Tellingly,
some in the
press briefing
room applauded
before
Dujarric even
said a word.
He read a
statement for
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon about
"The Ukraine."
In the
question and
answer
session, four
of the first
five
questioners
Dujarric
called on were
among the 15
executive
committee
members of the
United
Nations
Correspondents
Association,
with which Dujarric
has some
history.
Inner City
Press asked if
Ban
Ki-moon had
the Haiti
cholera court
papers taped
to his
residence door
on January 20
-- no answer
-- and for UN
response to
Channel 4's
new video
showing abuse
by the
military of
Sri Lanka,
from which the
UN accepts
peacekeepers
and even
Shavendra
Silva as an
adviser.
(Dujarric said
he hasn't seen
the video; it
is online here:
warning,
graphic).
On the case
against the UN
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti, Inner
City Press
asked Dujarric
to confirm
that the court
papers were
taped to the
door of Ban's
residence on
January.
Dujarric
declined to
confirm - or
deny - this. Video on Haiti (and Sri Lanka) here.
As it did days
ago, Inner
City Press
asked for the
status of
selecting
Dujarric's
replacement as
head of the
News and Media
Division, in
charge of UN
media
accreditation.
No answer has
been given
about this
status. This
is of concern.
A
flier the Free UN Coalition for Access posted on
this topic, on
the "non-UNCA"
bulletin board
it advocated
for, was torn
down on March
7. At a second
briefing, by
the CTBTO, on
March 10
Dujarric
called first
on UNCA, then
on others.
When Inner
City Press
thanked
CTBTO's Zerbo
on behalf of
FUNCA - the
point is,
there cannot
be only one
organization
given UNCA's
track record
of attempted
censorship and
even more now
with
Dujarric's
history with
them --
Dujarric tried
to move on
(back to UNCA)
before the
related
question on France's
nuclear tests
in the Pacific
was answered.
It is a new
era, requiring
a new
approach.
Two years ago
Dujarric was
re-introduced
to UN
journalist as
the chief of
the News &
Media
Division, in a
reception in
what the UN
called "UNCA
Square." And
then the
censorship
attempts
began.
A
journalist for
Iranian TV,
found to have
a rubber gun
which was a
prop in an
independent
film he was
working on, had his UN
accreditation
revoked,
permanently.
Dujarric was
in charge of
Media
Accreditation,
and Inner City
Press asked
him for a
justification
of this "one
strike and
you're out
policy." No
answer was
ever provided
by Dujarric.
Also
in his Media
Accreditation
role, Dujarric
chastised
Inner City
Press for
daring to go
stand outside
and try to
cover a
meeting of
Ban's Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations,
which included
controversial
Sri Lankan
military
figure
Shavendra
Silva. After
the Sri Lankan
government
directed a
complaint
letter to the
aforementioned
UNCA, Inner
City Press was
told
it could not
cover the
meetings.
Inner
City Press,
then on the
board of UNCA,
was not
notified when
the
organization's
then president
agreed to
screen a Sri
Lankan
government
film denying
war crimes.
After it
published an
article noting
that the UNCA
president had
in the past
rented one of
his apartments
to Palitha
Kohona, Sri
Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
to the UN,
demands were
made that
Inner City
Press remove
the article
from the
Internet.
UNCA
took to
sending copies
of
correspondence
to Dujarric,
about articles
Inner City
Press had
written about
officials and
diplomats of
Dujarric's
native France.
Finally, UNCA
first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters sent a
complaint
against Inner
City Press to
Dujarric,
calling it
"for the
record."
More
recently,
Charbonneau
has gotten one
of his
complaints to
Dujarric
banned from
Google's
Search, using
a filing
under the
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
-- straight up
censorship.
What does
Dujarric say?
In
fact, Dujarric
solicited
complaints
against Inner
City Press
from other big-media
UNCA
board
members,
through a
private,
including
through non-UN
email address.
Freedom
of Information
Act responses
show that UNCA
board members
met with "the
UN" to
request that
Inner City
Press be
thrown out.
Once Inner
City Press
published some
of these,
Dujarric on
June 29, 2012
asked to meet
Inner City
Press.
Dujarric
told
Inner City
Press not to
refer to Ban
Ki-moon as
"Wan Ki-moon"
and not to
refer to Herve
Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row atop UN
Peacekeeping,
as The Drone
despite
Ladsous
proposing the
UN's first use
of drones and
refusing to
answer Press
questions
about it.
This and a
specious
criticism for
having signed
Nobel Peace
Prize Winner
Tawakul Karman
of Yemen into
the UN,
where she
dared speak on
the UN
microphone
after a
Security
Council
meeting on
Yemen, were
linked by
Dujarric to
re-accreditation
he controlled.
Criticism of
stories,
coverage and
even tweets is
fine -- but
when done by
an official in
charge of
accreditation,
and even tied
to
accreditation,
we call it
what it is:
censorship.
Disgusted,
Inner
City Press and
another long
time
correspondent
from Brazil
founded the Free UN Coalition for Access as an
alternative to
the insider
UNCA, which
did not for
example offer
any defense to
the cameraman
thrown out for
the rubber
gun. (Reuters'
Charbonneau,
in fact, wrote
a story
playing up the
Iranian
angle.)
But
Dujarric
became the
interlocutor
for FUNCA. He
said only UNCA
was needed.
After
convening a
meeting
between FUNCA
and UNCA, at
which Inner
City Press openly said
"this is on
the record"
and UNCA
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS said,
"He's going to
write about
this,"
Dujarric sent
Inner City
Press a letter
which claimed the meeting was off the record and said
FUNCA was not
a DPI
interlocutor
for reform.
There
have been no
reforms since,
quite the
opposite.
Dujarric, who
earlier
refused a New
York Civil
Liberties
Union request
that the UN
provide due
process to
journalists,
continued the
Kafka-esque
atmosphere in
March 2013
when Reuters
and Agence
France-Presse
filed stealth
complaints
leading
with how Inner
City Press
asked a
question to Herve
Ladsous.
When
Dujarric's
Accreditation
Unit led a
raid on Inner
City Press'
office, photos
from which
quickly
appeared on
BuzzFeed,
Dujarric
denied any
role in giving
out the
photos. But
the published
photos are
identical to
the ones his
unit took that
day.
Since the
letter with
the false "off
the record"
claim, the
raid and
photos and
attempt to
censor tweets,
there has been
very little
contact
(though there
was an attempt
to essentially
ban FUNCA,
another
limitation on
freedom of
association,
speech and
press). FUNCA
has continued,
working with
UN-focused
journalists
not only in
New York but
as far afield
as Somaliland
and Colombia.
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