UN
Tells US Spy
Story
Differently in
English &
Spanish, Ban
in
Translation
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 5 --
This UN now
tells
different
stories about
the
same event to
its English
and
Spanish-speaking
audiences.
Some call
it dishonest.
After
Latin American
foreign
ministers from
MERCOSUR
raised US
spying to UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, the UN
News Center's
Spanish
version
published an
article
that Bolivia's
Ambassador
Sacha Llorenti
tweeted, and
the
Argentina
Mission to the
UN re-tweeted,
here.
The article
emphasized
what the
ministers
said, at a
stakeout after
meeting Ban.
But
the UN's
English
language UN
News Center's
report focused
on Ban,
making him
look committed
although on
the topic of
US spying he
was
quoted in a
meeting in
Iceland as saying
that Edward
Snowden
"misused" his
position and
information.
The UN
insisted it
was a private
meeting --
another form
of saying
different
things to
different
audiences.
So
did Ban
Ki-moon raise
in the
afternoon to
new US
Ambassador
Samantha Power
the spying
issue, that he
heard about in
the
morning from
foreign
ministers
Elías Jaua
Milano of
Venezuela,
Antonio de
Aguiar
Patriota of
Brazil, Héctor
Marcos
Timerman of
Argentina, and
Luis Almagro,
Minister of
Uruguay?
(The UN's
Media
Alert did not
mention
Bolivia)
They
spoke also
about
Argentina's
sovereignty
over the
Malvinas
Islands, the
blockade of
Cuba and, at
Ban's request,
Haiti.
One
still wants to
know if the
Haiti
discussion
addressed
cholera, which
the UN brought
to the island
and then
denied all
claims about.
This
Inner City
Press will be
pursuing.
Footnote:
At
the stakeout,
as another
media began
with a
question,
Pamela Falk
of CBS shouted
louder
invoking the
name of the UN
Correspondents
Association
-- ironic,
since it
or at least
its first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters has
been
demonstrably
shown to spy
for
the UN. Story
here, Charbonneau
& UNCA
audio here,
document
here.
UNCA
should not get
the first
question in a
sit-down press
conference,
including
because it
gives it only
to those who
pay in money.
But at
a stakeout
like Monday's
it's even
worse: a
question was
inappropriately
grabbed for
UNCA, and
wasted on a
softball.
Meanwhile
the
Department of
Public
Information,
which gives
UNCA this
special
status and
attacks others
for it, didn't
have the video
archive of
the MERCOSUR
stakeout
online even as
of 1:33 pm,
then provided
bad
quality audio
and did not
respond to questions
why from the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
And so it goes
at this UN.
As translated
by, yes,
Google
Translate,
here's the
UN's Spanish
lede: "August
5, 2013 - The
foreign
ministers of
the Southern
Common Market
(MERCOSUR),
said today the
UN Secretary
General, Ban
Ki-moon, his
outrage at the
overall
illegal spy
system made
??by the
government of
the United
States. After
meeting with
Ban at UN
headquarters,
Venezuelan
Foreign
Minister Elias
Jaua, spoke to
the press
along with the
foreign
ministers of
Argentina,
Hector
Timerman, of
Brazil,
Antonio
Patriota, of
Uruguay, Luis
Almagro, and
Bolivia ,
David
Choquehuanca.
"This practice
is absolutely
in violation
of
international
human rights
to safeguard
the
sovereignty
and
independence
of countries.
And far
beyond, is a
violation of
fundamental
human rights
of citizens of
our country
and of all
countries of
the world by
violating the
sacred right
to privacy of
the families,
citizens and
the citizens
of the world,"
he said."
, 
