Date: 2025-08-20 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00025326
TRANSPARENCY
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL
Transparent Company Ownership Helps Society and Business to Thrive
TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL
Transparent Company Ownership Helps Society and Business to Thrive
Transparency International
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I have been an advocate for transparency and accountability for a big part of my adult life. Why?
I learned fairly early on that there was a lot of misinformation in the world we all live in ... and furthermore that misinformation is not flowing of its own free will, but is being actively promoted by someone or some organization that stands to benefit.
I think I was just 4 years old when I first learned about the power of propaganda ... Lord HawHaw broadcasting Nazi propaganda into the UK from Germany during WWII. Fast forward and Putin's Russia is engaged with misinformation in the US Presidential elections of 2016 and 2020.
And then there is product advertising. In my view, this is mental pollution designed to get people to buy more of all sorts of 'stuff' that people don't need but makes profit for the people who manufacture, sell and asdvertise the product!
Why is it that advertising is everywhere, but true transparency and accountability is missing?
I am trained ... inter alia ... in accountancy, and the expectation is that information shall be 'true and fair' ... but most corporate information is skewed in favor of the desired corporate image. In too many cases this is misinformation on steroids.
I am particularly bothered by the information promulgated by big organizations. There may be some 'truth' in the information they communicate, but it is usually a long way from 'the whole truth' but just a select bit of the truth, leaving out a whole lot of stuff that would make the little bit of truth that is being talked about more meaningful. Very big corporate organizations are essentially 'opaque' because so much of what should be communicated can be deemed 'not material' because as a whole they are very very big!
I want to see corporate transparency and accountability that makes it easy to see the impact of a corporation and all its activities and products in every community on the planet and in every household on the planet. Some steps were taken in this direction when Ralph Nader was advocating for meaningful product information more than 50 years ago ... but today product ignorance and gaming of products for benefit of profits has become the dominant state of affairs. For all practical purposes the general public might as well be blindfolded when it comes to corporate transparency ... and sadly Transparency International has not been very effective, though at least, they have been trying!
Peter Burgess