Amid
UN Censorship
Alliance Ball,
UNanswered Qs
on Haiti
Cholera,
Sri Lanka
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 18 --
One might
think that the
work of a
journalists'
group would be
to push for
broader
access, more
answers,
and against
censorship. In
the case of
the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association,
holding a $250
a plate dinner
tonight
with the very
people they
purport to
cover, this
would be
incorrect.
UNCA
is so close to
the UN
Secretariat
that its
leaders have
tried to get
media which
ask hard
questions
thrown out of
the UN. (Click
here for
how UNCA tried
to expel Inner
City Press for
reporting on
the past
financial
relationship
between UNCA's
president and
the Sri Lanka
ambassador
whose war
crimes denial
film UNCA
screened in
the UN.)
These
questions
include the UN
dodging legal
accountability
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti, on
which Inner
City Press
again put
three questions
to Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
at Wednesday's
noon
briefing, getting
a response to
only one, here.
When
throwing Inner
City Press out
of the UN
failed, and
was exposed
by
documents
obtained from
Voice of
America under
the Freedom of
Information
Act, the
UNCA leaders
in 2013 under
Pamela Falk
engaged
in anonymous
social media
trolling,
setting out
counterfeit
Twitter
accounts
impersonating
not only Inner
City Press
but also the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
@FUNCA_info.
Now
even the
dinner is in
decline. In
the past the
master of
ceremonies
has been
Richard Roth
of CNN, quite
the prankster.
This year it
is
Laura
Trevelyan of
the BBC, who
during a 2009
trip to Sri
Lanka with
Ban Ki-moon
and UK
humanitarian
chief Sir John
Holmes not
only didn't
report Holmes
on the record
comment that
he deleted all
complaining
emails from
Tamils -- she
said the Press
reporting this
"ruined"
relations with
Holmes for her
and, for
example,
Reuters.
The
Reuters bureau
chief, UNCA's
first vice
president and
shamelessly
UNCA
prize awardee
tonight, went
on to spy
for the UN, in
essence,
turning
over anti-Press
internal UNCA
documents
to the UN three minutes
after
promising not
to do so.
Story
here, document
here, audio here.
But
UNCA must have
done some good
in 2013,
right? Well,
not really.
Its
belated
2013-14 book's
UNCA's
"Message from
the President"
says that in
2013 "we held
dozens of
press
briefings by
diplomats and
policymakers
in our new
meeting room."
This
is patently
false. Dozens
means at least
24. There was
Saudi
sponsored
Syria rebel
Jarba, and
some chefs; an
ironic
"Transparency"
briefing and a
JFK book (by
neither a
diplomat nor
policy maker).
There is no
way that 24
briefings were
held in the
room the UN
gives
to its
Censorship
Alliance. So
why say
"dozens of
press
briefings"?
Well, it's
UNCA - the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Watch this
site.