Palm Oil Industry Pushes back in Media Wars
It looks like open hunting season on palm oil. The media war against palm oil has ramped up in these latter days of Covid19 as news of vaccines and the US Presidential election failed to provide enough fodder for media.
In their attempts to capture readers imagination, some media platforms may have sacrificed journalistic ethics and integrity.
The Associated Press published a sensationalized report titled “Rape, abuses in palm oil fields linked to top beauty brands” to create controversy. Nothing works better than naming high-end cosmetic brands to create buzz even if the links are not firmly established.
In a second report, “AP investigation: Female palm oil workers face abuse, no pay” AP made broad sweeping statements that drew a horrible picture of life for women in palm oil plantations.
“Women on plantations often face sexual abuse, ranging from verbal harassment and threats to rape, and victims rarely speak out. When they do, companies often don’t take action or police charges are either dropped or not filed because it comes down to the accuser’s word against the man’s. Accusations are typically settled through “peace solutions” in which the victim’s family may be paid off. Sometimes, the victims’ parents force them to marry their rapists to lessen the shame, often after pregnancy occurs.”
The AP report was widely shared despite the protestations of palm oil producers from Malaysia to Indonesia.
Not to be left out of this trending topic, the World Rainforest Movement published a video “Violence and Sexual Abuse Against Women in Oil Palm Plantations” that rehashed their usual story on African forests and added the element of abuse of women.
Does palm oil plantations really encourage the sexual abuse of women as AP says? Or is it a wider socio-cultural problem? Here’s a look at African countries that are trying to develop their palm oil industries.
Liberia, despite the ambitious goals of the government to create jobs and better livelihoods through the palm oil industry declared rape as a national emergency.
“The high rates of rape in Liberia have been a long-standing concern.
A United Nations report in 2016 recorded 803 rape cases the previous year in the country of 4.5 million, and found only 2 percent of sexual violence cases led to a conviction.
Addressing the meeting, the footballer-turned-president said Liberia was “witnessing what is actually an epidemic of rape within the [coronavirus] pandemic, affecting mostly children and young girls across the country”.
Nigeria which has a similar failed economic ambition to grow its palm oil industry carries different news coverage on the culture of rape or the rape crisis in this African nation.
Debunking the World Rainforest Movement’s stories is easy enough but what of plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia?
Industry Pushback against AP report
Both the Malaysian and Indonesian industry stakeholders have responded to the AP report swiftly.
“The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) urged anyone who has evidence of criminal or wrongful activity regarding rape and abuses in oil palm plantations to lodge the relevant reports with the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”
The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) lambasted the AP report in its statement:
“The Secretariat is appreciative of investigative journalism to highlight issues in the palm oil industry but questions the selective reporting by Associated Press reporters. The statements from a few unconfirmed interviews were selected as an intentional slur to harm the image of palm oil as a whole.”
Rape is a criminal offense in both Indonesia and Malaysia that carries harsh punishments for perpetrators. The Associated Press in having gotten victims statements of rape should do its civic duty and help the victims to bring those perpetrators to face justice.
Both the RSPO and MSPO have come out to decry the AP report but criminal acts like rape are beyond the purview of palm oil certification schemes. They do add an extra layer of protection for women especially in cases of sexual harassment or gender discrimination.
Based on AP’s reports that seemed to say that rape and sexual harassment in Malaysia and Indonesia happens only in palm oil plantations, it would be remarkable if the palm oil industry had the power to eliminate this social evil but they do not. Rape is a social problem that exists in all societies and industries worldwide.
There are many women in the palm oil industry that go to work daily without the fear of abuse. A better report from AP should have included interviews with some of these daughters, mothers and grandmothers.
BBC Report Debunked
Of a lower quality shot at the palm oil industry is a sensationalized report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which published a series of reports against an Indonesian company, Korindo.
The report was challenged by Korindo which went to great lengths to challenge the allegations. The company’s rebuttals were supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) which asked why Greenpeace waited seven years before sharing videos of the alleged violations.
The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) was more direct in calling out “Shocking Falsehoods Used in BBC report on palm oil.”
“The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) continues to portray palm oil as an undesirable commodity which destroys rainforests, threatens orangutans with extinction, and condemns indigenous peoples to poverty.”
The most interesting reaction to the BBC reports came not from the company or the CPOPC but a Catholic Priest who wrote to the media in protest of the reports.
Father Felix Amias who says he is from the area where Korindo’s operations are located in Papua presented some information that makes the BBC reports look like a poorly manufactured news report.
According to him, the images and characters used in the BBC report against Korindo was a manipulation of Papuans for the sake of creating news. Father Felix’s full statement can be downloaded here.
It remains to be seen if his takedown of the BBC reports will have any effect on improving the integrity of future reports by the BBC.
For the moment, it is good to see a once reticent industry fight back against global media that has preyed too long upon palm oil to create revenue.
Published November, 2020. CSPO Watch
In their attempts to capture readers imagination, some media platforms may have sacrificed journalistic ethics and integrity.
The Associated Press published a sensationalized report titled “Rape, abuses in palm oil fields linked to top beauty brands” to create controversy. Nothing works better than naming high-end cosmetic brands to create buzz even if the links are not firmly established.
In a second report, “AP investigation: Female palm oil workers face abuse, no pay” AP made broad sweeping statements that drew a horrible picture of life for women in palm oil plantations.
“Women on plantations often face sexual abuse, ranging from verbal harassment and threats to rape, and victims rarely speak out. When they do, companies often don’t take action or police charges are either dropped or not filed because it comes down to the accuser’s word against the man’s. Accusations are typically settled through “peace solutions” in which the victim’s family may be paid off. Sometimes, the victims’ parents force them to marry their rapists to lessen the shame, often after pregnancy occurs.”
The AP report was widely shared despite the protestations of palm oil producers from Malaysia to Indonesia.
Not to be left out of this trending topic, the World Rainforest Movement published a video “Violence and Sexual Abuse Against Women in Oil Palm Plantations” that rehashed their usual story on African forests and added the element of abuse of women.
Does palm oil plantations really encourage the sexual abuse of women as AP says? Or is it a wider socio-cultural problem? Here’s a look at African countries that are trying to develop their palm oil industries.
Liberia, despite the ambitious goals of the government to create jobs and better livelihoods through the palm oil industry declared rape as a national emergency.
“The high rates of rape in Liberia have been a long-standing concern.
A United Nations report in 2016 recorded 803 rape cases the previous year in the country of 4.5 million, and found only 2 percent of sexual violence cases led to a conviction.
Addressing the meeting, the footballer-turned-president said Liberia was “witnessing what is actually an epidemic of rape within the [coronavirus] pandemic, affecting mostly children and young girls across the country”.
Nigeria which has a similar failed economic ambition to grow its palm oil industry carries different news coverage on the culture of rape or the rape crisis in this African nation.
Debunking the World Rainforest Movement’s stories is easy enough but what of plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia?
Industry Pushback against AP report
Both the Malaysian and Indonesian industry stakeholders have responded to the AP report swiftly.
“The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) and Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) urged anyone who has evidence of criminal or wrongful activity regarding rape and abuses in oil palm plantations to lodge the relevant reports with the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”
The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) lambasted the AP report in its statement:
“The Secretariat is appreciative of investigative journalism to highlight issues in the palm oil industry but questions the selective reporting by Associated Press reporters. The statements from a few unconfirmed interviews were selected as an intentional slur to harm the image of palm oil as a whole.”
Rape is a criminal offense in both Indonesia and Malaysia that carries harsh punishments for perpetrators. The Associated Press in having gotten victims statements of rape should do its civic duty and help the victims to bring those perpetrators to face justice.
Both the RSPO and MSPO have come out to decry the AP report but criminal acts like rape are beyond the purview of palm oil certification schemes. They do add an extra layer of protection for women especially in cases of sexual harassment or gender discrimination.
Based on AP’s reports that seemed to say that rape and sexual harassment in Malaysia and Indonesia happens only in palm oil plantations, it would be remarkable if the palm oil industry had the power to eliminate this social evil but they do not. Rape is a social problem that exists in all societies and industries worldwide.
There are many women in the palm oil industry that go to work daily without the fear of abuse. A better report from AP should have included interviews with some of these daughters, mothers and grandmothers.
BBC Report Debunked
Of a lower quality shot at the palm oil industry is a sensationalized report by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which published a series of reports against an Indonesian company, Korindo.
The report was challenged by Korindo which went to great lengths to challenge the allegations. The company’s rebuttals were supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) which asked why Greenpeace waited seven years before sharing videos of the alleged violations.
The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) was more direct in calling out “Shocking Falsehoods Used in BBC report on palm oil.”
“The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) continues to portray palm oil as an undesirable commodity which destroys rainforests, threatens orangutans with extinction, and condemns indigenous peoples to poverty.”
The most interesting reaction to the BBC reports came not from the company or the CPOPC but a Catholic Priest who wrote to the media in protest of the reports.
Father Felix Amias who says he is from the area where Korindo’s operations are located in Papua presented some information that makes the BBC reports look like a poorly manufactured news report.
According to him, the images and characters used in the BBC report against Korindo was a manipulation of Papuans for the sake of creating news. Father Felix’s full statement can be downloaded here.
It remains to be seen if his takedown of the BBC reports will have any effect on improving the integrity of future reports by the BBC.
For the moment, it is good to see a once reticent industry fight back against global media that has preyed too long upon palm oil to create revenue.
Published November, 2020. CSPO Watch