As
UNCA
Pushes
Anti-Press
Move, Sri
Lanka Says ICP
Faces Jail
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 3 -- As
UN
Correspondents
Association
officials
Giampaolo
Pioli and Lou
Charbonneau of
Reuters have
proceeded
against
Inner City
Press, they
were told that
could their
campaign set
anti
media freedom
precedents.
Now, it
has.
Today
a major
pro-government
newspaper in
Sri Lanka, the
Sunday
Observer,
quotes
with approval
the indictment
drafted by
Reuters'
Charbonneau
against Inner
City
Press.
The newspaper
says that
"if the
allegations
against Lee
are proven,
the UN
headquarters
will be made
out of bounds
for him.
If the
harassment
charges are
proven he
could face a
jail term of
up
to six years."
Click
here to view
the full
article.
Pioli,
assisted by
Reuters'
Charbonneau
and other
corporate
media which
have used
without credit
Inner City
Press'
exclusive
stories about
the UN then
retaliated
when Inner
City Press
complained,
has pursued a
public
witch hunt
against Inner
City Press.
Click here
for sample
UNCA
minutes
released only
tonight from behind
Reuters'
firewall.
This has
included
mass e-mailing
out the "charge
letter"
quoted by the
pro-government
Sunday
Observer. The
letter
was signed
by
Charbonneau,
Flavia
Krause-Jackson
of Bloomberg,
Talal Al-Haj
of Al-Arabia,
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice of
America and
Timothy
Witcher of
Agence
France Presse.
Witcher,
at the
behest of the
French Mission
to the UN,
began the push
against Inner
City Press for
its reporting
on French UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, who
has accepted
Sri Lankan
general (and
alleged war
criminal)
Shavendra
Silva as a
Senior
Adviser.
Despite
France's claim
to support
press freedom,
not only has
its Mission to
UN sought
to eject Inner
City Press and
even
(unsuccessfully)
to have it
temporarily
arrested. Now,
the campaign
they have
pushed has
created
an environment
in which
political
enemies can
call for the
Press to
be jailed for
six full
years.
Al-Arabiya is
funded and
controlled by
Saudi Arabia,
so its
increasing
involvement
in this anti
free Press
campaign is
perhaps not
surprising.
But that
Voice of
America, using
US taxpayer
dollars, would
be one of five
leaders of an
anti Press
campaign
triggering
such a threat
is, we
hear, becoming
a matter of
concern to
some on
Capitol Hill.
Matthew
Winkler of
Bloomberg News
has yet to
respond to
submitted
questions the
propriety of
his UN bureau
chief's
involvement.
As noted,
there has
been no
response to
two rounds of
e-mails to
Reuters
"Ethics &
Training"
chief Greg
McCune, Top
News Editor
Walden Siew,
deputy
editor Paul
Ingrassia and
big cheese
Stephen J.
Adler.
The only
Reuters
response on
this has been
Reuters UN
bureau chief
Lou
Charbonneau
saying on June
1, before he
voted to
investigate
Inner
City Press and
sent out the
selective
minutes, "you
are a bad
person."
At Voice of
America,
before this
executives
David Ensor,
Sonja Pace,
David Jones
and Steve
Redisch were
all told of
the attacks
and were asked
to stop them,
or least
formally
disassociate
VoA UN bureau
chief Margaret
Besheer from
these efforts
resulting in
governmental
gloating about
the
possibility of
jailing the
Press.
Before the
publication of
the pro
government
Sunday
Observer's
report about
exclusion from
the UN and
jail time,
Inner City
Press asked
the UNCA
Executive
Committee to
desist or at
least slow
down, because
it has
"been the
subject of
extremely
negative,
unfair,
entirely
unfounded
coverage in
for example
the Sri Lankan
press."
But the UNCA
Executive
Committee has
doggedly
proceeded,
going more and
more public
even with
material they
wree told in
advance, and
acknoweledged,
was incomplete
if not
outright
inaccurate.
Since the
origin
of these
disputes, UNCA
president
Giampaolo
Pioli has
repeatedly
demanded that
Inner City
Press remove
from the
Internet its
factual
report that
Pioli accepted
money for rent
from Palitha
Kohona, Sri
Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
to the UN.
Pioli in an
angry
telephone call
threatened to
have Inner
City Press
thrown out of
the
UN, an
ejection now
positively
viewed by pro
government
media in Sri
Lanka.
This calls
into
question not
only the
negligent
management of
Reuters,
Bloomberg,
AFP,
Al-Arabiya and
Voice of
America, but
also WHO is
the source of
the threats
cited in the
pro Sri Lanka
government
Sunday
Observer.
If
the Pioli
proposed UNCA
Board of
Examination
goes forward
even now,
it should
investigate
all of UNCA
officials'
communications
with
Palitha Kohona
and other
alleged war
criminal.
Watch this
site.