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On Sri
Lanka, Press
Was Put at
Risk by UNCA,
Al Jazeera
& Saudi,
Now CYA
UNdisclosed
Location,
March 20 --
Nine months
after
scribes in the
UN
Correspondents
Association
went after
Inner City
Press for
its reporting
on Sri Lanka,
subjecting it
to death
threats from
extremist
supporters of
the Rajapaksa
government,
now several of
them have
belatedly
taken an
interest in
the war crimes
they did not
cover in 2009.
Close
observers call
it guilt or
more
precisely,
C.Y.A -- Cover
Your Arse.
Al
Jazeera's
Marcelle
Hopkins, for
example, was
shown pro
government
media stories
in June 2012
saying that
the UNCA
proceeding she
pushed forward
could put
Inner City
Press out of
the UN and in
jail -- an
extremist
called to wish
jail rape on
Inner City
Press.
Al
Jazeera's
Hopkins
response was
to say she was
“offended”
that Inner
City Press
would blame
the UNCA
proceeding --
cited in the
Sri Lanka
media accounts
-- for the
threats. Audio
here.
It
was a bogus
response then,
and is a bogus
response now.
Ironically,
Hopkins had purported
to offer praise
for Inner City
Press'
reporting on
Sri Lanka -
but then would
obviously have
been happy to
see it stop.
On
March 18, Hopkins
walked right
on by as the
UN raided
Inner City
Press' office
and conducted
a
non-consensual
search of its
papers.
But,
hey, Hopkins
is tweeting
about the Sri Lanka
resolution at
the Human
Rights Council
in Geneva.
So is
Denis
Fitzgerald of
the Saudi
Press agency,
in 2012 just a
judge of Inner
City Press,
now as if as a
reward an UNCA
Executive
Committee
member.
Despite being
told of the
dangers of
raising
spurious
claims of
funding by the
Tamil Tigers,
Fitzgerald did
just that in
2012, demanding
for example,
"who funds
you?" Audio
here.
Now,
he too is
tweeting about
Sri Lanka, and
claiming
to have no
role in what
the UNCA
Executive
Committee he
sits on
does. UNCA
President
Pamela Falk on
March 18 took
photographs of
the UN's raid
on Inner City
Press' office.
Any
explanation?
Tim
Witcher, now
as then an
UNCA Executive
Committee
member, does
not tweet
about Sri
Lanka. He
hardly tweets
at all - the
last, in early
March, was to
try to promote
the equally
spoonfed story
of Michelle
Nichols of
Reuters based
on a briefing
by Witcher's
main source
Herve Ladsous,
answering a
question Inner
City Press had put to
Ladsous and
Ban Ki-moon.
After
UNCA's Witcher
cut into Inner
City Press'
conversation
with another
journalist on
March 8 to
hiss “lies and
distortion”
and Inner City
Press replied,
“lapdog,”
Witcher and
Reuters'
correspondent
filed
intentionally
false
complaints
with UN
Security, to
provide fodder
to the UN to
throw Inner
City Press
out. This is
UNCA.
On
March 20
Witcher
re-emerged,
again with a
French focus:
Central
African
Republic and
the need to
blame Assad
for chemical
weapons use in
Syria, even if
by rebels.
This is UNCA:
cynical, blind
and
unresponsive.
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
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
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Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest service,
and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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