UNITED
NATIONS, April
22 -- The UN
Department of
Public
Information
has at
least three
constituencies:
the 193 member
states which
own the UN,
the
journalists
which DPI
accredits to
enter the UN,
and last and
sometimes
least the
public.
On
Monday the top
leadership of
DPI took
questions from
the member
states on the
Committee on
Information.
Japan asked
what has been
done to avoid
another
communications
failure like
after
Hurricane
Sandy last
Fall.
The US
asked how DPI
evaluates
itself and its
impact. Spain
asked about
facilities for
journlists.
Russia asked
for
more
translation,
particularly
of the
webcast.
Answers
to
these varied.
On
self-assessment
not much was
said. On
Sandy,
DPI's chief to
his credit
admitted that
there had been
failures. On
media space,
it was said
the move-back
to the
renovated
Secretariat
will take
place “in the
next few
months.” (This
as an e-mail
named May 10
as the date.)
Many
promises were
made how the
webcast will
get better
after
something
called MAMS,
the Media
Asset
Management
System.
But
in the real
world, despite
months of
complaints,
DPI still
hasn't
gotten its
existing
webcast able
to stream on
the Android
platform
for smart
phones.
Though
perhaps not
DPI's fault,
at the recent
Rwanda
genocide
memorial, a
survivor's
story was not
only cut off
but
ended, simply
so Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon could
go to another
event.
More
substantively,
at least in
the two Rwanda
memorial
events Inner
City
Press
attended, the
UN did not in
any way
acknowledge
its role in
1994, with
peacekeepers
pulled out and
the willful
ignoring of
memos
about the
arming of the
Hutu genocidaires.
Sometimes
DPI
has a tough
story to try
to tell. On
this, Ban's
head of
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
is not only
unwilling to
answer Press
questions, but
he's now shown
to have argued
during the
1994 genocide
in favor of
helping the
genocidaire
government
flee to safety
in
Eastern Congo.
This
is a hard sell
-- but when
Ladsous had
his spokesman
seize the UNTV
microphone
ostensibly run
by DPI,
there was no
public
response, just
more
whispering.
And so
problems
persist.
In
the spirit of
fairness,
among positive
DPI projects
described on
Monday were a
“sports for
peaceful
elections”
program in
Kenya,
complete with
Google+
Hangout, and
the
involvement of
a DPI staffer
in DPKO's -
that is,
Ladsous' --
mission to
northern Mali.
This,
it
was said, was
described to
member states.
But how about
to journalists
and more
importantly
the public?
That
can be a
contradiction.
Last week
Inner City
Press wrote to
DPI
asking why UN
reports, for
example the
recent one on
Western
Sahara,
are withheld
from the
public by not
being put on
the UN's
website
even when
they are
complete, and
handed in
paper form to
some.
DPI
has yet to
respond -- it
has still not
formally
responded to 10
proposed
reforms
submitted to
it in February
by the Free UN
Coalition
for Access
-- but when
Inner City
Press spoke
Monday
afternoon with
member states
about it, many
also expressed
outrage.
Several
said
the UN's lack
of
transparency
and selective
release helps
the UN
reports be
spun in a
particular
way, before
people in
their country
can even see
the underlying
report.
So
the question
on this is,
does DPI and
the UN view
its duty as to
the
public, or to
a smaller
subset, not
even member
states?
Because if
member states
and their
desire for
translation is
being cited,
then
member states
have to be
consulted.
The
UN
Secretariat,
including Ban
Ki-moon's
office and
DPI, have no
right
to keep
secrets --
from members
states, and
thus from the
public. To
use the self-interest
of some media
as
ground-cover
for a lack of
transparency
is shameful.
(That,
however, is
why they call
it the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.)
In
candor, we
believe a key
need at DPI is
due process
rights for
journalists,
so big media
like Reuters'
Louis
Charbonneau
and Michelle
Nichols and
AFP's Tim
Witcher are
no
longer
emboldened to
file
false
complaints
against
smaller more
investigative
media, and
even so the
expression
of opinions by
DPI's
accreditation
staff does not
come off, as
it
does now, as
censorship.
(Click here
on DPI's
recent
“urgent”
inquiry into a
single Press
tweet
mentioning
#WW2.)
There
is also the
matter of DPI
finally coming
clear on how
photos taken
during its
raid on Inner
City Press'
office on
March 18 were
leaked
to
BuzzFeed,
immediately
after that
publication
contacted
Ban's
Office of the
Spokesperson
to ask about
the raid.
Whom
did DPI allow
to take
photographs?
DPI's failure
to answer only
leads,
inevitably, to
questions
about UNCA
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS, who did
take
photographs.
To whom
were
photographs
given, such
that they were
then given to
BuzzFeed? It's
simple, but it
must be
answered. Why
not take the
same approach
as after
Hurricane
Sandy? Watch
this site.