After
Killing in
Sudan, Reuters
& UN
Peacekeeping
Unname South
Sudan
UNITED
NATIONS, June
14 -- After
the killing of
a UN
peacekeeper in
Southern
Kordofan,
Inner City
Press at the
June 14 UN
noon briefing
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
whom the UN
deemed
responsible
for the
fighting and
shelling.
Nesirky
replied that
the UN was
investigating
so he could
not say more.
But
the UN Department
of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
and Reuters,
had already
named not only
Sudan but
South Sudan
-- then
dropped or "corrected
out" the
latter,
replacing it
with the name
of the
SPLM-North
rebel group.
Since
the changes on
Reuters / the
Chicago
Tribune and
the UN web
site weren't
explained,
it's
impossible to
know who made
the
mis-statement,
or received a
request for
amendment and
from whom.
The initial
Reuters story,
with fully
four bylines
("Reporting By
Michelle
Nichols in New
York and
Khalid
Abdelaziz in
Khartoum;
Writing by
Maggie Fick;
Editing by
Michael
Roddy") ended
with a quote
from DPKO
chief Herve
Ladsous'
spokesperson
Kieran Dwyer:
"It is
essential that
the
governments of
Sudan and South
Sudan
immediately
cease
hostilities,
and resume
ceasefire
negotiations."
Then
on the Chicago
Tribune's
website the
Reuters change
is made,
under this
statement:
"Corrects
quote in last
paragraph to remove
reference
to government
of South Sudan."
Does
that mean
Reuters
misquoted its
go-to Ladsous
source Dwyer,
and now
"corrects
quote"? Or
that Dwyer
corrected
himself, to
"remove
reference to
government of
South Sudan"?
On
World Press
Freedom Day
this year,
Inner City
Press asked
Dwyer how DPKO
chief Herve
Ladsous refusing
to answer
Press
questions, on
topics ranging
from the UN's
introduction
of cholera
into Haiti
to accepting
advice from a
Sri Lanka
military
figure
depicted the
UN's own
report as
engaged in war
crimes to mass rapes in the Congo, is
consistent
with DPKO's
claim to
support free
press where it
runs missions.
Dwyer
defended
Ladsous'
stonewalling,
then changed
the topic to
return to what
he claimed
DPKO is most
concerned
with: South
Sudan. Video
compilation
here.
Now
Dwyer is
quoted by
Reuters urging
South Sudan to
cease
hostilities --
then the quote
is corrected
to "remove
reference to
government of
South Sudan."
What's
going on?
Don't expect
an answer, at
least to the
Press, from
Herve Ladsous.
But shouldn't
they explain
somewhere?
Watch this
site.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
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