Amid
Ukraine &
Russia
Speeches, UN
Radio
Reported
Ukraine's A
Day Before
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 22 --
Ukraine was
scheduled to
speak at the
UN about
its “Committee
on
Information”
on October 21,
but as UN
speeches
usually go
longer than
allowed, its
turn was
postponed
until October
22.
That
didn't stop
the “UN
Radio” Russian
service from
reporting
on the
speech on
October 21 as
if it had in
fact been
given that
day. As
translated, UN
Radio on
October 21
reported
“The
representative
of Ukraine
accused Russia
of using the
information
strategy of
the Cold War
“One
of the main
prerequisites
of violence in
Ukraine became
a propaganda
information.
This was
stated by the
representative
of the Mission
of
Ukraine to the
United
Nations,
speaking at a
meeting of the
Fourth
Committee of
the UN General
Assembly.”
The
UN's Fourth
Committee did
meet on
October 21 -
but Ukraine
didn't
speak. Instead
it was the
first speaker
on the
afternoon of
October
22. Its
speech,
delivered in
perfect French
including the
word
“rigolo,”
linked Russia
to Joseph
Goebbels.
In
reply, the
Russian
mission's
spokesman
brought up the
recent Human
Rights Watch
report of the
Ukrainian
government
using cluster
bombs
in and against
Donetsk, and
the lack of
clarity on who
called the
snipers shots
in Maidan
Square.
Later
in the Fourth
Committee
meeting,
Bolivia
slammed
“powers” who
use
information
technology to
intervene and
violate
privacy,
bringing to
mind USAID's
“Cuban
Twitter”
and, of
course, the
NSA.
Then
Jordan said it
was first
among Arab
nations to
enact an
Access to
Information
law, in 2007.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has been
pressing
for a Freedom
of Information
Act at the UN,
click here
and
here for that.
FUNCA
covers the
Fourth
Committee,
including on
Decolonization,
and the
Committee on
Information,
where at least
theoretically
the UN's
descent into
censorship
could be
raised and
resolved. The
old UN
Correspondents
Association, a
part of this
trend toward privatization
of
briefings
and even
censorship --
ordering
Press articles
off the
Internet,
getting leaked
copies of
their
complaints to
the UN's MALU
banned from
Google's
search, here
-- was nowhere
to be seen.
We'll
have more on
this.
, 
