Pratap Chatterjee

Pratap Chatterjee (b. Birmingham, United Kingdom) is an Indian/Sri Lankan investigative journalist and progressive author. He is a British citizen and grew up in India, although he lived in California for many years. He serves as the executive director of CorpWatch, an Oakland-based corporate accountability organisation.[1] He also works for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism[2] in London. He writes regularly for The Guardian[3] and serves on the board of Amnesty International USA[4] and of the Corporate Europe Observatory[5]

Previously he was a producer and radio host at KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California[6] and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Progress[7] Chatterjee has also served as a community advisor to KQED, the San Francisco public radio and television station. He was a member of the board of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network from 2001 to 2005, and was an Environmental Commissioner for the city of Berkeley from 1998 to 2003.[8]

His first book was a critique of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, written with Matthias Finger, titled The Earth Brokers: Power, Politics and World Development (Routledge Books, 1994) that analyses the United Nations response to global environmental crises.[9]

In the late 1990s, Chatterjee did a great deal of research surrounding the 1849 California Gold Rush and how it affected Californian American Indians[10] which resulted in a booklet titled Gold, Greed & Genocide which he later turned into a DVD with a 16-page classroom activities and discussion guide distributed by Oyate.[11]

Chatterjee has travelled extensively in Central Asia and the Middle East to investigate the role of private military contractors working in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2004, Chatterjee published the well-received Iraq, Inc.: A Profitable Occupation (Seven Stories Press).[12] His footage was used in Michael Moore's 2004 film Fahrenheit 9-11 and he was interviewed in Robert Greenwald's film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers[13]

In February 2009, Chatterjee published a detailed history of the role of Texas companies Halliburton and KBR titled Halliburton's Army: How A Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized The Way America Makes War (Nation Books).[14] In March 2009, he published several videos and an article of the failure of development aid in rural Afghanistan that was circulated via TomDispatch and on Salon.[15] He followed this up with an article on the poor treatment of Afghan translators working under contract with Ohio-based Mission Essential Personnel for the US military.[16]

He has been published in a number of popular media, including the Financial Times, The New Republic, The Guardian, and The Independent. He often appears as a guest expert in a wide variety of media ranging from Fox TV to Democracy Now!.[17] His writing has won a number of awards, from the National Newspaper Association and Project Censored, among others.

References

  1. ↑ "CorpWatch Staff and Board". CorpWatch.
  2. ↑ "TBIJ Who We Are". Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
  3. ↑ "Pratap Chatterjee". The Guardian Comment is Free (London). 17 August 2010.
  4. ↑ "Amnesty USA Board Member Profiles". Amnesty USA Board.
  5. ↑ "About Corporate Europe Observatory". Corporate Europe Observatory.
  6. ↑ Hull, Dana (5 August 1999). "Employees Return to Berkeley, Calif., Radio Station after Lockout". Tribune Business News.
  7. ↑ "Recommendations for Overseeing Government Contractors". Testimony of Pratap Chatterjee.
  8. ↑ Margasak, Larry. "Protesters urge boycott of bonds for World Bank". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. A07.
  9. ↑ "The Earth Brokers: Carving Up the Planet (Book Review)". Multinational Monitor. 1 July 1995.
  10. ↑ "Gold, Greed & Genocide". Berkeley, CA: Project Underground.
  11. ↑ "Oyate Catalog – Videos and DVDs". Oyate.
  12. ↑ "Iraq, Inc: A Profitable Occupation (Book Review)". New Internationalist. 1 April 2005.
  13. ↑ "Pratap Chatterjee". IMDB.
  14. ↑ Holden, Anthony (9 March 2009). "Halliburton's Army: How A Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized The Way America Makes War (Book Review)". Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  15. ↑ "Afghanistan's uncertain future". Salon. 23 February 2009.
  16. ↑ "Mission Essential, Translators Expendable". CorpWatch. 11 August 2009.
  17. ↑ Horne, Gerald (7 October 2005). "Book Review: Iraq, Inc, by Pratap Chatterjee". Political Affairs Magazine.

External links