In
France as at
UN, Reuters
& AFP Use
Blind Quotes
Against
Investigative
Media
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Media Critique
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 10 –
In France
there is a
scandal in
which the
anonymous
channeling of
power by
Reuters and
AFP mirrors
what these
two
wire services
do in UN
coverage.
French
budget
minister
Jerome Cahuzac
is accused by
investigative
website
Mediapart
of maintaining
a secret bank
account at UBS
in
Switzerland,
then moving
its contents
to Singapore.
UBS, already
known to have
lied to
authorities in
the US and
been fined for
it, has not
surprisingly
issued a
denial.
Mediapart
points to an
e-mail as
evidence. Now,
a unnamed
“judicial
source” is
used by first
Reuters, then
AFP, to
say Mediapart
engaged in
“inexact
interpretation”
of the e-mail.
Why
not name the
judicial
source? Why so
quickly
believe power
and UBS, a
bank
already known
to lie, on
LIBOR, terror
finance and
money
laundering,
over
investigative
media and a
document?
In
covering the
UN, Reuters
and AFP
on January 25
used the same
“unnamed
UN official”
to announce
that at the AU
summit in
Addis Ababa an
agreement for
aggressive
“peace
enforcement”
would be
signed.
As
Inner City
Press
immediately pointed
out, this was
akin to
letting the UN
declare
war,
anonymously.
When
the agreement
was NOT signed
in Addis,
there were no
corrections,
no
accountability.
What ARE
Reuters'
policies on
granting
anonymity in
cases like
this -- now
including
Cazuhac -- for
Reuters
editors like Stephen J. Adler, Walden
Siew, and
Paul
Ingrassia?
For Agence
France
Presse? There
is, as has
become the
pattern, no
answer.
But
it gets worse.
Both Reuters
and AFP, with
ongoing or
Permanent
seats
on the
Executive
Committee of
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
are
involved in an
anonymous
social media
account
which, along
with
mocking
an alleged
victim of
sexual
harassment
who joined the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
has made much
of a
strange denial
by UN
Peacekeeping
of a document
Inner City
Press
published
about the UN
in Congo.
When
the MONUSCO
mission issued
its denial by
press release,
Inner City
Press
immediately asked the
UN to identify
a single
falsehood
in the
published
document, and
to confirm or
deny the
authenticity
of other
leaked MONUSCO
documents it
has.
The
UN said, at a
noon briefing
of the type
observed and
"harvested"
but
barely
attended by
these two
wires, said
it would not
comment on any
leaked
document.
The message is
anti-journalism:
it is, trust
us,
don't question
or publish.
But Reuters
and AFP, or at
least their UN
bureau chiefs,
innately leap
to the side of
UN
Peacekeeping.
AFP's Tim
Witcher did
this openly
back in
September
2011, click
here for that
story.
When
three doctors
were killed
this weekend
in Nigeria,
AFP in a
headline
called them
“Chinese”
doctors: "trois
medecins chinois
tues
par des hommes
armes."
When it
became clear
the doctors
were Korean,
AFP simply
issued a new
story calling
them “South
Korean.” Now
that some
quote that
health
minister that
they are
NORTH Korean,
part of an
inter-governmental
program, will
AFP ever
issue a
correction?
Did
Reuters run
any correction
or
explanation,
after it falsely
called Lakhdar
Brahimi a
Nobel laureate?
No.
Reuters has
let its UN
coverage go
downhill by
providing no
oversight,
adopting as
reflected by
FOIA documents
a policy of
not
responding to
questions,
complaints or
requests for
policy from
Inner
City Press,
even as
Reuters bureau
chief Louis
"Kurtz" Charbonneau
mis-labled
exclusives,
filed
stealth complaints
to expel
the Press,
and now this.
(The false
exclusive
problem comes
from the top:
Reuters brass
bases
compensation
on such
labeling, then
ignores when
errors are
raised and
challenged.)
These are
venerable
wires - or a
word that
rhymes with
wires. Watch
this site.
, 
