UNITED
NATIONS,
November 24 --
This stage of
the Iran talks
in Vienna
ended both
anti-climactic
and preempted.
The deadline
was extended,
and the press
conference by
John Kerry was
delayed by
Obama's
farewell to
Chuck Hagel.
(Covering
that event,
CNN's Wolf
Blitzer said
let's see if a
reporter
shouts a
question. But
the applause
was too loud:
no question on
the P5+1
talks, or
anything
else.)
Minutes later
in a tent in
Vienna, Kerry
was asked
about Hagel
being
micro-managed
by the White
House in of
the two
American press
questions he
took. After that
he insisted,
give the
foreign press
a change. To
an Iranian
question, he
called himself
both candid
and fair.
In
New York,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric if
Ban had any
comment on the
Iran talk
extensions.
"Let me get
back to you,"
Dujarric told
Inner City
Press.
Anti-climax.
As the Iran
P5+1 talks
continued on
the eve of the
current
deadline, who
was bragging
about having
predicted
their failure?
Western wire
service
Reuters, crowing
that "Other
media now
coming around
to @reuters
consistent
reporting on
how final Iran
atomic deal
unlikely."
While
false exclusives
have
proliferated
at Reuters
under Stephen
J. Adler,
there a
second,
separate trend
at work here.
On another UN
sanctions regime,
Somalia and
Eritrea, even
when former
Reuters
reporter
turned
sanctions
monitor Dinesh
Mahtani was
forced to
resign for
having championed
a new leader
for the country
he was
supposed to
monitor, Reuters
entirely
omitted his
removal from
its claimed
exclusives on
the sanctions
report.
Some of this
goes beyond a
desire, compensated
by editor
Adler, to
claim exclusives
even where not
merited
(including by
adopted a policy
of not crediting
others'
exclusives).
At the UN,
Reuters has
gone so far as
to try
to censor and
remove from
Google's
Search as
"copyrighted"
copies of
Reuters complaints
against other
media filed
with the UN, click here
for that.
At
what point
does this
become more
(or less) that
journalism?
What about
"other media
now coming
around to
@reuters
consistent"
refusal to
credit smaller
media,
attempts to
get them
kicked out,
then censoring
the Internet?
We'll have
more on this.
Back on
October 27 when
the UN's
special
rapporteur on
human rights
in Iran Ahmed
Shaheed held a
press
conference at
the UN, Inner
City Press
asked him for
an update on
what he had
said about the
effect of
sanctions and
banning of
Iran from the
SWIFT payments
system which
Inner City
Press asked
him about one
year and three
days earlier,
2013 here
from
Minute 12:29.
On
October 24,
2013, Shaheed
had
acknowledged
that the
banning of
Iran from the
SWIFT payments
system had had
an impact. On
October 27,
2014, Shaheed
said he
believes Iran
is still
banned from
SWIFT, but he
had no update.
Instead he
said that
humanitarian
exemptions to
sanctions are
having
successes. 2014 video here.
But
banning from
SWIFT or
"de-SWIFT-ing"
is not a
targeted
sanction at
all, and he
did not
mention any
exemptions to
it.
Overall, Inner
City Press
asked Shaheed
what impact he
thought "the
nuclear issue"
and the P5 + 1
talks have on
human rights
in Iran.
Shaheed said
he doesn't
like linkage,
but added that
when there's
focus on the
nuclear issue,
it takes away
from the focus
on human
rights.
Last
year Inner
City Press
obtained and
exclusively
published an
internal OHCHR
plan to take
over the "rule
of law"
functions of
the rest of
the UN system,
and the
staffing of
the Special
Representatives
on Children
and Armed
Conflict,
Sexual
Violence and
Conflict, R2P
and the
Prevention of
Genocide.What
has happened
on that? Are
rapporteurs,
like sanctions
monitors,
still not
given any
training or
orientation by
the UN?
Footnote:
on October 27,
the UN
Correspondents
Association
which so often
demands the
first question
be set-aside
for it didn't
even send
anyone to
Shaheed's
press
conference.
One attendee
said, it's
defUNCA-ed, as
in defunct, or
de-UNCA-ed,
like
de-SWIFT-ed.
The new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
present, did
not try to
brand the
press
conference,
because there
was no need.
Watch this
site.
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