As
#FreeAJstaff
Used in UN
Gabfest, Will
Ban Raise to
al-Sisi?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June
25 -- While
Egypt's sentencing
of the three
Al Jazeera
journalists to
seven years in
prison was condemned
in the UN on
June 25,
sometimes
sincerely and
often
self-servingly,
Egypt's logic
remains alive
and well in
the UN.
Troublingly,
other
imprisoned
journalists in
Egypt and
elsewhere are
being ignored.
And it remains
unclear if UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, who
will be with
Egypt's
al-Sisi at the
African Union
summit in
Malabo, will
even asked to
meet Sisi on
the topic. Video here; from
the UN transcript:
Inner
City
Press: In his
trip to the
African Union
Summit in
Malabo, will
the
Secretary-General
be meeting
with President
[Abdel Fatah]
al-Sisi
of Egypt,
who’s
scheduled to
be there? And
in that case,
will…
does he intend
and can you
say that, now
that he will
be bringing up
the issue of
the condemned
journalists of
Al Jazeera and
other
journalists,
including
Coptic and
others,
condemned in
Egypt?
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric: The
Secretary-General’s
meetings,
obviously,
have a
bilateral
schedule,
having
accompanied…
having
attended as
an accompanier
a number of
these summits,
the bilaterals
are very
fluid — some
scheduled,
some not
scheduled. So,
what we will
do is
we will
announce them
after they
happen. My
colleague
Matias
[Gillmann] is
there. As soon
as something
is confirmed,
we will be
able to
confirm it.
Obviously, the
Secretary-General
has in the
past
spoken out and
raised the
issue of mass
trials,
including the
conviction of
the
journalists,
with Egyptian
authorities.
And it is
always best to
issue a
readout after
meeting.
Inner
City
Press: But,
has he sought
a meeting with
President
al-Sisi?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
As I said, you
know, once the
bilateral
happen… these
things are
truly very
fluid, and we
will give you
a readout as
soon
as the
meetings
happen.
Rather than
press Ban, the
big-wigs of
the old UN
Correspondents
Association
were tweeting
at Western
ambassadors to
please come to
the big room
the UN gives
them, for a "town
hall."
Present there
was UNCA's
past
president, who
tried to
censor Press
coverage of
his past
financial
relationship
with Sri
Lanka's
ambassador;
past UNCA
board members
from Voice
of America
(which then tried
to get Inner
City Press
thrown out of
the UN)
and Reuters
(who has
outright
censored his
own "for the
record"
complaint to
the UN, getting
Google to
block it from
Search, here).
In
the UN
Security
Council in the
early
afternoon of
June 25,
speakers
included
Turkey, which
at the end of
2013 had fully
40 journalists
imprisoned,
and Italy,
which had one:
Francesco
Gangemi of Il
Dibattito.
In the UN Press
Briefing Room
on April 15,
2014, outgoing
French
Ambassador Gerard
Araud told a
Lebanese
reporter, "You
are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent" --
Egypt's logic.
But on June
25, there were
at least two
representatives
of France's
mission to the
UN headed to a
#FreeAJstaff
"town hall."
The UNCA
big-wigs never
issued any
public letter
to Araud for
attacking
their own dues
paying member,
in the UN.
They wrote to
Egypt's Perm
Rep, receiving
in reply the
Deputy, at
whom attendees
say one of the
recent UNCA
board members
laughed.
Back in April,
Inner City
Press on
behalf of the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked
UN spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric if he
would convey
to Araud and
the French
mission the
stated
position that
reporters
should be
treated with
respect.
Dujarric declined.
The board
members of old
United Nations
Correspondents
Association
has "dragged
its feet" on
any defense of
its own dues
paying member
from Lebanon.
But now they
scheduled an
"Emergency
Town Hall
meeting" on
the Al Jazeera
case, tweeting
photos of
themselves
with Western
mission
spokespeople.
UNCA
head Pam Falk
tweeted that
#JournalismIsNotACrime
-- strange,
from a person
who shouted in
a meeting
she'd already
said she knew
would be
reported, on the
record,
that covering
her and UNCA
made a one not
a
reporter but a
“mugger”
-- audio
here, here and
here.
Again,
that
is the logic
used by Egypt,
that if you
don't like
coverage, the
reporter is
not a journalist
but a
criminal, or
mugger. This
is the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Footnote:
After
UNCA's Falk
and Evelyn
Leopold wasted
the two and
only
questions at
UNDP,
mid-layoffs,
they had UN
(and former
UNDP)
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric's
office squawk
over the
loudspeaker
system that
UNCA would be
showing the
World Cup in
the large room
the
UN gives it,
usually to sit
empty, while
the UN
evicted the
News
Agency of
Nigeria for
lack of space.
Here
is background
on UNCA's
television
games
under Falk.
Watch this
site.
, 
