PR or School Teachers? Maldives Party Asks

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has called for the termination of Hill & Knowlton's contract defending the repressive government of the Maldives. The MDP calculated that the PR firm has been paid $800,000 over almost three years. "According to World Bank figures, $800,000 is enough money to pay for the salaries of 290 Maldivian secondary school teachers for a whole year," acting MDP President Ibrahim Hussain Zaki stated in a media release. In response to recent media coverage of Hill & Knowlton's role in the Maldives, Tim Fallon posted a note on his blog defending his work as leading to "seismic" changes in the Islamic nation. Dozens of visitors to the blog aren't buying his story. "Why on earth would you help a brutal dictator who has murdered his own people? This shows what kind of a company Hill & Knowlton really is," wrote one.