By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May 23
-- Hypocrisy
at the UN is
not limited to
the
Secretariat,
for example
refusing to
accept responsibility
for bringing
to cholera to
Haiti, but extends
to the UN Correspondents
Association
which purports
to represent
reporters.
In fact, in
2012 members
of the UNCA
Executive
Committee
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN
following a
dispute about
reporting
on Sri Lanka
and conflicts
of interest,
click here for
that.
Inner City
Press quit
UNCA after
that and co-founded
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
Just last
month after
French Ambassador
Gerard
Araud told a
still UNCA dues-paying
Lebanese
reporter, "You
are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent," UNCA
"dragged its
feet" in his
words and did
nothing to
defend the rights
of journalists.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has asked
UN spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric to
inform Araud
of the stated
position, that
correspondents
should be
treated with
respect.
(Dujarric has
yet to do so.)
Now, this same
UNCA executive
committee is
bragging that
it is meeting
with UN
Security
Council
ambassadors --
well, one,
Lithuania --
about, what
else,
journalists'
rights and
protection.
What a
travesty.
Since being
exposed, by documents
released under
the US Freedom
of Information
Act, for
having secretly
asked Dujarric
to throw out
the
investigative
Press,
there have
been no
reforms at
UNCA. One of
the "for the
record"
complaints to
Dujarric has
been Banned
from Google's
search under a
bogus copyright
claim, here.
This is
outright
censorship.
With the
current
presidency of
the Security
Council, UNCA
tried to
privatize the
whole month, saying
that to hear
about the
Council's work
for the months
one had to RVSP
to UNCA to
attend.
This
was disproved
and
was appropriately
disavowed --
but the
attempts to
brand UN rooms
and events
continues, and
to cynically
claim an
UNdeserved
protection of
journalists
mantle. This
should not be
accepted; it
will be
exposed and
opposed.
Earlier this
month the head
of the UN
Correspondents
Association
felt
comfortable
trying to
dictate how
and who UN
Television
filmed on
World Press
Freedom
Day.
According to
multiple
sources,
Pamela Falk of
CBS complained
to the top of
the Department
of Public
Information
that UNTV
dared cut away
to a shot of a
skeptic during
her speech
claiming UNCA
protects
journalists. Video here on Inner City Press' YouTube channel (on full video on
UN website, here,
from Minute
30).
After the
video and the
UNCA attempt
to censor that
it spawned
were known,
other critics
came forward.
This doesn't
represent us,
said one.
Another
brought up a
surge in
Falk's UNCA
twitter
accounts low
number of
followers,
pointing out
hundreds in a
row with
little
identifying
information,
some with
pornographic
profiles,
concluding,
"they're
bought
followers." Photo of
graph, here.
Falk's own twitter
account has a
surge in
followers, photo of
graph here;
once exposed,
both accounts
dropped many
followers. Falk had
now admitted
she had "fake
followers"
but has tried
to say some
outside force
did it.
Really? Then
who arranged
for UNCA to
look like it
had more
followers than
it does? Who
paid for this?
The
month started
when UNCA's
2013-14
president Pam
Falk
grandiosely
attempted to
launch a
Twitter
hashtag
promoting the
group. An UNCA
member, rather
than
obediently
tweeting the
contrived tag,
noted online
that when Falk
claimed the
"GA commends
UNCA every
year," UNTV
camera cuts to
@innercitypress
shaking head
in disbelief,
too funny.”
(The
UNTV video,
which we went
back and found
for the
reasons below
is online
here, from
Minute 30.)
As we
first diplomatically
recorded,
the UNTV
control room
got a
complaint
about their
camera angles.
This is called
attempted
censorship, as
is this
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
filing with
Google, here.
Now we
can report
based on
multiple
sources that
Falk herself
complained to
the top of DPI
- and that
this
complaint,
rather than
being as it
should have
been laughed
at and
rejected, was
passed on to
the control
room, trying
to dictate
even what the
camera
operators film
as cut-aways.
This is
outright
censorship:
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance's
reverse flow.
In
2012, some on
UNCA's
Executive
Board tried to
pursue the
investigative
Press for
its coverage
of UN official
Herve Ladsous
and also
separately of
France's
ambassador
Gerard Araud,
then moved
for expulsion
based on coverage
of Sri Lanka.
Now, UNCA's
president
demands that
the UN itself
change how it
films, to
censor
opposition.
Out in
the real
world, the UN
Secretariat
had no comment
on Ethiopia's
jailing
of journalists
including the
Zone 9
Bloggers,
when asked
about it by
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
As we covered
on May 8, the
UN has yet to
speak on
Yemen's
deportation
of one of the
few (but more
than two)
non-Yemeni
journalists
working in the
country. The
next story is
Myanmar -
watch this
site.
, 
