Dow Chemical Co said on Friday that there was no basis whatsoever in a BBC World report saying that it had accepted responsibility for India's Bhopal disaster. The BBC said earlier that an interview it ran with a man it identified as a company spokesman they named as Jude Finisterra was part of "an elaborate deception." "Dow confirms there was no basis whatsoever for this report," spokeswoman Marina Ashanin told BBC World from Switzerland. "We also confirm Jude Finisterra is neither an employee nor a spokesperson for Dow." "The bottom-line is this is not true," a spokesman for Dow Chemical in Zurich told Reuters.

That's one hell of a 'crank call'. Also it was played on radio news too - not just BBC World as they are trying to claim! As the original story aired on the BBC, many news wires took it up and published it as being true (see post below for original Reuters story).

In case Reuters remove their original story, here it is:

Dow Accepts Responsibility for Bhopal -- Spokesman
LONDON (Reuters) - Dow Chemical Co, in a major policy reversal, is accepting full responsibility for the 1984 Bhopal disaster in India, a company spokesman said on Friday.

"Today I am very, very happy to announce that today, for the first time Dow is accepting full responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe," company spokesman Jude Finisterra told BBC World television. "This is a momentous occasion."

"We have a $12 billion plan to finally at long last fully compensate the victims including the 120,000 who may need medical care for their entire lives and to fully and swiftly remediate the Bhopal plant site."

More than 3,500 died after lethal gas escaped from a chemical plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal. The factory was owned by Union Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.

"We have resolved to liquidate Union Carbide, this nightmare for the world and this headache for Dow and use the $12 billion to provide more than $500 per victim, which is all that they've seen," Finisterra said, speaking on the 20th anniversary of the disaster.

A quick search on Google news shows the story (which is false!) is spreading!

Chemical giant to pay €9bn in Bhopal compensation
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=126193970&p=yz6y94676

Bhopal gas leak: Dow Chemicals accepts responsibility
http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=Bhopalgastragedy&slug=Dow+Chemicals+owns+up+to+Bhopal+tragedy&id=15790&callid=0&category=National

Dow accepts responsibility for Bhopal
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/945430.cms

Perhaps Dow will now have to actually do something? Damage limitation and all that...

Someone had a sense of humour with this...

Jude Finisterra...

Loose latin and linkage I know but:
Jude -> Judas
Finis -> Finish
Terra -> Earth

Wonder if that was intentional... either way... impressive deception...

That story was also on Radio 4's Today this morning. And I thought it was about time too.

Shame its a fake. When Dow bought the company they seem to of forgotten the liabilities.

Yeha pity about the BBC reporting a fake. It seems they weren't the only one.

Finisterra is a common name, (Finisterre off the shipping forecast for example)

and means literally land's end. Which is why most of the places called finisterra or finisterre etc are by the sea.

The fact that Union Carbide have never accepted any culpablilty for the gassing and killing of eight thousand people, and neither they or the indian government have done one iota to try and decontaminate the site since the catastrophe, is astounding.

But it seems it may be too late for Bhopal as a city, as now the contaminants have leached into previously uncontaminated groundwater at levels reaching five hundred times the absolute max permitted levels set by WHO.

Jude Finisterra was on the radio just now, admiting to the fake. He said the point was that its the statment Dow should of made.

He said he was part of the group known as "The Yes Men", I think this is thier site: http://www.theyesmen.org/

Thanks for the update Karl - what station was he on?

I heard him being interviewed on radio 4 at 1 - think it may be repeated/covered again on PM at 5