Countries
Use
UN, Sri Lanka
To Screen
"Lies Agreed
To"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 21
-- At the UN
some countries
and
state-funded
media try to
use access and
even "ethics"
as a club,
with Sri Lanka
the most
recent
example.
Earlier this
month a Sri
Lankan
government
video was
shown inside
the UN in the
Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium,
described as a
rebuttal the
UK Channel 4
documentary
"Killing
Fields," which
despite a
request was
not shown
inside the UN.
At the front
after the
September 6
screening sat
Sri Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
Palitha Kohona
and the
President of
the UN
Correspondents'
Association Giampaolo
Pioli, who
asked Kohona
if Sri Lanka
might
"rehabiliate"
the Tamil
Tiger rebels
as was done
with the Red
Brigades in
Pioli's native
Italy.
Whereas
repeatedly
throughout the
summer
proposals for
movie
screenings and
briefings in
the Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium
were e-mailed
for
consideration
and debate by
members of
UNCA's
executive
committee,
including this
reporter, in
the case of
Kohona's Sri
Lanka
Mission's
request to
screen "Lies
Agreed To,"
this was not
done. The
decision was
made by Pioli,
after
consultating
some (but not
all) executive
committee
members.
The screening
in the UN was
described
as a big
victory for
Kohona and the
Rajapaskas, in
Sri Lanka's
"largest
English
language
newspaper,"
here.
But
undisclosed at
the time, and
arguably
unconnected,
was that Pioli
collected
money as rent
from Kohona
for years.
When this
apparent
conflict of
interest was
raised, the
response was
that the
monetary
relationship
began when
Kohona was a
UN staff
member. But in
a sense that's
worse: how can
a reporter
ostensibly
covering the
UN objectively
have a
monetary
relation with
a senior UN
official?
In all of New
York, Pioli
couldn't find
a tenant he
didn't
purportedly
cover as a
journalist for
"QUOTIDIANO
NAZIONALE / LA
NAZIONE / Il
Resto del
Carlino / IL
GIORNO,
Poligrafici
Editoriale
S.p.A." among
those he lists
working for?
Now on
September 21,
after Pioli
among other
things came to
Inner City
Press' office
demanding to
know Inner
City Press'
sources, UNCA
sent out a
vague
statement
purporting to
tell
journalists
how to prepare
news reports.
Silva, Pioli
& Kohona
at UN, "Lies
Agreed To"
While
it was raised
that it is
hardly the UN
Correspondents'
Association's
job to tell
journalists
what to
publish, it
was not
allowed to
attach a
dissent to
this effect to
the statement.
Inner City
Press has
counter
proposed a
number of
other ethical
reminders,
including:
UNCA
reminds
UN
correspondents
that
disclosure of
possible
conflicts of
interest,
particularly
the receipt of
money whether
present or
past, is
proper when
making
decisions that
impact UNCA
and its
credibility.
Pioli
has said it's
not the time
to vote on
that, even as
he openly
hands gifts to
UN officials.
Ethics? So it
goes at the
UN.
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