By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 25 --
At Manhattan's
Waldorf
Astoria Hotel
a crowd of the elite
not only of
media but of
the (corporate)
law,
the men in
tuxedos, on
November 24
rightly
celebrated
journalists
like the Free
Zone 9
Bloggers of
Ethiopia.
Inner City
Press went to
cover the
event in order
to interview
the Ethiopian
bloggers,
about those
incarceration
it had
repeatedly
asked the UN,
without
meaningful
response. The
bloggers were
not to be
found in the
Astor or Jade
rooms,
reception
sponsored by
Reuters, so
Inner City
Press went to
take in the
scene from the
balcony above
the ballroom
floor. Periscope
video here
After
some interplay
with security,
the Press was
directed to a
lower balcony
directly above
tables with
signs for Time
Inc, First
Look Media
and,
incongruously,
the Debevoise
& Plimpton
corporate law
firm.
The speakers,
from MC David
Muir to CPJ's
own
executives,
told those in
attendance
they were
helping just
be being
present (and,
presumably,
paying). But
there is a
question: if
for example
the law firm
of Debevoise
& Plimpton
promotes
investment in
the same
Ethiopia which
locked up the
Zone 9
Bloggers, and
did deals in
Mahinda
Rajapaksa's
Sri Lanka,
which killed
journalists,
is the
one-night
purchase of a
table on
balance of
assistance?
Some might say
that with this
money they do
good. But if
the cause is
truth, or even
speaking truth
to power, does
the hobnobs of
corporate
M&A law
firms with
corporate
media, some it
new, really
serve that
cause?
From the
balcony before
leaving, there
was too little
-- seemingly
no -- mention
of the plight
of journalists
in Burundi,
for example;
the treatment
of Turkey
seemed
kids-gloved
(although
Christiane
Amanpour did
mention the
country in a
video she
narrated).
We'll have
more on this.
Last
year, too, Inner
City Press and
the UN-based Free UN Coalition for Access were left
with
questions. The
selection by
the Committee
to Protect
Journalists
seemed
one-sided,
without even a
tip of the
cap, or
bow-tie, to
James Risen or
James Rosen,
prosecuted the
the US, much
less
journalists
killed in
Eastern
Ukraine by
forces based
in Kyiv.
Or take the
cases of
Ethiopia's
Zone 9
bloggers and
Temesgen
Desalegn,
which were
tellingly
ignored by CPJ
when on a
panel at the
UN on November
3, 2014.
That day the
UN held its
event for the
first
International
Day to End
Impunity for
Crimes against
Journalists.
Not a single
question from
a journalist
was
taken.
CPJ was on the
panel.
Also
speaking from
the podium was
for example
UNESCO's
Deputy
Director
General Getachew
Engida of
Ethiopia,
a country
which just
sentenced to
three years in
jail
journalist
Desalegn.
This
journalist's
imprisonment,
for
“provocation,”
is hardly low
profile;
either is that
of the
Ethopian Zone
9 Bloggers.
But the
moderator,
UNESCO's
George
Papagiannis,
did not raise
the issue,
even as he
purported to
read out
congratulatory
live-tweets
about the
event.
(IFEX
to its credit
did reply
to one of @InnerCityPress' tweets
questioning
the event and
how it was
run, here.
By another, it
was suggested
that maybe
Engida, even
with his many
UN system
posts, is a
dissident from
Ethiopia. But
it does not
seem like it:
see
recent photo
here.)
Nor
did any of the
other
panelists
raise it: Joel
Simon of CPJ,
Greece's
Ambassador,
Columbia
University's
Agnes
Callamard. The
lone media
panelist, from
Al Arabiya,
spoke without
irony about
naming and
shaming
countries
which jail
critics for
mere tweets:
many in the
Gulf and
Arabian
Peninsula.
Inner
City Press as
media, and the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
had this
question
ready:
“about
an
underpinning
to deadly
attacks on
journalist:
the idea that
they are
parties to a
conflict, or
can be
prosecuted for
their
reporting on
national
security. Can
the panel,
particularly
the Deputy
Director
General of
UNESCO,
comment on
Ethiopia
jailing
journalist
Temesgen
Desalegn for
three years
for
“provocation”?
Or, to be
fair, the prosecutions
here in the US
of James
Rosen, James
Risen and
Barrett Brown,
set to be
sentenced on
November 24?
Of the
breaking up of
meetings of
reporters in Sri
Lanka, a
country in
which
journalists
have been
killed or
“disappeared,”
as in the case
of Prageeth.
What is the
relation of
such
prosecutions
to the actual
killing of
journalists?”
But,
as noted, the
hour and a
half long
panel took not
a single
question from
a journalist.
At the day's
UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric if
Ban while in
Ethiopia
recently to
make it the
third largest
UN “duty
station” had
in any way
raised the
case of
journalist
Temesgen
Desalegn.
Apparently
not. This is
how the UN --
and CPJ, to
some extent --
work, or
don't.
When CPJ was
shown of
censorship
within the UN
itself, it did
nothing.
Then president
of the UN
Correspondents
Association
Giampaolo
Pioli demanded
that a Press
story about
him renting
one of his
Manhattan
apartments to
Palitha Kohona,
Sri Lanka's
ambassador,
then
unilaterally
agreeing to
use UNCA to
screen the Sri
Lankan
government's
war crimes
denial film in
the UN.
When Inner
City Press
refused to
take the story
down, instead
offering to
publish a
letter to the
editor of any
length, Pioli
made good on
this threat to
try to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN.
Documents
obtained from Voice of
America under
FOIA here,
here
(AFP) and
here
(Reuters -
which also
tried to censor
its complaint
to the UN,
here, via
Electronic
Frontier
Foundation's
Chilling
Effects
project.
What
did CPJ do or
say about
this? Unlike
the New
York Civil
Liberties
Union, here,
CPJ did and
said nothing -
like the Sri
Lankan
government, it
uses UNCA as
one of its
ways into the
UN. It is
inconvenient
to look at
this. But now,
indicative of
UNCA's decay,
Pioli
is set without
competition
to return to
head UNCA. So
will CPJ's longstanding
marriage of
convenience at
the UN
continue
apace? Watch
this site.
, 
