By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 2
-- The pious
statements
have begun,
from Obama to
the United
Nations, for
the first
International
Day to End
Impunity for
Crimes against
Journalists.
But has the UN
really
supported
journalists
under fire
from extremist
and government
forces in
places like Sri
Lanka?
And isn't the
US pursuing
cases against
journalists
like James Risen
and James Rosen
for pursuing
information?
The day will
be celebrated
on November 3
at the UN, where
media access
has been in
decline. The
UN's head of
Peacekeeping refuses to answer Press questions
and most
recently
blocked a press
a camera from
filming at the
authorized
General
Assembly
stakeout area,
Vine
here.
Overall
the UN's lack
of
accountability,
from bringing
cholera to
Haiti to
using as “peacekeepers”
armies under
investigation
for war crimes
like those of
the DR Congo
and Sri Lanka,
is enabled by
the lack of
even a basic
Freedom of
Information
Act covering
the UN.
Inner
City Press,
which has
litigated FOIA
cases all the
way to the US
Supreme Court
and submitted
FOI request to
dozens of
countries, has
long
pushed for
a UN Freedom
of Information
Act.
As
reported on
September 15 by the Columbia Journalism Review, “Inner City Press...
reported that
Burnham’s
successor,
Alicia
Barcena, said
it would be in
place by the
end of 2007.
But the
General
Assembly never
agreed on the
scheme, and it
was quietly
shelved.
“There were
differing
views among
Member States
about what
constituted
openness,”
said Stephane
Dujarric,
spokesman for
Secretary-General
Ban Ki Moon,
in an email.”
(Inner City
Press asked
Dujarric about
the quote at
the September
15, 2014, noon
briefing, video here and embedded below.)
What
leadership --
citing
“differing
views,” the UN
Secretariat
gave up before
it even began.
CJR also
quotes a rights
group which
won't disclose
what issues it
raises to Ban,
and
correspondents
happy to get
leaks and text
from their
Western
sources. This
same organization,
beyond
its Executive
Committee
trying to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
withheld
its Q&A
with Ban
Ki-moon even
from its own
members, here.
This scam
group, became
under recent
leadership the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance, is
sure to join
in pious talk
on November 3.
In order to
pursue more
access to
information --
and the
protection of
the rights of
investigative
journalists
against such
insider
approaches --
Inner City
Press
co-founded the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
FUNCA
says it is
absurd for the
UN Secretariat
to blame
member states
for its own
refusal to be
transparent
with its own
financial
information.
Furthermore,
how can Ban's
UN make claims
about “we the
peoples” while
blaming
unnamed
governments
for banning
accountability
to the
peoples?
CJR
concluded, as
we will for
now, with
this: “Inner
City Press
continues to
advocate for a
systematic
freedom of
information
policy, but
admits that
there is
little binding
pressure
journalists
can put on the
UN legally.
'Ultimately
you end up
making a moral
argument,
which is that
more so than
most
governments,
the UN is
always
pontificating
about good
governance and
transparency,'
he said.
'That’s what I
find so
ironic.'”
Ironic
is a
diplomatic way
to put it.
Watch this
site -- and this (FUNCA) one.
, 
