AFP's
Witcher,
Complaining to
UN Security,
Said His Way'd
Be
“Kick Out” ICP
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
11 -- Agence
France Presse
scribe Tim
Witcher, who
has now
filed a
frivolous UN
Security
complaint
against Inner
City Press of
which no copy
has yet been
provided,
stated as far
back as June
2012
that his way
would be to
get Inner City
Press “kicked
out.” Audio
here.
So
what does the
UN do with a
not only
frivolous, but
clearly
pre-textual
complaint?
Inner City
Press is
waiting to
receive a copy
of the
complaint, and
to be told
what UN rules
apply
(information
about basic
due process
rules for
journalists at
the UN was
withheld
even from the
New York Civil
Liberties
Union, click
here for that.)
UN
Security on
Monday
afternoon
informed Inner
City Press
that AFP's
Witcher and a
correspondent
of Reuters
have tried to
convert a
verbal
disagreement
about their
use by the UN
into a
complaint to
which
Inner City
Press is
supposed to
respond --
without seeing
a copy.
For
now, here is
yet more
context, which
UN Security
should have
checked,
or still
should check,
before
processing a
frivolous and
pretextual
complaint from
Tim Witcher or
AFP.
Back
in June 2012,
months after Witcher
had asked the
UN
Correspondents
Association to
censure Inner
City Press for
a story it
wrote about
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row put by
France atop UN
Peacekeeping,
Witcher was
told, again,
that no one at
AFP had been
the source any
of Inner City
Press'
reporting.
The
French Mission
to the UN
looked bad
when Inner
City Press reported
that they
hadn't known
that Ladsous
was the last
minute
replacement
for Jerome
Bonnafont,
the name the
Mission gave
to French
media just
before the
UN's
announcement
of Ladsous.
In
the attached
audio, for
context,
Witcher
insists that
despite having
STARTED the
UNCA
proceeding to
censure Inner
City Press, he
had not
been the
drafter,
because if it
had been up to
him, “you
would have
been kicked
out.” Audio
here.
Witcher of
AFP, March 8,
2013, Ladsous
not shown,
thanks UN
Multimedia
In
this context,
Witcher's
March 2013 UN
Security
complaint
about a
purely verbal
disagreement
-- again about
Witcher
serving as a
pass
through for,
or being a
lapdog of,
Herve Ladsous
-- must be
seen as
what it is: a
cynical and
pre-textual
complaint
which attempt
to
accomplish
what Witcher
spoke about in
June 2012.
This
is one reason
AFP, at least
at the UN, is
becoming known
to stand for
Anti Free
Press, just as
during
Witcher's and
Charbonneau's
tenure,
now along with
Pamela Falk of
CBS, UNCA is
functioning as
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Inner
City Press is
requesting a
copy of the
complaint, and
of due
process
rules the UN
should have,
which have
also been
formally
requested by
the New York
Civil
Liberties
Union and
now by the new
Free
UN
Coalition for
Access.
Watch this
site.
, 
