UNITED
NATIONS, July
3 -- How far
will the UN go
to try
to ban dissent
and
to censor
those who
question it?
Recently
Inner
City Press
asked the UN
to respond to
what a Somalia
whistleblower
told it, that
the head of
the UN Mine
Action Service
in
Mogadishu
David Bax has
been sharing
genetic
information
from
bombings with
US
intelligence.
While
still
not answering
the question,
now after 10
days, the
UN is
conducting
a witch hunt
seeking to
root out the
whistleblower.
On
a smaller
scale in UN
Headquarters
itself, the UN
seems intent
on
trying
to ban the
sign and
even name of
the new Free
UN Coalition
for
Access.
At the
July 3 noon
briefing with
Deputy
Secretary
General Jan
Eliasson,
before asking
about
Afghanistan
and Sri Lanka,
Inner City
Press thanked
Eliasson “on
behalf of the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access.”
UN
video
here, from
Minute 19:44.
But
when the UN
put out its
transcript,
the name of
FUNCA was cut
out:
“Q:
I want to
thank you for
doing this
briefing so
soon after you
got
back, and also
I hope that we
will have some
questions on
more
general UN
items, after,
it should
be... There is
DRC, Haiti and
other things
going on.”
By
contrast, the
UN
(mis)
transcription
left in the
name of the
old
UNCA, as
recited by its
2013 president
Pamela Falk of
CBSNews.com:
“Q:
Mr. Deputy
Secretary-General,
welcome on
behalf of the
UN
Correspondents’
Association,
welcome back
and thank you
for the
briefing.”
Who
in the UN
decided what
to cut out of
what purports
to be a
transcript?
What is the
basis of the
deletions? If
they cut this,
do
they cut or
change whole
questions?
Answers? We
have asked.
This
takes place as
the UN
Department of
Public
Information
has threatened
to suspend or
withdraw Inner
City Press'
accreditation
for having a
FUNCA
sign on the
door of its
office -
despite the
fact that UNCA is
allowed two
signs, and
much more.
Even
amid this
censorship,
FUNCA
continues its
work, pushing
inside the UN
to restore
space for the
press and
public
100%
eliminated in
the new
General
Assembly Hall,
and on July
3 supporting a
FUNCA member
in
Somaliland,
protesting the
jailing of two
fellow
journalists
there.
But
how far with
the UN go to
try to ban
dissent and to
censor those
who
question it?
And what does
it undermine?
Watch this
site.
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