I was interested to notice this claim published on a website for a publication called International Investment:
The statements he made were, of course, in response to those concerning the Tax Justice Network (TJN) from John Christensen and me, previously reported by International Investment, here.
The problem for the Tax Justice Network is that a simple Google search for 'Richard Murphy senior adviser Tax Justice Network' revealed this:
That's still live on their current website. I think it unambiguously contradicts the claim TJN has made.
But just in case that is not the required evidence of my having been a senior adviser I did a quick search on the website called Wayback Machine which is an archive of old websites (it took minutes to find what follows) and it revealed this from the TJN website archived on 5 February 2012, a date I randomly chose:
The evidence that I was a senior adviser could not be clearer. What is apparent in that case is that the claim that I have 'never been appointed as a Senior Adviser by the board to the Tax Justice Network, nor listed as such on our website' is wrong. There is readily available and unambiguous evidence to the contrary.
Three thoughts follow. The first is that the very legalistic approach used to describe my role as an officer of TJN in the first above quoted paragraph is clearly intended to diminish my contribution. That this description does not appropriately describe what I did for TJN over an extended period is well known to anyone acquainted with tax justice.
Second, it is clear that TJN is now willing to make statements to the press about me that are demonstrably wrong.
Third, if TJN can get such a simple thing wrong then what it now has to say on anything else has also to be doubted.
As John Christensen said in his resignation letter:
TJN's governance remains broken and requires immediate and extensive repair.
He added:
At no stage did the CEO take action to provide me with a safe working environment, and as recently as last week he was still misleading staffers about what happened.
Now the press is being mislead about me.
I am not sure that a great deal more on this issue now needs to be said.
UPDATE
At 8.30 am on Monday 9 August the false claims made by the Tax Justice Network about me have been removed from this article by International Investment. I am entirely happy that Tax Justice Network disagrees with me: I have made it clear that I am not happy that they make false claims when doing so. I am pleased that the article has now been corrected and am leaving the matter there.
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Classic agnotology in an age of (too) swift information transfer – deny facts, sow doubt, watch it circulate and undermine.
Important to drop matters when they become too personalised, I think. However, this organisation and the New Statesman falling to a coup in the same month? Ponder whether these are entirely unrelated.
I deliberately sought to depersonalise this comment.
As I noted, the fact that the TJN does not tell the truth is now proven. I regret that its credibility is shot to pieces as a result.
I regret that because none of this was necessary. But at some point the truth has to be told.
Well, one might ask questions about the basic journalism practices at International Investment. The author of this piece Mark Battersby appears to be its editor. How much fact checking did he undertake before publishing the TJN’s comments? Did he contact you first for a right of reply?
He seems to have been contacted by the TJN in response to his article of 5 August, which is essentially a “cut and paste” of your resignation blogpost. https://www.internationalinvestment.net/news/4035438/tax-justice-network-chair-senior-adviser-quit-disenchantment-row (from a quick search in their website, that was only the sixth time they have mentioned the TJN in the last year, or indeed ever, and they’ve quoted your blog extensively a few times, in relation to criticism of Bermuda and Jersey for example).
Too many magazines and journals republish press releases (or indeed blogposts, it seems) without much critical review.
I suspect they might try to reply on a technicality. You are not currently listed as a senior adviser by the TJN at https://taxjustice.net/our-senior-advisers/ And were you ever appointed as a senior adviser by the board? (Were all of the others who are so listed formally appointed as such by the board?)
Andrew
No senior adviser was ever appointed by the Board: they were appointed by the CEO as I recall
And the killer thing is they say I was never listed on their web site
I am now, and was in the past
They cannot wriggle out of that
I have mailed the editor
Richard
Richard, I hear you…… but my father told me once “never wrestle with a chimney sweep”.
🙂