Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

Italy's Heroism at UN Council's Gaza Meeting is Denied, Corriere Questioned

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- Heroic moves at the UN have become rare, and so sometimes they are invented.  Take, for example, the leading Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera's front page article of April 24, blaring that Italy's Ambassador Marcello Spatafora had stopped the Security Council on April 23 as soon as Libya's deputy permanent representative compared the Gaza Strip to World War II concentration camps, by telling the Council's president to suspend the session. But when Inner City Press on April 24 asked the Council president Dumisani Kumalo if Amb. Spotafora had in any way suspended the session, Kumalo said "No, I am not familiar with that, I don't remember any procedural thing." Video here, from Minute 2:05. So is the Corriere wrong?

            Inner City Press' reporting indicates a comedy of errors leading to the frankly erroneous headline in Italy's leading newspaper.  An Italian wire service was told by a spokesman of the Italian mission to the UN that Spotafora stopped the meeting by signaling the president. Rather than ask the President, the wire service ran an urgent bulletin about Italy's heroism, based only on the spin of the Ambassador's press spokesman. Corriere's editors saw the wire service piece, and decided to cover the issue on their front page. 

Marcello Spatafora: making the mythical gesture?

            Thereafter the Italian mission offered a tale of lesser heroism, that Spotafora told Kumalo before the meeting that if things got ugly, he might close the meeting, based on a signal from Spotafora, a form of winking.  Based on Kumalo's on-camera answer on Thursday that he did not remember any such communications calls even the wink-and-nod story into question. But will Corriere, or the Italian mission to the UN, make any correction? Watch this site.

Footnote: Italy's Ambassador to the UN Marcello Spatafora, who was so accessible to the press in the month in 2007 when Italy held the Security Council presidency, has not done a single "stakeout" interview in 2008. He was seen during last week's Africa Council session escorting Prime Minister Prodi around, including to a terrace meeting with Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo. On April 23 at the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked, "Did the Secretary-General meet with Prime Minister Prodi of Italy?"

Spokesperson:  Yes, he did.

Inner City Press: And you know if it is okay to as if, whether, among other things, a possible post with the UN was discussed?

Spokesperson:  Not that I know of.

            We'll see -- watch this site.

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

            Copyright 2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com -