UNITED
NATIONS, April
20 --
Confronting
the UN's
practice of
withholding
information
from the
public,
including its
own reports,
for days
while making
it selectively
available to
some, on April
15 Inner City
Press wrote
a story
and then asked
the UN about
the issue.
Tellingly,
rather
than explain,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky told
Inner City
Press, “I
think you are
aware of the
distinction,
and I don’t
intend to go
into that
here.”
The
question
is, why are
reports made
available to
some in paper
form
before the
digital file
is put online
through the UN
Document
System,
ODS? Clearly
the paper
copies are
printed from a
digital file.
So why
withhold it?
Inner City
Press, like
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access, is for
due process
rights for
journalists,
but does not
believe that
the media
should be in
the business
of
withholding,
or supporting
the
withholding or
delaying of
information to
the public.
This
came up
recently on
the annual
Western Sahara
issue, when
Ban's (and
French chief
of
Peacekeeping
Herve
Ladsous')
report on the
MINURSO
mission was
reported on by
Reuters and
notably Agence
France Presse,
but not
available to
people and
even
journalists
elsewhere.
Inner
City Press
received many
requests for
the report and
got to
wondering: why
hasn't the UN
just put it
online? In
this case, it
allowed
European and
French media
to pre-spin
the report.
So
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access raised
the issue in
writing to
Nesirky and
the Department
in charge of
UN documents,
and at the
April 16 noon
briefing Inner
City Press
asked:
Inner
City Press: I
also wanted to
know whether
the report,
for example,
on
Western
Sahara, and
other reports,
are they put
online on UN
documents
system when
they are
legally
available to
be given or is
there some
lull, and if
so, what
explains that
lull? ...Paper
copies
of some of
these reports
are available
as much as two
days before
they go
online, so
since it seems
to me that
paper copies
probably
are a printout
of the digital
file, does it
take the UN
two days to
put a digital
file… so what
explains the
up to 48-hour
delay
between
printing out a
digital file
and actually
just putting a
digital file
in the UN
documents
system?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I think you
are aware of
the
distinction,
Matthew, and I
don’t intend
to go into
that here.
What’s your
question on
the
CAR?
While
Inner
City Press wrote of
but didn't
push the issue
in that
briefing,
instead as
FUNCA
on April 18
putting the
question to
the head of
the Department
of
Public
Information
who has, as of
this writing
on April 20,
yet to
respond, a
letter did go
in on the
topic to
Nesirky and
DPI.
The
letter,
apparently not
publicly
released on
UNCA's website
or glassed in
bulletin
board and
so
put online
here, was
from the UNCA
Executive
Committee
ostensibly
presided over
by Pamela Falk
of CBS TV News
but
which is
dominated by
the wire
services which
benefit from
the UN's
withholding of
information
from the
public:
Reuters
represented by
Louis
Charbonneau,
AFP
represented by
Tim Witcher,
and others.
The
UNCA letter,
dated April 17
after the
April 16 noon
briefing
exchange
quoted above,
says:
“The
U.N.
Correspondents
Association's
Executive
Committee is
writing to
express its
support for
the continued
use of the
'Gray Lady' --
a
shelf used to
make U.N.
reports,
calendars and
other
documents
available to
reporters
interested in
them. In
addition to
the U.N.'s
online
presence, the
'Gray Lady'
has been a
useful way to
distribute
all kinds of
documents
rapidly to the
U.N. press
corps. We hope
the
tradition will
continue. The
volume of
printed matter
involved is
minimal so
there is no
reason to
abandon a
tradition that
has proven
to be
extremely
helpful for
U.N. reporters
over the
years.”
While
this letter,
and the
sequence in
time, speak
for themselves
-- can
you say, UN's
Censorship
(and
Withholding)
Alliance? --
we will have
more on this
issue. Watch
this site.
, 
