Ben Bland, a freelance journalist based in Singapore, has just pulled off a signal success by embarrassing one of Australia's largest engineering companies to pull out of Burma.
He was working for Asia Sentinel, a Hong Kong-based online publication, on a story about CPG Corporation being contracted to design Naypyidaw airport in Burma's remote new capital city.
It meant CPG working alongside Asia World, a shady Burmese conglomerate with strong links to the ruling junta whose management are targeted by sanctions in Australia, the US and Europe.
CPG is the Singapore consultancy arm of the Sydney-based engineering firm Downer EDI. So, naturally enough, Bland contacted Downer to ask why it was prepared to work in Burma.
He says they used delaying tactics for a week or so before, rather surprisingly, telling him they had been unaware of the Burma engagement and that they were now pulling out.
Downer EDI's corporate affairs manager Maryanne Graham said the company cancelled the contract because it contravened the company's stated policy of sustaining a "zero-harm environment".
You can read Bland's full story here. It was also followed up in the Australian press, as this Sydney Morning Herald story Aussie firm embarrassed by Burma link shows.
As he says: "It's pretty rare for a company to act so quickly based on a journalistic exposé." Indeed it is. Score one for Bland, who is a former Daily Telegraph City reporter and still writes a blog for the paper.
Can't seem to keep the Telegraph out of the news lately.
