government should not be seen to
be giving in to the environmentalists. In 1997 as SOE Minister she
successfully stalled former Prime Minister Jim Bolger's private plans
to stop the logging and conserve the West Coast forests.
"It seems that Jenny Shipley was determined to back Timberlands'
continued logging of native forests, no matter how much public
relations money it cost, no who poor the company's financial records
were, and no matter how much public opinion was against it," says
Nicky Hager.
Chapter 12 of the book goes into the details of Shipley's involvement
in Timberlands' lobbying efforts. Numerous petty incidents show that
she knew the company was lobbying other politicians, and supported
its efforts.
"Mrs Shipley was abusing her position as SOE minister and as prime
minister, by actively supporting expenditure by a state-owned company
of millions of dollars on lobbying politicians and on dirty public
relations tactics aimed at discrediting genuine public interest
groups concerned for the environment," says Nicky Hager.
Leaked minutes of Timberlands PR meetings and other leaked
correspondence show that Timberlands and its PR firms made a point of
sending details of many of their activities to Mrs Shipley. Other
documents record her approval for secret tactics in the anti-
environmental campaign.
For example, a 15 September 1997 paper written by Timberlands' PR
company, Shandwick New Zealand Ltd stated that Mrs Shipley supported
Timberlands' "graffiti erasure" campaign. Shandwick was paying
contractors to paint out all graffiti critical of native logging in
the capital city (and at times to paint over posters too).
Mrs Shipley began co-operating in the PR campaign as SOE Minister in
1997. Under the SOE Act, she was required to avoid involvement in
day-to-day operations on the state company. But Secrets and Lies
shows she made an exception for Timberlands. The book quotes numerous
references from the leaked papers of liaison between Timberlands and
Mrs Shipley's office over the day-to-day details of the Timberlands'
campaign, and partisan support from her office staff, who under state
service rules, should be politically neutral. Mrs Shipley's staff
assisted Timberlands by sending copies of Native Forest Action's
latest posters to its Wellington PR firm, Shandwick, advising
Timberlands what MPs were thinking, and which MPs and bureaucrats
to lobby. They even provided feedback to Timberlands on its
"communications" strategy.
Mrs Shipley's involvement did not end when she became Prime Minister
and ceased being SOE minister. Soon after becoming PM, Mrs Shipley
noted graffiti on a wall in Wellington's Balaena Bay on the way to
the airport and her staff told Shandwick. The wall was painted over
in a mural initiated by and covertly sponsored by Timberlands.
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WEST COASTERS MANIPULATED BY PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN
Leaked public relations documents show Timberlands West Coast
manipulated West Coast people to drum up local support for its native
forest logging plans. Through creating a front-group and spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars on local sponsorship Timberlands
created the impression of independent local support for its logging.
The secret PR documents, quoted in the book Secrets and Lies, reveal
that Timberlands PR staff dreamed up and arranged the formation of a
purportedly independent local pro-logging group and then used the
group to implement its PR strategies as required. (See chapters 9 and
10, pages 158-200.)
The book reveals that the plan to form a pro-Timberlands group came
out of a PR strategy meeting between Timberlands and its PR companies
held on 1 July 1997 and that the group has been under the company's
control ever since.
The group, Coast Action Network (CAN), has appeared regularly in the
news media. It was the subject of a Holmes feature recently where the
group hotly denied any links with Timberlands. CAN dominates West
Coast news coverage of local community perspectives on logging
issues. But the leaked papers quoted in the book prove that CAN is a
front group for the state company which, the authors argue, has no
mandate to play politics in this way.
The authors note that some West Coast people who participated in the
group were undoubtedly unaware that they were part of the company PR
campaign. But the leading CAN members are revealed as working closely
with the company, working according to priorities and plans
originating from Timberlands and its PR advisers.
This example from the leaked papers shows how the group was used to
create the impression of third-party support for Timberlands:
At a 31 October 1997 PR telephone conference, staff from the PR firm
Shandwick were given the job of dealing with a proposal, that some
Timberlands forests should be conserved and dedicated to Princess
Diana, that had appeared in the newspapers. On 4 November, Shandwick
consultant Rob McGregor drafted letters to the West Coast papers and
the Minister of Conservation, Nick Smith, (in the voice of West
Coasters) opposing the proposal and faxed them to Timberlands. In his
cover note he wrote:
"Thank you for your help with this and for arranging for the Action
Group to dispatch the letters on their letterhead and in the name of
their organisation. Better this salvo comes from them than
Timberlands." (page 163).
There are other, similar examples in the leaked Timberlands papers.
"The use of front groups as a counter to genuine community campaigns
is a well-known PR tactic employed in other countries," says co-
author, Bob Burton. "It is an unethical public relations practice
that subverts democratic processes."
In early 1999 the leader of CAN was a Timberlands contractor, Barry
Nicolle, who met with senior Timberlands staff at the Timberlands
headquarters to plan all major CAN activities meetings. Nicolle made
the standard denial that CAN was linked to Timberlands to a large
public meeting called by CAN in Greymouth in Aprill 1999, even though
he himsel had spent the afternoon before the forum in a meeting with
senior Timberlands staff. The meeting was advertised as being about
"the future of the West Coast", but the West Coasters who turned up
found that the meeting was focussed entirely on Timberlands.
Timberlands' sponsorship of West Coast groups was also a cynical
attempt by the state-owned company to 'buy' local support for its
logging activities.
Timberlands' local sponsorship spending almost doubled, to $150,000
in 1998 after protests began against its native forest logging. The
PR strategy papers explain bluntly that a purpose of the sponsorship
was to make local groups feel indebted to the company "as a way of
assisting local support for the Beech Scheme".
The West Coast Principals Association, for instance, was identified
in the PR plans as a target. Timberlands internal documents crudely
explained the strategy as:
"Concept: To provide practical assistance to the West Coast
Principals Association in return for gaining the opportunity to get
the support of local schools for Timberlands and its operations."
Timberlands donated $2,500 for the association's annual conference in
1996, 1997 and 1998. In 1998, when Timberlands was secretly trying to
orchestrate submissions in favour of its beech logging plans, the
Principals Association president duly circulated a letter with a pro-
logging submission form to all West Coast schools saying:
"Timberlands have been generous supporters of our Principal's
Conference and schools on the Coast and I invite you and staff to
consider this submission."
An August 1998 meeting between Timberlands and Shandwick PR staff
identified the following "opportunities where public relations can be
applied to further the interest of Timberlands":
"Community Front: *Thank you TWC letters - from allies who have
received TWC sponsorship; Environmental Front: *Anti-NFA letter
writing campaign (stock letters); *Thank you TWC for supplying my
son's football team, etc."
Soon after, anti-Native Forest Action (NFA) letters to the editor
began to appear in newspapers, many of them written by Timberlands
staff and contractors.
"The cynical use of West Coasters deserves to be exposed. It is an
insult to local people and an abuse of political processes for a
company - and especially a state company - to be manipulating a
political debate in this way," Bob Burton said.