Day
After ICP Asks
UN of Sudan
Ouster,
Reuters Runs
Answer With No
Credit
On
Bangladesh
Detentions,
ICP Asks UN,
Spox Calls It
Merely Local
Matter
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
20 -- After
Bangladesh
detained even
hostages of
the bakery
attack in
Dhaka, after
calling the UN
to drop Saudi
Arabia from
the Yemen
child killer
list, Inner
City Press on
July 20 asked
UN
spokesperson
Farhan Haq,
UN transcript
here:
Inner
City Press:
Can I ask
about
Bangladesh?
There is a
call after
that terrorist
attack on the
Holey artisan
bakery, a
number, some
of the
hostages, at
least two by
name, have
been… haven't
been either
released or
charged, and
so a number of
human rights
groups have
said that the
Government
should either
charge them as
being part of
the plot or
release them
rather than
keep them
incommunicado
and not even
said where
they
are. Is
the UN system
aware of that
and what is
their view of
it?
Deputy
Spokesman:
I don't
believe we
would have any
comment on
this at this
stage because
this is a
matter that is
being handled
by the local,
that is to say
the domestic
legal
authorities;
but we hope
that they will
follow basic
due process in
terms of their
follow-up
activities.
Deference to
all "local"
proceeding?
That's not the
UN policy
elsewhere...
Amid
the violence
in Bangladesh
in February
and March of
2015, Inner
City Press
five times
asked the UN
how it reviews
whether the
military
personnel it
uses from
Bangladesh
have not been
involved in
human rights
violations. February 5 video; UN's
February 20
transcript;
February
23 transcript,
video
here.
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Follow Up on
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 25, more
here --
Amid charges
that the UN in
Sudan,
including
Herve Ladsous'
UN
Peacekeeping
in Darfur, has
colluded with
the
authorities in
Khartoum to
cover up rapes
and killing,
now the UN's
Resident
Coordinator
Ali Al Za'tari
has been
ordered to
leave Sudan by
January 2,
Inner City
Press first
reported
earlier today.
On December
24, Inner City
Press
similarly exclusively
reported
and then asked
UN Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric about
UNDP Country
Director
Yvonne Helle
being ordered
out of Sudan,
citing her and
Al-Za'tari's
e-mails. Video
here.
A full day
after that,
Reuters
reported on
Helle's ouster
-- typically,
for Reuters, with
no credit
to the Press'
prior
exclusive
story.
(Reuters' UN
bureau chief
has said he
has a policy
of not
crediting
Inner City
Press'
exclusive, and
has gone to
far as to
censor,
Sudan-style,
his "for the
record"
anti-Press
complains to
the UN, click
here for that,
via EFF's
ChillingEffect.org).
Now,
after UN
Spokesman
Dujarric issued
two statements
on the
afternoon and
evening
of December 25
responsive to
the question
Inner City
Press asked at
the December
24 noon
briefing,
Reuters has run
a piece with
no fewer than
eight
journalists
listed,
and of course
no credit.
This is
policy,
untransparenty
(when Inner
City Press
asked top
Reuters brass
including
Stephen J.
Adler for
Reuters policy
on crediting,
none was
provided.)
But
eight
journalists?
The
above-referenced
Reuters UN
bureau chief,
it must be
noted, under
his own byline
sought to
exonerate
Ladsous,
reporting
without
context
complaints
made to
Ladsous about
another UN
staff member,
without
mentioning
Ladsous' own
role in
covering up
rapes in the
DR Congo and
now Darfur.
Reuters has
not reported
the complaints
against
Ladsous, even
as a Permanent
Three mission
on the
Security
Council has
confirmed to
Inner City
Press its
receipt of the
letter.
On December
24, Inner City
Press asked UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric about
Sudan
having just
similarly
"PNG-ed"
or declared
persona
non-grata the
Sudan Country
Director of
the UN
Development
Program Yvonne
Helle, with
Za'tari barely
pushing back
against the
government.
Dujarric said
that host
countries'
ordered to PNG
a UN staff
member are
treated
seriously and
should be sent
to, and
considered and
acted on by,
Ban's
Secretariat in
New York. But
Dujarric in
the 18 hours
after Inner
City Press
asked about
Helle has not
returned with
any
information or
answer. Then
Reuters
published its
story, with no
credit.
, 
