This event is the first in a series exploring the impact of ‘corporate power’ on human rights, part of the Human Rights Consortium’s Corporate Power and Human Rights Project.
The theme of this event is ‘corporate power and information control’. Large business entities are increasingly able to set political agendas and use their financial largesse to tip the scales in their favour.
This broad theme includes:
- the ability of corporations to hide or falsify information, including that which is required under government regulation;
- restricting the ability of organisations and individuals from providing information in the public interest (i.e. Libel);
- influencing the regulation of their own industries;
- using intellectual property and patent law to monopolise information
In the West there exists a facade of freedom information, but the myriad of ways available for those with the resources to suppress (often important) information from the public greatly erodes the chief tenet of democracy, which requires the public to be informed.
Speakers: Dr. Damien Short, Director, Human Rights Consortium; Adrienne Margolis, Founder, L4BB (Lawyers for Better Business); Peter Frankenthal, Economic Relations Programme Director, Amnesty International UK; Kelly-Marie Blundell, Senior Liberal Democrat, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Guildford. Chaired by Manette Kaisershot, Doctoral Researcher, Institute of Commonwealth Studies.
Date and time: 31 October 2013, 18:00 – 20:30
Venue: The Senate Room (Senate House, First Floor)
