Wikileaks'
Mediastan
Shows US Media
Censorship As
Occurs in UN
For Which
Reuters Spies
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 13 --
Much will be
written about
Wikileaks'
film
"Mediastan,"
but two things
most jumped
out at Inner
City
Press.
In Kyrgyzstan,
the Wikileaks
team offers
access to the
cables
leaked by
whistleblower
Chelsea
Manning to
"Radio
Liberty."
Initially this
station's
Bishkek chief
Sultanbek
Joumagolov is
bragging about
how much
free press
there is. Then
he says he has
to check with
his boss in
Prague. Mediastan
from Minute
36.
His bosses are
not Czech --
they are the
US State
Department,
which throough
the
Broadcasting
Board of
Governors on
which John
Kerry serves
controls Radio
Liberty, Al
Hurra and...
Voice of
America
At
the UN, Voice
of America
tried to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out,
saying it had
the support
of Reuters
and Agence
France Presse.
(Proof was
obtained
through the US
Freedom of
Information
Act; his
month, BBG
tells
Inner City
Press no
more responses,
blaming the US
government
shutdown,
here.)
All
three claim to
be independent
media, but
this is false
not only to
Voice of
America as
whole but also
as to Reuters
and AFP, at
least as to
the
UN.
In
fact, Reuters
UN bureau
chief Louis
Charbonneau
even spied for
the
UN, turning
over an
anti-Press
documents
internal to
the UN
Correspondents
Association three minutes
after
promising not
to.
Story
here, audio here,
document
here. No
explanation
has been given
by Reuters or
UNCA under
2013 president
Pamela Falk of
CBS -- or by
the UN.
This
brings up the
second point:
the Swedish
member of the
Wikileaks team
Johannes
Wahlstrom,
after been
shown with
Julian Assange
discovering that
Swedish
foreign minister
Carl Bildt was
speaking with
Karl Rove,
recounts how
after he ran
interviews
with
journalists
about the
limitations
they accept in
reporting on
Palestine and
Israel, he
came
under fire
from the
journalists
themselves and
got fired.
He said it is
very
dangerous,
reporting on
the media.
And
that is Inner
City Press'
experience at
the UN. The
moment it
reported on how
the UN
Correspondents
Association
let the Sri
Lanka
government
screen, inside
the UN and
hosted by
UNCA, a
propaganda
film
denying it
committed war
crimes,
attempts to
throw Inner
City
Press began.
These
have continued
since, with
AFP filing a
complaint with
the UN leading
with how Inner
City Press
asked a
question to
Herve Ladsous,
the
fourth French
boss of UN
Peacekeeping
in a row
(whose "farce"
was
covered this
week in the UK
New Statesman,
here) and
with a
series of
imposter
social media
accounts.
To
combat all
this, Inner
City Press
co-founded the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info.
The UN's
reaction was
to threaten to
suspend or
withdraw
Inner City
Press' accreditation
for merely
hanging a
FUNCA
sign on
the door of
its shared
office,
when UNCA
has five
signs.
The
problems with
journalism
exposed in
Wikileaks'
Mediastan are
not
confined to
Central
America,
clearly --
they are on
graphic
display
inside the UN
in New York.
We'll have
more on this.
Watch this
site.
, 
