At
UN,
Moves to Expel
Press Violate
UNCA Rules But
Persist, Like
Scoop
Stealing
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 29 -- With
the UN
Security
Council
meeting
Tuesday
morning on the
Middle East,
and in the
afternoon on
Yemen, the
"urgent" move
to expel Inner
City Press
persisted
without
disclosure,
despite a
legal showing
to the UN
Correspondents
Association's
Executive
Committee that
their own
Constitution
and
stated
purposes are
being
violated.
A
letter Inner
City Press
directed to
the 14 other
members of the
UNCA Executive
Committee was
responded to
by only one of
them. Notably,
Sunday May
27 was
essentially a
work day for
those
reporting on
the UN, as the
Security
Council held
an actually
urgent meeting
on the
killings in
Houla.
UNCA
President
Giampaolo
Pioli, who
on May 25
issued a
notice of a
May 29 session
to
appoint a
"Board of
Examination"
to try to
expel
Inner City
Press, did not
come to the UN
to cover that
Security
Council
session
on Syria.
Pioli
had on
Friday
afternoon, May
25 sent out
the following:
Dear
colleagues
I
recived a
request from 5
members of
UNCA executive
committee to
urgently
appoint
a
<board of
examination>
to look into a
list of
complaints
<about
Matthew Lee's
harassment of
colleagues>.
The Unca
Executive
committee will
meet Tuesday
may 29 at 4pm
or at 5pm in
the
Unca club.
Please attend.
But
six times
thereafter
Pioli refused
to disclose
which five
Executive
Committee
members filed
written
complaints,
who was
harassed and
what
definition of
harassement --
mere
publication of
critical
journalism
and media
critique?
would be used.
Pioli's
First Vice
President and
Rasputin Lou
Charbonneau of
Reuters, who
on May 21 was
bylined
on a Reuters
story stealing
without credit
an Inner City
Press exclusive
of March 28
that US
official
Jeffrey
Feltman would
come to work
for the UN,
did come to
the UN and
even sat at
the
multiple
stakeouts. But
he did not ask
any questions,
preferring to
use the
information
gleaned by the
questions of
others.
Foreign
Policy's The
Cable,
for example,
credited
Inner City
Press, but
Reuters did
not. At the
stakeout on
Sunday, a
Russian UN
correspondent
thanked Inner
City Press for
another
exclusive
report which
he said he'd
used and
credited.
Charbonneau
has said that
he has a
POLICY of not
crediting
Inner City
Press
exclusives, a
statement that
Reuters has
yet to respond
to.
Inner
City Press
asked
questions of
and got
answers from
the UN
Ambassadors of
the UK,
Syria,
Germany,
Russia and
France --
whose Mission's
tool Tim
Witcher
of Agence
France Presse
was seen near
the stakeout,
but who asked
no
on the record
questions.
After
Pioli
refused for
the sixth time
to respond to
Inner City
Press' request
that he
provide the
names of the
five UNCA
Executive
Committee
members he
said had in
writing
requested the
Board of
Examination to
try to expel
Inner City
Press, the
following
letter was
sent to him
and each
Committee
member:
"Hello.
I
have a number
of legal and
other concerns
about the
complaints
against me,
including to
MALU, and the
way in which
they are being
handled.
Since
I
received this
notice on
Friday
afternoon, I
have asked
Giampaolo
six times to
provide basic
information I
have a right
to in order to
prepare for
this session.
This
includes
the names of
those who have
referred
charges in
writing
accusing me of
harassment;
the definition
of harassment
to be used,
and the names
of those I
have allegedly
harassed.
The
information
has not been
provided. I
have explained
to Giampaolo
why
I have a right
to it: it is
obvious that
those who have
referred the
written
charges, as
well as those
who have
allegedly been
harassed,
cannot be on
the Board of
Examination,
which must be
impartial
under
UNCA
Constitution
Article 6 (1)
(b). I would
also argue
those who
have used
exclusives
without credit
cannot be
viewed as
sufficiently
impartial.
For
the
record, while
it was said in
April that all
UNCA Executive
Committee
members should
contact each
other directly
when problems
arise, when I
wrote on May
21 to Lou
about his and
Reuters'
uncredited use
of Inner City
Press' March
28 exclusive
about Feltman
coming to head
DPA -- which
for example
Foreign
Policy's "The
Cable" did
credit -- Lou
never
responded.
Finally
on
May 23 he said
he has a
policy of not
crediting
Inner City
Press.
I am concerned
by this, and
became even
more troubled
when I learned
that
he had filed a
complaint
about me with
MALU and
Dujarric based
only on my
speech --
that I told
him he
disgusted me .
He also cc-ed
Giampaolo,
Maggie and Tim
(who notably
is not an
officer.) I
was
never informed
of the
complaint.
Perhaps
some
of you weren't
either - I'd
like to know -
so I am
attaching a
copy of Lou's
complaint to
MALU to this
message.
I
would also
like to be
informed
whether Lou's
complaint was
on behalf
of UNCA, or if
Lou was
abusing his
position in
UNCA to file
complaints
with MALU
against
another
Executive
Committee
member. The
complaint
would in fact
benefit his
employer, some
missions and
even
UN officials
like Ban
Ki-moon and
Herve Ladsous.
If
published
material can
be defined by
the UNCA
Executive
Committee as
"harassment,"
then any
subject of
critical press
coverage
could make a
harassment
charge.
I
have never
filed a
complaint with
MALU against
any UNCA
Executive
Committee
member, or any
UNCA member or
journalist at
the UN at all.
While
Lou's
complaint to
MALU says I am
somehow making
it hard for
him and
unnamed others
to work, I
view the
complaint as
an attempt to
STOP me
from working
at the UN. For
the record I
view all of
this as a
violation of
UNCA
Constitution
Article 1 (3).
I am opposing
this and
will oppose
this 100%.
Since
the
purpose of a
Constitution
is not to
permit but to
limit gang
rule, actions
such as
violations of
UNCA
Constitution
Article 1 (3)
are subject to
outside
judicial
review.
In
fact,
the current
UNCA
Constitution's
fails to
specify the
grounds on
which an
impeachment or
expulsion of
an elected
member of the
Executive
Committee such
as you propose
can take
place. This
failure
could, and in
appropriate
circumstances
will, be
voided by a
court,
arguably in
the context of
a dissolution.
Given
the
refusal to
provide me
with basic
information
about the
complaint
against me,
despite six
requests, the
announced
session (which
overlaps with
the Security
Council's
session on
Yemen) on the
afternoon of
May 29, should
not go
forward.
Please
advise."
Each
of these
arguments will
be unpacked as
far as it
needs to be.
Watch this
site.
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