30 minute infomercial on Lanka aired on US NBC Network

Thursday, 6 February 2014 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Thompson Advisory Group contracted by Central Bank steps up lobbying efforts for GoSL ahead of UNHRC sessions in March

By Dharisha Bastians A strategy and lobby firm contracted by the Sri Lanka Central Bank at a thumping fee has aired a 30 minute documentary to promote the island’s post war potential and progress on a major US television network last weekend. The Thompson Advisory Group (TAG) aired the 28 minute infomercial entitled Sri Lanka: Reconciling and Rebuilding on the NBC network to reach US audiences during a prime television air slot last Sunday (2) morning, Daily FT learns. The infomercial or paid program was narrated by former CNN anchor and PR consultant, Gene Randall, who has conducted similar campaigns for energy giant Chevron during a major oil contamination scandal in the Amazon rain forest in Ecuador. The same documentary was presented before a group of Congressmen and officials specially invited by TAG to meet a Sri Lankan delegation headed by Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga at the US Capitol last week. The Thompson Advisory Group (TAG), a Washington-based advocacy and strategy group was hired by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka last year at a whopping cost of $ 66,600 (Rs. 8,337,600) per month. TAG is one of at least two US based Lobby firms hired by the Sri Lankan Government at a monumental cost of tens of millions of rupees per year, to build the regime’s credibility with Washington politicians and influential policy makers. The documentary and intensified lobbying precedes a tough session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next month, where the US Government will float a third resolution on Sri Lanka, pushing for credible inquiries into the final phase of the war and a permanent political solution to the conflict.

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