By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, June
23 -- When
Ukraine's
Ambassador
Yuriy Sergeyev
scheduled a UN
press
conference on
June 20, Inner
City Press
asked him
about the
killing and
alleged
beating of
journalists,
among other
topics. Video
here
Later on June
20, Inner City
Press asked
Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
about
Sergeyev's
answers. UN
Video here,
from Minute
26:18.
Now on June 23,
Ukraine's
Mission to the
UN has
responded, as
to the
journalists
with this:
"Lie:
Russian
'Zvezda'
correspondents
were bitten
and injured
before they
confessed to
the TV cameras
and apologized
for being
regularly
lying on the
real situation
in Eastern
Ukraine
Truth: 90% of
all Russian
so-called
journalists
working in
Ukraine are
instructed by
their Kremlin
patrons to
produce
anti-Ukrainian
fake TV
pictures only
for internal
Russian
consumption.
No physical or
moral violence
was used
against two
'Zvezvda'
correspondents."
Beyond the
dispute about
the
journalists
being beaten
-- or "bitten"
as the response
has it --
there is a
problem with
this logic, combated
by the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
This is the
same type of
accusation that
Egypt is using
against the Al
Jazeera
journalists:
that they are
agents.
It is the same
logic that
outgoing French
Ambassador Gerard
Araud used on
April 15,
2014, when he
told a Lebanese
reporter, "You
are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent." In
that case, the
UN's in-house
United
Nations
Correspondents
Association
Executive
Committee
continues to "drag
its feet" in
offering a
defense for
its dues-paying
member from Lebanon.
We will have
more on this.
On
June 20, Inner
City Press
asked Sergeyev
about the
killing of
civilians, in
particular
five year old
Arseny
Danchenko
reportedly
killed by
mortars in
Golubovka near
Slovyansk, as
well as on
behalf of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
about the
killing and
abuse of
journalists.
Sergeyev
and
his
spokesperson
said the
killing of the
boy had been
discredited,
with neighbors
saying the
parents were
paid to feign
the death.
Inner City
Press asked,
so the boy is
alive?
Ambassador
Sergeyev seems
to have been
referring to a
different
case. We hope
to have more
on this.
Also
on June 20, Inner
City Press
asked Churkin
about
Paragraph 171
of Simonovic's
report, about
the bombing of
the Luhansk
administration
building on
June 2.
Earlier last
week,
Simonovic told
Inner City
Press his team
had no
expertise in
armaments.
Inner City
Press asked
Churkin, who's
paying for
this team?
Churkin
said
“if the United
Nations is
paying, I
think they are
wasting a lot
of time. For
this attack,
they used
projectiles,
one of them is
stuck in the
ground next to
the building.
And they don't
have experts?”
Now,
there will be
a UN Security
Council
meeting on
Ukraine, and
Simonovic's
report, on
June 24. Watch
this site.
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