Odd news on a previous AP Bolivia reporter, for conscientious DU'er readers:

[Judi Lynn]

This is not a rare situation, we have learned, over the years. It's simply one we may not have already heard!

Correction to This Article
An Oct. 24 Style article misidentified the organization for which Steve Rendall is a spokesman. It is Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
AP's Man in Bolivia Resigns Over Lobbying Role

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 24, 2000; Page C02


Peter McFarren, the longtime Associated Press correspondent in Bolivia, recently took a step that has nothing to do with his journalistic duties:

Lobbying the government.

McFarren made a presentation to the Bolivian senate, on behalf of the Bolivian Hydro-Resources Corp., for a $78 million water project. The result, the AP confirmed yesterday, is that McFarren has resigned.

McFarren's extracurricular efforts were disclosed by journalist Al Giordano, a former Boston Phoenix writer who recently launched NarcoNews.com. "Imagine if a congressional correspondent for a major Washington daily was found lobbying the U.S. Congress on behalf of a private industry project," he said. "The problem is, U.S. correspondents in Latin America receive very little scrutiny."

AP spokesman Jack Stokes said McFarren voluntarily submitted his resignation last week and that it becomes effective Nov. 1. He declined to answer questions about the apparent conflict of interest, saying: "At this point we're still conferring on that. We're not saying anything publicly."

McFarren, who was born in Bolivia and holds dual U.S. citizenship, doubles as president of the Quispus Foundation, which has built museums in that country. He was in Venezuela yesterday and did not respond to a message left at his hotel.

In an interview with Giordano's Narco News Bulletin, McFarren said he sees no conflict because he is not being paid for his advocacy of the water project. But he acknowledged that the project would "set up a fund for culture, and Quispus would receive the profits."

"I've made a point of never writing about anything that I am involved with," McFarren told the Web site. He said his "boss"--the AP correspondent in Chile--was "aware" of his work for the water company. "As a citizen I have a right to do nonprofit and pro bono work," he said.

Steve Rendall, a spokesman for the liberal group Fairness and Accuracy in Media, called for AP to launch an internal investigation. He said wire service executives should "do what it says in their code of ethics, which is to report about their own personnel and their own conflicts."

The ethics code, written by the AP Managing Editors association, says a news organization should "report matters regarding itself or its personnel with the same vigor and candor as it would other institutions or individuals."

Given the nature of his job, McFarren has often reported on the Bolivian government. In an Oct. 1 dispatch from La Paz, he described a breakdown in negotiations between the cabinet and Indian farmers whose protests on behalf of land reform had paralyzed parts of the country and left at least 10 people dead.

In his Sept. 14 slide-show presentation to the Bolivian senate, Narco News reports, McFarren said the first phase of the project would pump water to a copper mine in Chile.

The Web site says McFarren is "a near mythical player in the highest levels of Bolivian society. It is not unusual for him to be the subject of press coverage himself as he rubs elbows socially with the Divine Caste of La Paz."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A690-2000Oct24?language=printer

[Judi Lynn]

1. Photos of the AP reporter in Bolivia outed for conflict of interests:

http://www.idrc.ca.nyud.net:8090/uploads/user-S/11972892023Peter_McFarren.JPG

http://avanza.org.co.nyud.net:8090/archivos/42f55975e79b071bcd480c46ff038765/Peter_Lina_C_sar.jpg

Peter McFarren del Portal para el Desarrollo de Bolivia, Lina María Montenegro de AVANZA y César Yammal, de la Fundación Development Gateway, durante la Reunión Global de Country Gateways.
Fotografía tomada por el (día/mes/año) 07/23/2004

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 130 W. 25th Street New York, NY 10001
ACTIVISM UPDATE:


AP's Inadequate Investigation:
Bolivia reporter's conflicts glossed over
November 2, 2000

In an October 26 Action Alert, FAIR reported that the Associated Press' Bolivia correspondent, Peter McFarren, was resigning amid revelations of clear conflicts of interest. (See http://www.fair.org/activism/ap-bolivia.html.)

McFarren had long had a significant involvement in Bolivian politics-- a situation that went unnoticed even after an expose by Narco News Bulletin, until FAIR called the wire service to request comment on McFarren's status. In our alert, FAIR urged readers to ask AP for a full investigation of these conflicts and how they may have impacted McFarren's reporting.

The same day that the FAIR alert went out, AP released a story on McFarren's resignation. However, the report glossed over key aspects of the case. (The full text appears at the end of this message.)

AP acknowledged that McFarren had publicly promoted a private water project that would financially benefit the reporter's foundation. But, AP wrote, McFarren has "never written about the water project for AP."

While technically true, the claim is more an indictment of McFarren and the wire service than a defense. Since last April, when the intense struggle over water rights became one of Bolivia's biggest news stories, McFarren has filed several reports about water policy, including three such stories in the last six weeks. The privatization of water-- one of the key issues at the root of large-scale protests-- was a necessary precondition for the project McFarren was promoting. To report on the water protests without disclosing his personal stake in the issue is a gross violation of journalistic standards.

AP reports McFarren's claim that a speech he gave on the water project was delivered not to the Bolivian legislature, but to "an organization of community leaders" who happened to be "in a Bolivian congressional building." AP does not, however, note McFarren's admission to Narco News that he works "pro bono" as a "promoter of the water export law," nor does it note that McFarren's presentation explicitly called for passage of "a specific law." These details are relevant to any assessment of whether or not McFarren was in fact lobbying the legislature, and should have been included in the AP's story.

In addition, the AP story says nothing about how McFarren's supervisors could have been, as they claim, unaware of his activities. Narco News reports that McFarren is "a near mythical player in the highest levels of Bolivian society," often covered in the La Paz press' society pages "as he rubs elbows socially with... the foreign diplomatic corps, the commander of the Bolivian armed forces and other officials."

AP failed to report on additional McFarren projects that may have compromised his, and thus AP's, reporting. A simple search of the Nexis news database and a look at McFarren's Quipus Foundation website reveal that McFarren has for years been involved in projects dependent on numerous government agencies and corporations. A favorable 1997 profile in the publication Americas (11/21/97) stated McFarren "is perched on the pinnacle of a cultural-publishing-media-philanthropic conglomerate, perhaps the only one of its kind in the world." According to the profile, McFarren is also "a founder and board member of the Bolivian Export Foundation."

Quipus, another foundation that McFarren created and presides over, boasts $6 million in support from the city government of La Paz, Bolivia's capital, and also receives funds from the country's national government. Other contributors acknowledged on the foundation's website include the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Germany, Mexico, the World Bank, USAID, USIA, IBM-Bolivia and American Airlines.

A reporter whose projects are so dependent on the good will and largesse of so many powerful governments, agencies and corporations necessarily undermines his independence and impartiality.

All of this information was easily available to AP when it published its brief, inadequate report on McFarren on October 26. The public deserves to know the truth-- that AP's Bolivia correspondent was, for all practical purposes, a conflict of interest disguised as a journalist. And the public deserves total disclosure, including a report on how McFarren's financial and political involvements may have compromised AP reporting from Bolivia.

AP's Code of Ethics advises subscribing media outlets to "report matters regarding itself or its personnel with the same vigor and candor as it would other institutions or individuals." One would hope AP does not claim that its piece on McFarren meets that standard.

http://www.fair.org/activism/ap-bolivia-update.html

[EFerrari]

2. So, one of them got caught red-handed.

Thanks, Judi Lynn. This is good information to tuck away for the next time it's needed.