UNITED
NATIONS,
September 9 --
Amid Syria
spin and
mis-information
at the UN,
insider
journalists'
campaign to
impersonate
the @InnerCityPress
twitter feed,
named
one of two
"Twitterati
100" covering
the UN by
Foreign Policy
magazine,
was exposed
today in
MediaBistro's
FishBowlNY.
The
response?
Anonymous
commenting on
the expose, of
course. A
person purporting
to speak for
(all?) UN
jouralists
says that
Inner City
Press is "pro
Syria, pro
Rwanda and
anti French."
Wonder who
that could be?
The
"pro Syria" is
telling. The
counterfeit
accounts began
just after InnerCityPress.com
published a
piece on the
three
questions
permitted to
US Ambassador
Samantha Power
on Syria.
All
were Executive
Committee
members of the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
which
sponsored in
late July a
faux "UN
briefing" by
Saudi
supported
Syria rebel
boss Ahmad al
Jarba, in
an event
publicized
only to those
who pay UNCA
money.
As
recounted in
the
MediaBistro
piece, the
imposter
twitter
accounts were
pitched at
every follower
of the Free UN
Coalition for
Access, @FUNCA_info,
which Inner
City Press
co-founded.
Then they began
to be pitched
at the 6,700
followers of @InnerCityPress, purely to
create confusion
and harm.
Now
the old UN
Correspondents
Association,
whose
Executive
Committee has
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
and who agreed
to limit media
access to the
Security
Council and
General
Assembly, has
emailed that
it too has a
twitter
account.
But UNCA has
only 19
followers --
and its six
tweets are all
mere links
posted by
UNCA's 2013
president
Pamela Falk,
who was
informed of
Team UNCA's
trolling in
February but
has done
nothing to
stop it. The
UN Department
of Public
Information,
which partners
(exclusively
it seems) with
UNCA did not
stop it.
The
glassed-in
bulletin board
in front of
the large
meeting room
the UN gives
to UNCA, for
example for
the faux "UN
briefing" by
Jarba, has not
been updated
since February
-- a wan
letter from
Falk.
But
FUNCA's fliers
on a
non-glassed in
bulletin board
FUNCA fought
to get
installed on
the fourth
floor are
taken down by
the UN at the
end of each
month. The UN
has tried to
create a one
party system,
while
presenting
itself as a
voice of
democracy and
even free
speech
elsewhere.
When a
petition for a
media work
table at the
Security
Council was
presented to
DPI, some who
signed it were
questioned by
UNCA. When
people join
FUNCA, they
are targeted,
most often
anonymously.
(By contrast,
these exposes
are on the
record, and
have been
limited to
those who
control UNCA,
not the
regular
members.) Co-founder
Luiz Rampelotto's
work was
stolen by the
trolls. So @FUNCA_info proceeds as it
does. We'll
have more on
this.
The
anonymous
commenter says
Inner City
Press has been
accusing
Reuters and
AFP. But the
documents were
released under
the Freedom of
Information
Act by the
Voice of
America and
its Broadcast
Board of
Governors.
Voice
of America
tried to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
(letter
of
VOA's Steve
Redisch to the
UN's Stephane
Dujarric, here);
VOA documents
say they had
the support of
Reuters
(here) and
AFP
(here).
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