By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 10 -- Amid attacks on journalists and freedom of expression in countries all over the world, the United Nations under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is no sanctuary, nor champion, the Free UN Coalition for Access has found.  Sometimes, however, it is better than member states.

 On February 10, France - and, apparently, a French UN official -- controlled a press conference in the UN press briefing room by Christiane Taubira, French Minister of Justice and "Keeper of the Seals." The subject ostensibly was counter-terrorism and the rule of law, but the hand-picked questions left some major issues unaddressed.

  For example, what is the rule of law rationale for prosecuting Dieudonne for a Facebook post, while championing the free speech rights of Charlie Hebdo? This obvious rule of law question was not asked or allowed.

 The first question was set aside by the UN Correspondents Association, become the UN's Censorship Alliance; the other questions were also largely in French, right to the final question.

 A question was taken about Assad, and answered despite Minister Taubira prefacing her long answer with a statement she has nothing to do with foreign policy.

  Ok that - what about the rule of law and the traded release of four "Islamic extremists" (so described by the BBC) for French hostage in Mali Serge Lazarevic, in light of the current (and forthcoming) UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting this?

  The rule of law, of course, would also include prohibitions on bribery. Inner City Press on February 7 exclusively reported on UN jobs for sale in UN Peacekeeping run by Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row in the post. After Inner City Press asked the UN on February 9, the UN deputy spokesperson read an answer on February 10, of Ladsous' purported action, and inaction by the Ouattara government in Cite d'Ivoire. We'll have more on this.
 
 The point, for now, is that it is always better to take questions - particularly when making claims about freedom of the press and the rule of law.

 Back on January 22 France and Germany similarly controlled a press conference in the UN briefing room. French minister Harlem Desir called for social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to crack down on anti-Semitic posts.

 Inner City Press, including for the new Free UN Coalition for Access, sought to asked the French minister about the detention of comedian Dieudonne, after the Hollande government's unequivocal support for Charlie Hebdo's cartoons.

 But the question was not allowed: the French mission called on the old UN Correspondents Association, a representative who did not complain when Hollande took over the UN briefing room in September, and then on France 24. (Germany called on ARD and DPA.)

  Reuters wrote up the French proposal -- ironically by a scribe, Charbonneau, who himself has used false filings for censorship, calling his own leaked anti-Press email a copyrighted work, here, to get it removed and censored from Google's Search.

 On January 23, Inner City Press for FUNCA asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the detention of Dieudonne, transcript here:

  It's a better answer than France - which did not even allow the questions. As to the UN,  beyond stealth attempts to get the Press thrown out of the UN, there is often little but platitudes about attacks elsewhere.  FUNCA is Pressing the issue.

  On January 20, Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Bahrain sentencing Nabeel Rajab to six months in jail for a single tweet. Video here.

  Spokesman Dujarric said he expected a statement on that later in the day -- three hours later there was none -- then cited the right of expression, generally.

 The day before on January 19, Inner City Press on behalf of FUNCA asked Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq about Turkey having ordered Twitter, Google and Facebook to remove content by BirGun about alleged Erdogan government support to Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria, and threatening to ban Twitter entirely for not taking down the BirGun feed.
 
   Haq replied vaguely about the right to circulate information but said he would not speculate about the future of Twitter in Turkey.  Video here.

  It is not speculation: earlier this year Turkey banned both Twitter and YouTube. The Erdogan government has made the same (mis) use of copyright claims to censor leaked material as Reuters at the UN, here.