UN
Charges
ICP Misconduct
For Sign-in
Yemeni Nobel
Winner,
Serving Sri
Lanka?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 14, updated
-- Two days
after Inner
City Press
signed in to
the
UN as a guest
Yemeni Nobel
Prize winner
Tawakkol
Karman, who
ultimately
spoke to the
Press and
others about
Syria and the
Arab
Spring, the
UN's response
has been to
now charge
Inner City
Press with
misconduct. See
full e-mail
here.
This
comes after
this same Ban
Ki-moon Media
Accreditation
& Liaison
Unit blocked
Inner City
Press from
covering the
alleged war
criminal Sri
Lankan
general
Shavendra
Silva advising
Ban on
peacekeeping,
and then
reneged on its
commitment to
renew Inner
City Press'
accreditation
on
June 4, amid
death threats
against Inner
City Press
from Sinhalese
extremists
supportive of
Sri Lanka's
government.
Significantly,
back
in October
2011 Inner
City Press
also signed in
Tawakkol
Karman,
who then spoke
on the UN
Television
camera at the
stakeout.
Inner
City Press at
that time --
before
challenging
Ban and his
MALU about
Shavendra
Silva --
received no
complaint at
all, and
Tawakkol
Karman's
stakeout was
broadcast and
put on the
UNTV archive.
This
time,
Tawakkol
Karman's
question and
answer
session,
conducted
under the
not-disapproving
eye of UK
Permanent
Representative
Mark Lyall
Grant
and UN Envoy
Jamal Benomar,
among many
others
including
other media
which used
quotes from
the stakeout,
was NOT
broadcast
live, and
despite
promises by
Ban spokesman
Martin Nesirky
and MALU
supervisor
Stephane
Dujarric was
not, even mid-day
the day after,
put on the
UNTV
Archive.
Inner
City Press
worked and put online its own
hand-held
video of the
morning on its
YouTube
channel here:
this depicts
what Inner
City Press is
being charged
with
misconduct
for. All this
takes place in
the run-up to
the Department
of
Public
Information
being taken
over by Ban's
Austrian pick,
Peter
Launsky-Tieffenthal.
As
reported here
and, for
example,
by the Sri
Lanka Campaign
which is
chaired by
Kofi
Annan's former
communications
director
Edward
Mortimer,
Ban's UN is
at a minimum
playing into
the hands of
Sri Lanka
extremists by
publicly
calling into
question Inner
City Press'
accreditation
as a
journalist at
the UN, here
with MALU
chief Isabelle
Broyer using
the
word
"misconduct"
for signing in
a Nobel Peace
Prize
winner.
By
contrast, when
a
controversial
screening was
arranged in
the UN's Dag
Hammarskjold
Library
Auditorium
featuring
Shavendra
Silva and his
fellow alleged
war criminal
and Sri Lankan
diplomat
Palitha
Kohona, the UN
did
nothing.
In
fact, Inner
City Press'
reporting
about Silva's
and Kohona's
appearance to
screen
a government
propaganda
film "Lies
Agreed To,"
which
purported to
rebut the UK
Channel 4
documentary
"Killing
Fields
of Sri Lanka"
which was NOT
shown in the
UN due to a
celebration
for Ban
Ki-moon, has
triggered a
proceeding
which has
given rise to
death threats
against Inner
City Press' UN
reporter, one
of them
copied to
Marie Okabe
and two others
in Ban's UN
Secretariat.
Part
of the
threats is the
repetition of
what some Ban
senior
advisers have
whispered,
that Inner
City Press
must be funded
by the
(defunct)
Liberation
Tigers of
Tamil Eelam,
since it asks
questions
about the
40,000
civilians
killed by the
government in
Sri Lanka in
May 2009.
So
the UN has
fanned the
anti Press
flames leading
to death
threats, and
now
accuses Inner
City Press of
"misconduct"
and seeks to
move
closer to
expelling it,
for having
signed into
the UN a Nobel
Peace
Prize winner.
This is Ban
Ki-moon's
United
Nations. Watch
this site.
Update
of
10:29 am --
the UN's
response to
the above is
this quibble
(at the
time Inner
City Press
wrote about
the failure to
put the
stakeout
online, it was
not online,
that was the
point.) But we
publish this:
From:
Stephane
Dujarric [at]
un.org
Date: Thu, Jun
14, 2012 at
10:24
AM
Subject: Re:
to stakeout
S-G's Special
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations
To: Inner City
Press
Contrary
to
what your
write in your
latest piece,
the video of
your guest was
put on the
webcast
yesterday, as
I had to told
you it would.
The
reference
in the header
to "stakeout
S-G's
Special
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations" is
to
Dujarric's DPI
and Broyer's
MALU hiding
behind
"non-UN"
parties to
block coverage
of alleged war
criminal Sri
Lankan general
Shavendra
Silva serving
on Ban
Ki-moon's
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
even after
saying they
would
facilitate it
or be happy to
help: never
explained.
, 
