| UNSC
Prez Indonesia Blocks Press on Twitter
While Media There Are Attacked on COVID
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Thread Photo
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
UN GATE, August
28 – In the United Nations
from which SG Antonio Guterres
has banned Inner City Press
787 days for asking about his
complicity in the killing of
civilians in Cameroon and
their mass imprisonment by
China in Xinjiang, on August 3
Inner City Press wrote to the
Indonesia Mission, as incoming
UN Security Council president,
with questions about Cameroon,
Somalia and UNsexploitation.
There was no
answer from IndonesiaUNNY. As
the month went on, the
Indonesia Mission blocked
Inner City Press on Twitter,
amid attacks in Indonesia
itself on media criticizing
the government for its
COVID-19 response, see below.
In early
August Inner City Press
tweeted the questions, and
re-submitted them the comment
box on the Mission's website.
Nothing. This as Indonesia's
foreign minister Retno Marsudi
bragged online, "Under the
theme “Advancing Sustainable
Peace, Indonesia assumes
Presidency of the UN Security
Council for the month of
August 2020."
Apparently
Indonesia PR Dian Triansyah
Djani could only handle
questions from pre-screened
in-house correspondents, one
of whose media has no
story by her since
2017, another with
no stories at all, at
least one - actually, more --
a repeated #MeToo violator.
He took
only six questioners, none on
sub Saharan Africa. One of the
six was a long retired
photographer of UN bribers,
who asked about tourism in
Bali. As Inner City Press live
tweeted, questions came
to it about West Papua, on
which we'll have more. Djani
told a correspondent in a
leafy backyard that he, too,
lives in New Rochelle, and
pitched Batik face masks. It
was pathetic. He gave a bonus
round for a Maki plant to ask
him to trash Armenia about
Nogorno Karabakh. We'll have
more on this.
Indonesia
has not said a word about the
slaughter in Cameroon, nor
about the Tel Aviv UN
sexploitation exposed by Inner
City Press.
The
Program belatedly went up -
with countries on which
Indonesia ignored and censored
questions: Somalia, where
UNMAS sent local staff to be
killed, and Yemen. There will
be COVID (which the UN helped
spread in South Sudan) on
August 12; closed on Lebanon
on August 11, closed on Syria
August 5, closed on North
Korea August 27, Middle East
August 25 and on other days.
Nothing on Cameroon or DRC.
After
Inner City Press again on
August 4 covered and live
tweeted Indonesia's and
Djani's session with tame UN
NGOs, including one which
after lobbying to oust Inner
City Press praised Indonesia's
human rights record without
mentioned West Papua - as
Inner City Press immediately
did - the Indonesian Mission
blocked @InnerCityPress on
Twitter. Photo here
This is a
pattern: Media organisations
in Indonesia have reported a
spate of digital attacks
directed at critical coverage
of the Covid-19 pandemic. The
International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) and its
affiliate the Alliance of
Independent Journalists (AJI)
Indonesia are deeply concerned
that the hacking attacks are
aimed at restricting critical
reporting and suppressing
media freedom. At least
four media organisations have
been targeted in an
unprecedented series of
digital attacks. On August 21,
the Tempo news website was
replaced with a black screen
with the word ‘hoax’, in bold
red font splashed across it.
The same day articles,
including two articles
critical of the Indonesian
intelligence agency’s role in
the pandemic response, were
removed from the website of
tirto.id. The Director
of the Legal Aid Institute for
the Press (LBH Pers), Ade
Wahyudin, on August 21 said
the hacking is a legal
violation. Wahyudin said there
are mechanisms to deal with
news reports deemed to be
false, which involve
submitting the right of reply
or filing a complaint to the
Press Council.
Indonesia has
been president of the UN
Security Council. This is the
cesspool of censorship into
which Guterres has turned the
UN.
When Guterres'
spokes- / hatchetman Stephane
Dujarric holds his noon
briefings this month while
refusing all questions from
Inner City Press despite an on
camera promise.
And Indonesia? We'll report.
Watch this site.
***
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