As
Philippines Censors Rappler,
Inner City Press Asked at UN,
Now Geneva Trio Speaks
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photo
UNITED NATIONS,
January 25 – After Philippines
authorities revoked the
license of online publication
The Rappler, Inner City Press
on January 15 asked UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric if the UN would say
or do anything about it. Video
here,
from 12:24, UN transcript
here: Inner city Press: in the
Philippines, the investigative
online publication the Rappler
has had its license revoked by
the Duterte Government
today. It’s a
well-known…Spokesman:
[cutting in] Listen, we stand…
as a matter of principle, for
freedom of the press and of
free media." Dujarric replied
with a platitude: the UN
supports press freedom. But
does it? The UN in New York
evicted and restricts
the Press. Now ten days later,
with nothing further from
Guterres or his reclusive
"Global Communicator" Alison
Smale, this from the UN in
Geneva: "The Philippines
Government must halt moves to
shut down independent news
website Rappler, a group of UN
human rights experts have
said. “We are gravely
concerned that the government
is moving to revoke Rappler’s
licence,” said the three
Special Rapporteurs in a joint
statement. “Rappler’s work
rests on its own freedom to
impart information, and more
importantly its vast
readership to have access to
its public interest
reporting,” the UN experts
said. “As a matter of human
rights law, there is no basis
to block it from operating.
Rappler and other independent
outlets need particular
protection because of the
essential role they play in
ensuring robust public
debate.” [But the UN
Headquarters doesn't live by
this standard, and has yet to
act on a similar
statement, raised
again this week to Guterres
and Smale.] The UN experts:
Mr. David Kaye,
Special Rapporteur on the
promotion and protection of
the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; Ms.
Agnes Callamard, Special
Rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary
executions; and Mr. Michel Forst,
Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights
defenders." the UN in the
Central African Republic is
making its own threats to get
the "communications
authorities" of that country
to take unspecified action
against two publications. See
MINUSCA Mission's January 6
press release - UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric on January 8
said he hadn't seen it,
despite Inner City Press
asking him about it in writing
on January 6, in connection
with reporting on it that day.
From the UN's January 8 transcript,
video here:
Inner City Press: the press
release that was put out by
MINUSCA [United Nations
Multidimensional Integrated
Stabilization Mission in the
Central African Republic]
denying certain media reports
that the peacekeeping Mission
gave weapons to… to
rebels. That's not the
part I wanted to ask you
about. The press release
put out by MINUSCA says that…
you know, is very critical of
the two media reports and says
that MINUSCA stands ready to
engage the Government
authorities to take
appropriate action against the
media. And I wanted to
know, what are those
actions? And is there
any UN policy on essentially
threatening media for its
reporting? Spokesman: I
haven't… maybe because I was
away, I hadn't seen the press
release. We, obviously,
support freedom of the press
and freedom of
expression. But, I
think, when there are errors
in media reports, we will
point them out and work with
the media concerned to ensure
that the reports are
corrected."
But here's from
the UN's January 6 press
release: "MINUSCA is
disappointed and deeply
concerned that Le Démocrate
and L’Expansion amplified
claims originating from a
private blog... MINUSCA
reserves the right to engage
the state communication
authorities in order to
initiate appropriate action."
What action? Photo here.
It is not enough,
apparently, for today's UN to
deny a report and use its
mega-phone, with more
resources that these CAR
media, to put out its story.
It has to threaten punishment
by the Central African
Republic government - at the
UN's request - of the media.
The Free
UN Coalition for Access
says this is UNacceptable.
What is the role in this of
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' "Global
Communicator" Alison
Smale, who called
getting positive coverage of
Guterres' trip to CAR (and
Cameroon for a golden statue)
her litmus
test? The grade of these
tests is: FAIL.
This month the UN
Correspondents Association is
partnering with Kazakhstan,
whose new media law is called
repressive and draconian, to
distribute "national
delicacies" every Tuesday and
Thursday. Photo here.
On January 5, Inner City Press
asked the UN Spokesman Farhan
Haq, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I actually
have a different kind of press
freedom question. I
wanted to ask you. In
[the United Republic of]
Tanzania, the Government has fined
a number of TV stations for
simply reporting on a report
by the legal Human Rights
Centre about irregularities in
an election and human rights
abuses, and I'm
wondering. I know it's
one of the countries where the
UN has a, you know, a country
team, et cetera. Is the
UN aware of that? Do
they have any comment on the
open fining of stations simply
for… for reporting on human
rights issues? Deputy
Spokesman: "I don't have
anything in particular on
this, but we'll ask with our
country team about that."
Seven hours later, nothing.
And no response from the UN
Department of Public
Information, whose chief
Alison Smale was asked the
simplest of questions. No
answer, even as she suddenly
promotes Kazakhstan stories.
More on this to follow.
It's that
Kazakhstan is president of the
Security Council this month,
and UNCA is selling the
correspondents it charges a
hundred dollars to access, or
the illusion of access,
however it might appear. In
November it was espresso served
up by Italy, the country of
UNCA's long time landlord
president Giampaolo Pioli.
Now, it's Kazakhstan. A new
and peculiarly UN tradition,
of sycophantry, is born. And
the Free
UN Coalition for Access
opposes it. We are certainly
open to hearing from the
Kazazh Mission its side of the
story. But any "press" group
which partners to hand out
delicacies, and limits
information to those who pay
it money, is no press
organization at all, except in
today's UN. Here is RSF's
review of Kazakhstan's new
law: "Under one of the most
controversial amendments,
journalists are required to
obtain the permission of
persons named in their
articles before publishing
information involving matters
of 'personal and family
confidentiality.'
Investigative journalists fear
it could obstruct their
reporting, especially coverage
of corruption. There is
similar concern about a ban on
“information violating lawful
interests,” which are also not
defined. One of the amendments
complicates the right of
access to state-held
information. The length of the
time within which officials
must answer journalists’
questions is more than
doubled, with the result that
by the time journalists get
their answer, there is every
chance it will no longer be
newsworthy. Furthermore,
officials are also given the
right to classify certain
answers. Under one of the
amendments, Internet users are
required to identify
themselves before posting a
comment on a news website, and
their information will be
stored for three months. This
suggests that there could be a
further increase in the number
of people being jailed because
of their online comments,
which has already grown
sharply in recent years." But
UNCA, now the UN's Censorship
Alliance, will be serving up
those Kazakh national
delicacies for the Mission. In
other related news, Iran will
be the subject of a UN
Security Council meeting of
some type on January 5 at 3
pm. There may be a procedural
vote - Inner City Press on
January 4 asked
Russian Ambassador Nebenzia
about any Iran meeting and he
replied, "Not unless they held
one without me." Kazakhstan is
the president of the Security
Council for January, and just
as they refused
on January 2 to take a single
Press question about Africa
(the first question was given
as a delicacy to UNCA, which
allowed for questions to be
bundled in packs of five to be
evaded), on January 4 they
sent notice only to their
favored correspondents.
(Notable, given press freedom
issues there.) As quickly
obtained by Inner City Press
from multiple sources, they
wrote: "Dear friends, To keep
you informed, tomorrow SC
meets on Iran at 3.00PM, open
format. And a short
announcement, our Delegation
is delighted to invite you to
a Tea and Coffee table with
Kazakh national delights, to
be served every Tuesday and
Thursday, starting from 9
January, 9.30 to 11.30AM, in
the UNCA Room, 3d Floor,
Secretariat Building. Alma
Konurbayeva, Spokesperson /
Counsellor, Permanent Mission
of the Republic of Kazakhstan
to the United Nations." Of
what might those "national
delights" consist? When
Kazazhstan held a press
conference about its
Presidency of the UN Security
Council for January,
Ambassador Kairat Umarov began
by noting that the majority of
the agenda involves countries
in Africa: at least seven
peacekeeping missions to be
reviewed in the month, with
Burundi and Cameroon not even
listed. But when the Kazakh
mission spokeswoman took
questions, not a single one
was on anything in Africa.
There was climate change, from
a self-described syndicated
columnist. There were
questions about two
(non-African) countries in the
Program of Work's footnotes.
But not a single one on
anywhere in Africa.
Inner City Press
said loudly, “On the DRC did
anyone even ask for a
statement on the crackdown?”
Video here
from 44:15. But the Ambassador
chose to answer another
question, about an issue he
called close to Kazakhstan's
heart, then ended it.
He had
said, during the press
conference, the Kazakhstan has
energy resources for the next
100 years. They won the Asia
seat over Thailand; apparently
that didn't require political
resources, at least in Africa.
We'll have more on this.
Back in September
2017 with the UN Security
Council presidency being taken
over by Ethiopia's Tekeda
Alemu, Inner City Press on
September 1 asked Ambassador
Alemu four questions, the
answers to which sketch out
the Ethopian government's
worldview. Video here.
In response to Inner City
Press asking why Burundi,
where even the UN says there
is a risk of genocide, is not
on his September Program of
Work nor on the agenda of the
Council's visit to Addis
Ababa, Alemu said that you
can't compare Burundi to
Central African Republic, that
Burundi has “strong state
institutions.” But it is that
very “strength,” which some
say the country shares with
Ethiopia, and with until
recently military-ruled
Myanmar about which Inner City
Press also asked, that has led
to the human rights
violations. In this context,
Inner City Press asked Alemu
about the Oromo protests - and
crackdown - in his country. He
diplomatically chided Inner
City Press for not having
asked in private, saying that
social media has played a
dangerous role. On the other
hand, when Inner City Press
asked Alemu at the end about
the murders of two UN experts
Michael Sharp and Zaida
Catalan, he replied that while
the DR Congo is due to
sovereignty the one to
investigate the murders, the
gruesome nature of the
killings put a “great
responsibility” on the DR
Congo. We'l have more on this.
Alamy photos here.
Earlier on September 1 in
Alemu's briefing to countries
not on the Security Council,
Bangladesh specifically asked
that the Council remain seized
of the situation in Myanmar.
When Inner City Press asked
Alemu about this, he said he
still had to inform himself
more about that situation. The
Security Council is traveling
to Addis from September 5
through 9, when alongside
African Union consultations
the Council's member will meet
for an hour with Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn,
Alemu said. The Council will
receive the “maiden briefings”
late in the month of the new
Under Secretaries General of
OCHA and on Counter-Terrorism.
There will be peacekeeping on
September 20, during the High
Level week of the UN General
Assembly, and Yemen on
September 26. But tellingly,
there will not be Burundi.
Watch this site.
***
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