For-Pay
Syria
Session Called
"UN Briefing,"
UNCA Breaks
Rules,
Trolls
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
27 -- The
Alliance
between this
UN and the
United
Nations
Correspondents
Association is
not only one
of censorship
but
also now of
fraud.
On
July
26 at noon
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
outgoing
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey a simple
question:
was the
upcoming
presentation
by Syrian
opposition
figures
in UN Room
S-310, given
by the UN to
UNCA, a "UN
Briefing"
or not?
UNCA
only e-mailed
its notice to
those who pay
it money; throughout
July
26 not only UN
accredited
correspondents
who choose not
to join the
discredited
UNCA but also
some member
states
criticized the
Syria
opposition
session.
Del
Buey said he
would answer
this simple
question, but
more than a
day
later: no
answer.
Instead, after
Inner City
Press in its
name and
that of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked the question,
the
UNCA Executive
Committee
related trolls
re-started
their
anonymous
social media
campaign: UN
Cowardice
Association.
Meanwhile,
after
UNCA
inappropriately
asked the UN
to stream its
private
for-pay
briefing over
UNTV, it put
it online in
piece,
labeling it
"Special
UN Briefing."
At
the beginning,
UNCA's 2013
president
Pamela Falk
claimed this
was a
briefing for
the "UN press
corps" -- but
it was not, it
was
only
publicized to
those who pay
money to UNCA.
This is fraud.
The
UN's
Department of
Public
Information
participates
in this fraud.
DPI insists
that only
journalists
can go into
the UN press
briefing
room, and that
only
journalists
with eight
clips can get
a "P"
Press pass to
the UN.
But
as Inner City
Press has
reported, shown on film and now had
informally
re-confirmed,
DPI has given
at least one
non-journalist
UNCA
intern a Press
pass, and
entry into the
briefing room
and stakeout
area.
The
non-journalist
intern set up
shop in the
locked "UNCA"
Room 310, and
in a so-called
focus booth
that was
supposed to
have UN
phone service
to the
Peacekeeping
missions.
Actual
journalists
have been told
to leave these
focus booths,
and even had
their UN entry
pass
de-activated
after being
found working
there. But
the UNCA
intern is
there.
UNCA
has an
employee, also
given a "P"
Press pass, of
whom it is
not clear
there are
eight clips.
This is the
organization
which tries
to get thrown
out of the UN
journalist who
actually ask
questions and
publish
articles.
The mockery of
DPI's
purported
rules occurs
as DPI cites a
rule it passed
with UNCA,
Banning signs,
to threaten
Inner City Press
with
suspension or
withdrawal of
accreditation
for hanging
a FUNCA
sign on the
door of
its shared
office. (This
door was
blocked on
Friday by the
backwash of
UNCA's dubious
"Special UN
Briefing.") UN
Censorship
Alliance.
It is that the
Executive
Committee of
UNCA has show
disdain for
freedom of the
press, asking
in 2012 that
articles and
photographs
about Sri
Lanka and
French
officials be
taken off the
Internet then
seeking ouster
from the UN
for resistance
to
censorship.
UNCA
First Vice
President Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters has
been shown to
have given an
internal
anti-Press
UNCA
document to UN
accreditation
official
Stephane
Dujarric three
minutes after
stating this
would not
be done. (Audio
here.)
This is called
spying for the
UN: this UNCA
is a fraud,
particularly
when it comes
to any claim
of supporting
freedom of the
press or
defending the
rights
including due
process rights
of
journalists.
The UN's room
S-310, it was
said before
the move-back,
would be open
to all UN
accredited
correspondents,
not locked, or
key with the
UN Spokesperson's
Office. But
UNCA keeps it
locked, or its
"Press" Passed
intern inside,
when not in
the "focus
booth" taken
from other
journalists.
The
UN has been
formally asked
to explain the
July 26
briefing and
claims
made since; it
has yet to
respond on
that or on how
it violated
its
own stated
rules about
who gets a
"Press" pass
and entry
into
briefings.
This is the UN
Censorship
Alliance.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
now comes word,
not from any
e-mail from
UNCA, that
while the UN
Spokesperson's
Office still
can't or
hasn't
explained the
status of these
sessions
publicized
only to those
who pay money,
the next
"newsmakers"
on tap at the
UNCA private
club are the "Club
des Chefs des
Chefs" --
those who cook
for heads of
state. UN
Culinary (or Corruption?)
Alliance.
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