UN
& Twitter
Mean
Censorship, No
Answer, Sandre
Book Review to
Come
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 21 --
Amid gushing
at the United
Nations about
social media,
there's too
little said
about freedom
of expression,
for example flogged
blogged Raif
Badawi in
Saudi Arabia
and the
Zone 9
Bloggers
jailed in
Ethiopia.
There's also
outright
hypocrisy.
As the UN
promotes
itself on
social media,
there is no
policy of
responding to
questions
raised by the
press or
public, even
on not
censoring. UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous
refuses to
answer Inner
City Press
questions (video here and here,
Vine);
his mission in
Haiti won't
answer tweeted
questions, or
put the Press
on its email
list (to which
it quickly and
happily adds
media which
barely cover
Haiti).
On February
19, after
getting no
answer from
the MINUSTAH
mission in
Haiti, Inner
City Press
asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric where
IS the report
on UN
Peacekeeping
shooting at
unarmed
demonstrators
promised two
months ago?
Dujarric
promised an
answer, not
yet received
two days
later.
The 2013 free
e-book
Twitter for
Diplomats by
Italian
diplomat
Andreas Sandre
says
at page 48
the UN social
media strategy
has been very
successful.
According to
the
e-diplomacy
Hub by Agence
France Presse
the United
Nations ranks
12th among the
most
influential
countries on
Twitter.
Of course, the
UN is not a
country, but
who's
counting?
For a new
book, Sandre
interviews
Dujarric among
others, and
one might like
to hear it.
But Sandre and
Dujarric (who
should know
better), as
well as
another listed
in Sandre's
acknowledgment,
instead of
holding an
event in the
UN to which
any journalist
could and
would go have
chosen to
partner with
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance a/k/a
UNCA.
Why is it
called the
Censorship
Alliance?
Well, not only
did its past
and current
present Giampaolo
Pioli in
2012 ordered factual
reporting
to be removed
from the
Internet, or ouster from UN,
see
related
Guardian UK
coverage here
-- UNCA even blocks
from its
Twitter feed
media which
the UN
pretends UNCA
is informing.
Tellingly,
the UN
Censorship did
nothing when
Ladsous
started saying
"I do not
respond;" quite the
contrary.
The new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
takes a
different
approach,
including on Twitter, here.
There
are UN staff
and even some
officials
contrary to
this
UNresponsive
trend, for
example John
Ging, Leila
Zerrougui and
David Nabarro
(there are
others whom
naming would
help even
less).
Thankfully
Sandre will be
appearing
flogging his
book outside
of the UN,
across First
Avenue, at an
event not
poisoned by
Censorship,
moderated by Mashable
(link
as full
disclosure).
We'll have
more on this.
By contrast -
in a UN
conference
room
journalists
could and did
enter and
attend -- back
on January30
when the UN
held a Social
Media Summit,
it concluded
with a panel
about trends,
from mobile to
analytics to
video and
Facebook's
acquisition of
Snapchat.
But what about
the UN
defending or
at least
speaking up
for freedom of
expression on
the Internet?
Earlier on
January 30,
Inner City
Press for the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric why
Ban while in
Ethiopia for
the African
Union summit
had not raised
the terrorism
charges
brought
against the
Zone 9
Bloggers. Video here.
Dujarric said
Ban has spoken
elsewhere
about freedom
of expression
in Africa, and
that the
(other)
contents of
his AU speech
were
interesting.
So Inner City
Press went to
the #SocialUN
final panel
and asked,
does the UN do
enough to
speak up for
freedom in
social media?
One of the
panelists had
just finished
praising high
tech in Qatar.
What about
arrests for
insulting the
leader? What
about Nabeel
Rajab in
Bahrain?
Video
here.
Panelist Hayes
Brown of
BuzzFeed, who
advised and
practices Be a
Person on
Twitter,
including
baking and
(good) jokes,
said it is
hard for the
UN, since it
has member
states that
pay its bills.
He said he
agreed about
bloggers in
Ethiopia but
wasn't sure
what the UN
could do,
beyond
speaking up.
Well, as to
the Zone 9
Bloggers, the
UN has yet to
speak up. That
would be a
start.
Panelist Liz
Borod Wight,
who moderator
Sree
Sreenivasan
marveled is
paid to do
Instagram for
the BBC, cites
those who
tweeted
#JeSuisCharlie
and said those
who have
freedom of
expression
should use it.
Panelist Adam
Glenn from
CUNY
Journalism
School said,
hoping not to
offend the
hosts the UN,
that the UN
should ensure
that all of
its staff have
training and
can tweet.
Inner City
Press and
FUNCA note,
for example,
that a UN staffer
in South Sudan
abruptly
stopped
tweeting
after she
tweeted this:
"#breaking Lou
Nuer youth are
mobilising in
big numbers
leaving #Akobo
town empty
heading
towards
Dengjok
#Southsudan."
As Inner City
Press reported
at the time,
after Mathilde
Kaalund-Jørgensen
raised this
alarm, the
tweet and her
Twitter
account
profile both
disappeared.
So much for
Rights Up
Front.
At the end of
the panel a UN
staffer took
the floor to
acknowledge
that UN staff
cannot tweet
what they
think. But
can't Ban
Ki-moon say
what he
thinks? Or
doesn't he
think it?
We'll have
more on this.
, 
