UN
Permits Roller
Blade Presser,
Cracks Down on
Critical
Press, Haiti
Under Rug
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 28 –
In a surreal
press
conference at
the UN on
Thursday,
Inner City
Press asked a
woman on
roller blades
on the UN
stage about
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
dismissal of
claims the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
spread cholera
to Haiti. Video
here, from
Minute 28:18.
Inner
City Press had
been covering
the Security
Council when
the press
conference
began, on
UNTV, at 11
am. There was
almost no one
in the
Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium; in
the end, only
two reporters
asked
questions,
including
Inner City
Press.
It
was the
statement by
the president
of the NGO
Peace and
Cooperation,
Joaquín
Antuña,
that his group
operates under
the principles
of the
UN that made
Inner City
Press run
through the
garage to ask
a
question.
The
UN mention its
principles a
lot these
days. It says
only
journalists
who abide by
its principles
can be
accredited,
and if the
principles
are violated,
a reporter can
be thrown out.
But
the principles
are not in
writing, and
as Inner City
Press has
exposed, and
is trying to
address
through the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access, there
are no due
process
protections
for reporters.
When
Inner City
Press got to
the press
conference,
Ms. Anuska Gil
propped
on the table
where the
spokesperson
usually sits.
She had a map
of
where she'd
skated; she
cried at
people's
kindness.
When
Inner City
Press was
called on, it
thanked both
on behalf of
the Free
UN
Coalition for
Access.
But then it
asked what
this pro-UN
NGO
thought about
the UN
dismissing the
Haiti cholera
claim.
Antuña
replied,
“there are
many negative
aspects, but
there are also
positive
aspects.
Amnesty
International
does its work,
we try to
emphasize the
positive
aspect. The
world needs
the UN
organization...
I'm am not
saying UN is
wonderful. We
refer to
common values.
UN
resolutions of
General
Assembly are
something
approved by
all the
countries.”
Without
getting
into GA
resolutions
for example on
the alleged
attack on a
Saudi diplomat
in Washington,
or other
disputed
votes, it
wasn't a
bad answer.
But some
wondered, how
could this NGO
no matter how
well
meaning hold
an hour long
press
conference for
only two
journalists?
Especially
when
the UN
Department of
Public
Information's
Stephane
Dujarric last
year openly threatened
Inner City
Press for
signing into
the building
the Nobel
Peace Prize
winner from
Yemen,
Tawakkol
Karman,
who later
spoke
substantively
at the UNTV
stakeout,
including some
criticism of
the UN for
accepting
immunity for
Ali Saleh?
Does
the UN give
preference to
speakers who
are pro-UN?
Or, as it
clear,
does it for
now give
improper
preference for
an Astroturf
UN
Correspondents
Association
which rather
than defend
journalists
who
are
investigating
the UN instead
tried to get
them thrown
out of the
UN, operating
as the UN's
Censorship
Alliance?
Last
June, UNCA
tried to get
Inner City
Press' UN
accreditation
“reviewed”
through a request to
Dujarric from Voice of
America,
which said it
had the
support of Agence
France Presse
and Reuters
-- whose
bureau
chief Louis
Charbonneau
after refusing
written
requests to
explain
now seems to dispute
this,
essentially
thereby
calling the
Voice of
America bureau
chief a liar.
After
Inner City
Press exposed
VOA's request
and filed a
Freedom of
Information
Act request,
Charbonneau
and UNCA's
then-president
asked
Inenr City
Press to
withdraw the
FOIA request.
This, as a
matter of
investigative
journalism
principle,
Inner City
Press does not
do.
Inner
City Press was
summoned to
meet with
Dujarric and
another UN
staffer
who we will
leave unnamed.
Before an
accreditation
to the end of
the
year was
offered, Inner
City Press has
handed a
formal letter
of
reprimand for
having
signed-in the
Nobel Peace
Prize winner.
But
verbally, not
in writing,
the
conditioning
of
re-accreditation
had to
do with how to
cover the UN,
specifically
not insulting
Ban Ki-moon
even
inadvertently,
nor UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous. This
was
and remains
totally
inappropriate.
And
only
yesterday, on
the eve of the
permitted
roller blade
press
conference,
Dujarric sent
Inner City
Press another
formalistic
letter, now
criticizing a
story it
published
using UNCA
quotes from
a
meeting which
Inner City
Press announced
was on the
record, and
"new" UNCA
President Pam
Falk screamed
back, "He's
going to write
this up."
Yes. Here
it is.
Click here
("slander!"),
here, here
("don't write
about me!")
and
here for audio
of Pam Falk;
here
for
Charbonneau.
There is more.
What's
the basis of
the letter?
Inner City
Press
immediately
asked, but 23
hours later
there is no
answer. Tick
tick tock --
another form
of
reporting that
Dujarric has
felt free to
tell Inner
City Press it
should not
use. But here
it is: tick
tick tock, the
questions
should
be answered.
Watch this
site.
, 
