History
Spin
As Complaints
to UN Blocked,
Q&A
Withheld,
Censors Sell
Books?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 19 --
They say
journalism is
the first
draft of
history; one
assumes that
journalists
would fight to
have more
rather
than less
information
public, for
history to be
accurate. But
not in
today's UN.
The
board of the
UN's propped
up United
Nations
Correspondents
Association
this month conducted
a Q&A with
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
which has
yet to be
disclosed.
The
UN bureau
chief of
permanent
member Reuters
lobbied Google
to ban from
its search a
leaked copy
of his own
anti-Press
complaint to
the UN,
described as
"for the
record," mis-using
the Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act.
"For the
record" - and
yet
disappeared
from
Google's
search? What
would a
historian say
about that?
Now
it emerges
that UNCA has
a third
generation
historian as a
freelance
member, and
according to
UNCA President
Pamela Falk of
CBS he'll
promote and
offer for sale
a book of
family letters
after a 5 pm
"cocktail
reception"
while, one
story down, a
Security
Council debate
with 67
speakers
including
Ukraine and
Sri Lanka goes
on about, what
else, the rule
of law. To
this has the
UN and its UN
Censorship
Association
sunk.
The
UN gives UNCA
a big room,
and a bigger
auditorium
when it wants
to
screen
propaganda
films such as
that of Sri
Lanka denying
the
detailed
accusations of
war crimes
made in a
documentary
which was
itself never
shown in UN
headquarters.
This
was and is
public record,
like the Reuters
bureau chief's
"for the
record"
anti-Press
complaint to
the UN before
he got it
banned from
Google's
search.
This
UNCA
clubhouse,
which in July
hosted
a faux
"UN briefing"
by Syria rebel
leader Ahmad
al Jarba,
functions as a
sort of
backdoor
into the UN.
The historian,
Stephen
Schlesinger, on his web site
describes the
February 19
event only as
"at the main
UN
Secretariat
Building"
-- as blurry
as Jarba left
it. Perhaps
Schlesinger
didn't know --
a historian in
the Censors'
Club? Only at
the UN. Watch
this site.
Footnote:
The
Schlesinger
book signing
is for a UN
staff club --
not only has
the UN
Secretariat
refused to
recognize any
leadership of
the Staff
Union, they
have also
banned staff
clubs from
using the
cafeteria as
was previously
the practice.
Now any such
use requires
paying
exorbitant
Security and
Aramark
charges, as
for example
the Indian
"Spice Club"
has noted to
Inner City
Press.
And so such
events are
driven into
the Censors'
Club, to prop
them up so
they
can, when
desired by
those in UN
power, perform
their role.
The
solution is
not to allow
clubs to sell
books in the
Censors' Club
-
it is to
re-open the
cafeteria to
the clubs, and
to
re-recognize
the
Staff Union.
But that's not
the trend in
today's
UNaccountable
UN.
Schlesinger
has
said, "the UN
is amazingly
resilient" -
if so, it's
time for it to
start
reforming,
improving, and
opening up. Watch this
site.
, 
