For
Trip
to DRC &
Rwanda, UN
Lets France
Pick Its
Scribes,
Despite
Genocide
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 20
-- When the UN
Security
Council goes
on a trip
with media to
Rwanda and the
Congo, who
decides which
reporters can
go?
In
this case,
France -- a
country which
sided with the
genocidaires
in
Rwanda, and
which has installed
one of its
diplomats who
argued for
the genocidaires'
escape, Herve
Ladsous, as
the head of UN
Peacekeeping.
How
is this fair?
But it is how
the UN works.
This too:
notice of the
opportunity
for some
reporters to
go on the trip
was sent out
at noon
on September
18 by
Pamela Falk of
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
whose
Executive
Committee
member Tim
Witcher of
Agence France
Presse
filed a
complaint with
UN Security
leading with
how Inner City
Press asked a
question to
Ladsous about
the DRC.
UNCA's
first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters takes
"leaks"
from France
and the UK
(while
leaking TO the
UN), and
on the DRC
routinely
parrots their
line
about Rwanda
supporting the
M23 rebels.
(Charbonneau
and
Witcher were
linked last
week in
MediaBistro to
imposter Inner
City Press
social media
accounts, the
culmination of
nine months of
anonymous
trolling link
to UNCA, the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Their
anonymous
comments
complained
Inner City
Press is
"pro-Rwanda" -
explaining the
trip
decisions, and
why Inner City
Press will
write rather
than appeal.)
Inner
City Press has
asked -- why
was
information
about a UN
Security
Council trip
distributed
only to those
who pay UNCA
money? After
this
question was
raised, six
hours later, a
notice to the
Office of the
Spokesperson
for Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's full
list was sent.
But the
question
remained
unanswered.
Inner
City Press
immediately
notified Ban's
spokesperson's
office of its
interest in
going on the
Security
Council trip,
as it went on
in
2010.
But
on Friday
evening, the
following
arrived:
From:
Jerome
Bernard [at]
un.org
Date: Fri, Sep
20, 2013 at
6:46 PM
Subject: Re:
Security
Council trip
to Africa
To:
Matthew
Russell Lee
[at]
InnerCityPress
[dot] com
Cc: Free
UN
Coalition for
Access @FUNCA_info
Hi
Matthew,
I
am sorry but
because of the
very limited
number of
seats in the
UN
plane it won't
be possible
for you to
travel with
the Security
Council for
this trip to
the Great
Lakes Region
of Africa.
I
am sure there
will be other
opportunities
for travel in
the future.
Best
regards,
Jerome
Bernard
Office of the
Spokesperson
for the
Secretary-General
So
who made this
decision?
Inner City
Press is
informed: the
French
Mission, they
are in charge
of the trip.
What a
charade. A
journalist
should not
have to appeal
to another
country to be
treated
fairly.
Inner City
Press writes
extensively
about the DRC
(in fact, it first
reported that
this trip
would happen).
In 2010, Inner
City Press
went on a
Security
Council trip
to Africa. Has
its reporting
declined since
then? For
2013, @InnerCityPress
was named
a "Twitterati
100" by
Foreign Policy
magazine, one
of only two
covering the
UN.
Inner
City Press has
asked for a
list of the
scribes France
hand-picked to
cover "its"
trip to the
Great Lakes
region. Going
forward,
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
is seeking to
reform
both corrupt
information
flows and a UN
which allows a
country which
supported a
genocide to
chose which
media fly in
the UN plane
to
cover it.
Watch this
site.
, 
