On
DRC, Reuters
Plays Up
Ladsous'
Allegations,
No Mention of
Conflict of
Interest
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 19 –
Seeing a
headline like
“UN
chief suggests
Congo rebels
had outside
help to take
Goma,”
followed by
“Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
said on
Tuesday,” one
assumes that
Ban actually
SAID
something,
even, to the
reporter.
But
when Reuters
runs this
headline,
all that is
behind it is a
hum-drum
regular report
to the
Security
Council of the
UN's
peacekeeping
mission in the
Congo,
MONUSCO.
It
would not be
surprising
that MONUSCO,
and the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations
headed by
Herve Ladsous,
would want to
play
up outside
support to the
M23 rebels,
since MONUSCO
utterly failed
to
keep M23 from
taking over
Goma.
If
M23 weren't
said to be
receiving
massive
outside
support, what
does
it say about
MONUSCO?
But
this obvious
conflict of
interest in
the reporting
is not
mentioned
by Reuters.
Nor has
Reuters
reported that
Ladsous
was France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
to the UN in
1994,
defending the
escape of
the Hutu genocidaire
government
from Rwanda
into
then-Zaire,
nor
Ladsous'
refusal to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions at
the UN on
this period.
In
fact, Reuters
routinely uses
blind quotes
from Ladsous'
DPKO and the
UN, for
example on its
incorrect
January 25
report that
the Congo
framework
agreement
would be
signed that
weekend in
Addis Ababa.
Questions
about Reuters
policies,
including on
the use of
anonymous
quotes, have
gone
unanswered by
Reuters
editors like Stephen J. Adler, Walden
Siew, and
Paul
Ingrassia.
Documents
obtained under
the Freedom of
Information
Act reflect
they have a
POLICY of not
answering such
question, at
least from
Inner City
Press.
Reuters'
UN
bureau chief Lou
Charbonneau,
first
vice president
of the UN
Correspondents
Association
through which
he tried
to get Inner
City
Press thrown
out of the UN,
is connected
to anonymous
social media
account
which
slavishly
defends
Ladsous and
MONUSCO.
Reuters'
UN
bureau's
solicitude is
reciprocated:
when on
Saturday,
February 16
Reuters
“spotted” a
public but
personal tweet
by a person
working
for Rwanda's
mission to the
UN, Ban's
spokesman --
formerly of
Reuters
himself -- was
willing to
confirm the
tweet, and
not send the
information to
others who had
been asking
about the
framework
agreement.
In
other
circumstances,
Ban's
spokesperson's
office refuses
to confirm
the
authenticity
of leaked UN
documents, or
to comment on
news
reports; where
it does
answer, the
Office often
waits 24 hours
and
gives the
response to
all other
reporters at
once. So
what's the
deal? Watch
this site.
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