Qatar
Behind
Paywall, No Al
Jazeera
America at UN
in NY, French
Control
Like
Peacekeeping?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 20 --
On August 19
inside the UN
in New York
City,
after a day-long
Security
Council debate
about the
protection of
civilians,
the
Qatar-funded
channel Al
Jazeera was no
longer
available, at
least not in
English.
It
used to be on
the UN's
in-house EZTV.
But Monday
night this
turned to
a Microsoft
blue screen --
Windows 7, by
the way -- and
only the
Arabic version
remained
available. On
the Internet,
the live
stream
of Al Jazeera
English had
ended, with
instructions
to lobby cable
TV
systems to
include the
new Al Jazeera
America.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which presses
for media
access of
all
kinds, asked
the UN
official in
charge of UN
TV, Stephane
Dujarric,
if the UN will
be getting Al
Jazeera
America, or
AJAM.
While
not
yet responding
to FUNCA
(or Inner City
Press) on a range
of other
UN media access
issues,
Dujarric to
his credit did
answer this
one:
"We hope to
have Al
Jazeera
English back
on air soon."
But
how? The UN's
EZTV uses Time
Warner cable
-- at least,
its logo
floats on the
screen for
other channels
previously
available in
the
UN that have
now gone
dormant, like
BBC, TV 5 and
MSNBC. And Al
Jazeera
America lists
Time Warner as
among the
cable systems
it says
must be
lobbied to put
it on.
Will
the UN lobby
Time Warner?
Or is it
making other
arrangements?
Expanding into
other issues
raised without
response by
FUNCA such as
the media
covering the
UN General
Assembly now
being confined
to
broken down
photo booth,
with no seats
for the press
or public
inside
the GA, and
anonymous
trolling by
the UN's
silent
partner, Inner
City
Press asked
Dujarric,
"what of UNGA
booth and
other basic
fixes
raised since
June?"
These
"basic fixes"
include issues
like
Dujarric's
partner the UN
Correspondents
Association at
least not
attacking the
Press with
confidential
complaints
about
questions
being asked
"too
aggressively"
of UN
officials
like Herve
Ladsous and
with
anonymous
social media
trolling.
Dujarric's
supervisors
long ago
vowed the
latter would
end, but the
problem
continues even
August 19,
like the
unfixed GA
booths.
(FUNCA
began in
December 2012
by asking the
UN to adopt content
neutral media
accreditation
policy and due
process rules
for
journalists
on stealth
complaints
like Voice of
America's,
after the UN
didn't substantively
respond to a related
NYCLU request
for
these.)
Dujarric
counseled
to "relax,"
and
"patience,"
with a
hashtag
no less.
But even just
on the Al
Jazeera issue,
the August 20
imposition of
a paywall (not
that Qatar
needs the
money) was
known of
long in
advance.
Given CNN's,
even CNNi's,
rotation of
stories, now
international
news options
inside the UN
are centered
around French
government
controlled
France 24.
FUNCA
will not
relax with
that -- France
already
controls UN
Peacekeeping
through
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to hold
the post. It's
time to
open up the
UN, in this
and other
ways. Watch @FUNCA_info, and this
site.