Reuters'
Charbonneau
Stole Feltman
Scoop, Tried
to Get UN To
Eject ICP
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Media Critique
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 24 --
Three days
after the exclusive
report by
Inner
City Press
that US
official
Jeffrey
Feltman would
replace Lynn
Pascoe as the
head of the UN
Department of
Political
Affairs
was
stolen
by Reuters,
which unlike Foreign
Policy's The
Cable
gave no
credit, it is
emerged that
Reuters' UN
reporter Louis
Charbonneau
sought to have
Inner City
Press ejected
from the UN. See
Charbonneau's
e-mail to the
UN, here.
Inner
City Press' scoop
about Feltman
was published
back on
March 28.
Thereafter,
Charbonneau
wrote to the
head of the UN's Media
Accreditation
and
Liaison Unit,
and to her
supervisor the
former
spokesman of
Kofi
Annan,
claiming that
Inner City
Press'
reporter is
"making it
very hard for
me and others
in the UN
press to do
our
jobs." Reuters'
Charbonneau's
e-mail is in
this context
being put
online here.
Charbonneau
sent
copies of his
email to,
among others,
Tim
Witcher of
Agence
France Presse,
who previously
at the behest
of the French
Mission to
the UN
sought to have
Inner City
Press
disciplined
for reporting
that
the French
Mission didn't
know that
then-President
Nicolas
Sarkozy
would switch
Herve "The
Drone"
Ladsous for
Jerome
Bonnafont as
the French
head of
the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations.
Hard to do
their jobs,
indeed.
In
the "incident"
Charbonneau
refers to,
Inner City
Press had
just been
informed by
another
correspondent
that
Charbonneau
had
sought to
bypass Inner
City Press on
communications
which should
have
been sent to
it, with the
goal of
getting Inner
City Press
ejected.
(Inner City
Press is
choosing not
to divulge
more due to a
rule,
largely pushed
by
Charbonneau,
that all
proceeding be
confidential.
Suffice it for
now to say
that beyond
seeking to
serve himself
and
Reuters by
complaining to
the UN,
Charbonneau
was abusing
power and
position.)
So
disgust was
expressed, no
violence or
even the
threat of it.
Charbonneau
tried to use
this word
"disgust" --
accurate,
as it turns
out -- to get
the UN to
eject Inner
City Press.
On
May 21 after
seeing
Charbonneau
listed on the
Reuters
article which
stole the
Feltman scoop,
Inner City
Press sent him
an e-mail with
the
full text of
the initial
and exclusive
March 28
report.
Charbonneau
did not and
has not
responded to
the e-mail.
Inner
City Press
then sought to
post a comment
on the story
on the
Reuters.com
website. While
other
non-substantive
comments were
allowed by
Reuters, this
one was not.
So
Inner City
Press for two
days sought to
reach Reuters
editors or
officials. The
links to the
two editors on
the
triple-bylined
story led only
to
their "blogs."
(The three
bylined
reporters were
"Arshad
Mohammed,
Warren Strobel
and Louis
Charbonneau;
Editing by
Vicki
Allen and
Eric Beech.)
Reuters'
"Director
of Global
Communications"
Barb Burg was
reachable only
through a
secretary,
Alexis who on
May 23 finally
said to e-mail
the two of the
above. One was
"out of the
office;" the
other has yet
to
respond, even
after a follow
up message on
May 24.
Meanwhile
we will
now report
that Reuter's
UN
Correspondent
Lou
Charbonneau
states that
he has
personally
adopted a
policy of NOT
crediting
Inner City
Press,
allegedly
based on
another report
more than a
year ago in
which after
Reuters'
Charbonneau
reported he
has "seen" a
report, Inner
City Press
posted the
whole report
on line.
Yesterday to
remove any
pretext, Inner
City Press immediately
after
Charbonneau's
belated
complaint
removed from
the Internet
both the story
and the
report.
Inner City
Press
previously reported
that Ban
Ki-moon's
Darfur envoy
Ibrahim
Gambari had
attended and
taken photos
with
International
Criminal Court
indictee Omar
al Bashir at a
wedding
reception for
Chad's Idriss
Deby and the
daughter of
janjaweed
militia
founder Musa
Hillal. To
prove the
point, Inner
City Press
searched for
and found the
wedding
reception
photos online,
with no
apparent
copyright.
During a later
dispute,
Reuters or
simply its
UN
correspondent
Louis
Charbonneau
made a claim
of copyright
to the
photographs --
the impunity
significance
of which
Reuters had
not written
about -- and
Inner City
Press in an
abundance of
caution
removed these
and all photos
from its
story. But who
was served?
Who was
protected, by
whom?
Charbonneau
earlier
this month,
after Inner
City Press
asked Kosovo's
Enver Hoxhaj
about his
country's
support of
Syria, took
the answers as
a stand-alone
story with no
credit.
(Charbonneau
has asked
about Kosovo's
Brussels
office, a
non-story).
Compare UN
video to Charbonneau's
Reuters
"story."
It
should be
noted that
other
exclusives
have been
stolen at the
UN. Earlier
this year
Inner City
Press reported
that 14
kilograms of
cocaine were
found in the
UN mail room
and covered up.
After writing
the story,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about it at
the next noon
briefing. He
had no answer,
but later
in the day
organized a 6
pm stakeout by
UN Security
chief Gregory
Starr to
"rebut" the
charges.
The
UN
correspondents
of Reuters, Bloomberg
(changing 14
kilos to "35
pounds"),
AFP
(changing to
"35.5 pounds")
Agence
France Presse
(whose Tim
Witcher as
noted above
was previously
used to
harass Inner
City Press by
the French
Mission to the
UN, after
Inner City
Press published
an expose
on France's
use of the UN
in Cote
d'Ivoire,
and the last
minute switch
from Jerome
Bonnafont to
Herve "The
Drone"
Ladsous for
DPKO), Mexican
media and
others showed
up, many
complaining,
then wrote
stories which
other than the
Mexican media
gave no credit
to Inner City
Press'
underlying
exclusive.
The defense
has been that
once
a press
availability
is scheduled,
even if clear
in response to
anther media's
exclusive, no
credit need be
given. Is this
journalism? Or
a club of
corporate
insiders who
will stoop so
low as
to try to get
Ban Ki-moon's
UN to eject a
reporter who
"makes it
hard" for them
to do their
jobs -- and
whose
exclusives
they
steal? Watch
this site.
, 
