Award for tannery undercover cameramen
12/12/2013
In this case, the two cameramen, Soumen Guha Sontu and Dipak Chandra Sutradhar, made a film of working conditions in a tannery in Bangladesh.
In a report on the award on December 10, the BBC said the tannery owners originally refused the two men permission to film inside the tannery, but changed their minds when the cameramen said, untruthfully, that they were shooting a promotional video for “a French leather company”.
The BBC report highlighted a lack of protective equipment worn by workers, but one of the cameramen told the BBC that the workers they had filmed had worn protective gloves and boots. The BBC report suggested workers were being exposed to “toxic chemicals” inside the tannery, and showed on screen containers of two chemical products: a product used to stop fungal infection from spreading in hides and leather, and hydrogen peroxide.
Warnings on the labels making it clear that both products need to be handled with care are clearly visible in the film, suggesting that the manufacturers of the two products have done nothing wrong.
Leatherbiz has written to the BBC to point this out and to ask another question. We asked if the BBC could explain why, as suggested in its report, the tannery owners would have been reluctant to open their doors to two local men, but willing to reveal all to a company in one of the most prestigious leather and leathergoods markets in the world. The reverse of this would seem much more likely.
In defence of the leather industry in Bangladesh, we pointed out that it’s a source of employment for many thousands of people, a reminder that the leather industry is a powerful contributor to the Millennium Development Goals, which is something to be greatly proud of.
Next, we suggested that Bangladesh needs its tanneries. As in all Muslim countries, animal slaughter is part of everyday life there and, at festivals such as Eid al-Adha, huge numbers of sheep, goat and cattle are slaughtered in only a few days. We asked the BBC what would become of the hides and skins if tanners didn’t carry out their work?
Lastly, we pointed out that tanners in Bangladesh have accepted for more than a decade that conditions in Hazaribagh are unacceptable and have long supported proposals that they move en masse to a new industrial site at Savar. They have been accused of holding up the move, but, owing to ongoing disputes about help with the costs of moving and of setting up effluent treatment at Savar, they are not solely to blame. The fact that Bangladesh had no elected government between 2006 and 2009 did little to help matters.
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