We'll have
more on this:
the scribes
saying "we"
when they talk
about the UN
they are
supposed to be
covering and
holding
accountable
says it all.
UN Censorship
Alliance.
It
is symbiosis:
the scribes
want to be
seen as having
access, and in
this case the
group UNCA
which has a
documented (by
FOIA) history
of trying to
get investigative
media thrown out of
the UN,
doing nothing
when the News
Agency of
Nigeria was
evicted from
the UN due to
a lack of
space when
the UN gives
UNCA a big
room that sits
empty and dark
most days --
UNCA is
grateful to be
promoted by
Ban's
spokesman. But
why is he
doing it?
The UN's
Office of the
Spokesperson
these days
even more than
before won't
give straight
answers, from
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
to Darfur
to South
Sudan,
while
increasingly
on the margins
of issues like
Iraq
and Ukraine,
it's now a
time for bread
and circuses.
This
group, the old
UN
Correspondents
Association,
in 2012
demanded the
censorship of
Inner City
Press
reporting on
its screening
in the UN of
Sri Lanka's
goverment film
denying war
crimes, which
noted
that UNCA's
President had
previously had
a financial
relationship
with Sri
Lanka's
Ambassador.
And there at
the game,
which the UN's
own Twitter
account
promoted along
with its
handpicked
scribes, the
former UNCA
president was
in his UNCA
jersey. To
whom is he
renting now?
UNCA itself promoted
without irony
or comment the
participation
of "Egypt
Ambassador
Mootaz
Ahmadein
Khalil" --
which push
came to shove,
or push-over,
there was no
mention of
#FreeAJstaff.
Here
was Ban with
Egypt's
Permanent
Representative,
here.
On July 3, an
UNCA board
member from
Reuters tried
to re-purpose
the
promotional
photograph
as....
Journalism is
not a crime. A
day late - and
this is the
same Reuters
which has via
a bogus
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
filing
gotten Google
to ban from
its Search a
copy of
Reuters "for
the record"
complaint trying
to get Inner
City Press
thrown out of
the UN. The
DMCA filing is
here, via
the Electronic
Frontier
Foundation's
ChillingEffects.org;
the
(now half
censored)
underlying
filing with
Dujarric is
here.
After
similarly
trying to get
removed from
the Internet
factual
coverage of
the UNCA
president's
diplomatic
rental income,
the UNCA
Executive
Committee not
only tried including
through
Dujarric
to get Inner
City Press thrown out of
the UN --
they also
refused to
implement any
reforms or
best practices
in its
relationships
those it is
ostensibly
covering.
Financial
relationships?
No problem,
apparently.
Nor has UNCA
adopted any
rule that it
will not seek
to censor or
get
journalists
thrown out of
the UN - it
continues as
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
So
Inner City
Press quit
UNCA, to whose
Executive
Committee it
had been
elected, and
it co-founded
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which is for
example
pushing for,
wonder of
wonders,
accurate
answers in the
UN Press
Briefing Room
by the UN
Spokesperson.
Typically,
when on April
15 outgoing
French
Ambassador Gerard
Araud right in
the Briefing
Room told a
Lebanese
reporter, who
had paid dues
to UNCA, that
"you are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent,"
UNCA dragged
its feet.
The Free UN
Coalition for
Access
formally asked
Dujarric to
convey to
Araud and the
French mission
the stated
position, that
accredited
journalists
should be
treated with
respect.
But Dujarric
declined.
Watch
this site.
, 
