UN
Says It Can
Act Against
Journalists On
Secret
Complaints,
Like UNCA
Made
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 20 --
The NY Civil
Liberties
Union on July
5, 2012 asked
the UN to
explain its
procedure for
reviewing the
accreditation
of journalists,
citing Voice
of America's
request
for such
review of
the
accreditation
of Inner City
Press filed on
June 20.
Click
here
for VOA's
filing, here
for the
NYCLU's public
letter.
The
UN claims to
have explained
its procedures
to the NYCLU,
but has
refused to
tell Inner
City Press
what its
explanation
was, most
recently on
January 17.
Rather
it is Inner
City Press'
understanding,
based on the
UN not
notifying
it of VOA's or
an earlier
complaint
about a mere
verbal
disagreement
filed by
Reuters'
bureau chief
Louis
Charbonneau,
that the only
due
process right
the UN accords
journalists is
to be told of
a complaint
AFTER
accreditation
has been
removed or
denied.
This
is not due
process at
all: it is
like getting a
trial only
after one
is convicted.
How
has the UN
been allowed
to maintain
such a
Kafka-esque
procedure? The
UN has as a
formal partner
to its Media
Access
Guidelines the
UN
Correspondents
Association.
UNCA would
have been the
entity to push
the UN to
uphold
journalists'
rights.
But
UNCA can no
longer do
that, if it
ever did. As
revealed in
Voice of
America
documents
obtained under
the US Freedom
of Information
Act,
in June 2012 UNCA was
"meeting with
the UN (very
quietly)"
in order to
try to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN.
UNCA
never informed
Inner City
Press of those
"quiet"
meetings
with the UN,
just as
Reuters'
Charbonneau
never informed
Inner City
Press of his earlier
complaint to
UN official
Stephane
Dujarric
(who
also did not
inform Inner
City Press).
Inner
City Press
understands
that the UN
believes that
complainants
against
journalists
desire and are
entitled to
secrecy.
Be that as it
may --
in the case of
Charbonneau's
complaint
this would be
inapplicable,
since he sent
copies to Tim
Witcher of
Agence
France-Presse
and others
like these two
still on the
UNCA Executive
Committee --
the UN
has carried
this dubious
position to an
extreme.
A
journalist
would
only be
notified of a
complaint (and
even then not
of the
identity of
the
complainant)
AFTER the UN
threw them
out.
UNCA
cannot reform
this. In fact,
UNCA should
not be allowed
to any longer
be a party,
formal or
otherwise, to
the UN's Media
Guidelines.
The
UN designating
its space for
journalists as
the "UNCA
Club"
and
automatically
giving UNCA
the first
question at
press
conferences
should not
continue.
These
and any and
all other UN
steps which
prop up
the legitimacy
of UNCA, after
its secret
complaint(s)
against the
press, is
contrary to
the rights of
independent
journalists.
And
as the NYCLU
publicly
requested on
July 5, 2012,
the UN must
disclose
and
appropriately
reform its
policies on
the rights of
journalists.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
will be
working on
these and
other
related UN
press freedom
issues. Watch
FUNCA
and this site.
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