UNITED
NATIONS, June
25 -- At the
UN and even in
its press
corps there
are a
range of
views, for
example on
former
National
Security
Agency
contractor
Edward Snowden
and the
countries he's
been in and
has
applied to
enter. But
this range is
not reflected
at the top of
the
UN
Correspondents
Association.
On
Tuesday at US
Ambassador
Rice's last UN
stakeout,
UNCA's 2013
president Pamela
Falk of CBS
began her
question: “Can
you comment
on the
autocratic
governments of
Ecuador,
China, Russia
characterizing
themselves in
the Snowden
case as
defenders of
democracy as
against the
United
States?” Video
here, from
Minute
9:50.
Is
Ecuador
autocratic?
Why this
loaded
question?
Particularly
from the
head of an
organization,
UNCA, which in 2012 tried
to get smaller
investigative
Press throw
out of the UN,
and in 2013
lobbied for
and
sign onto a
rule to outlaw
even the sign
of a start-up
alternative,
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access?
UNCA's
first vice
president in
both 2012 and
2013 is Reuters'
Lou
Charbonneau,
who asked
Rice: “Russia
has been, on a
number of
issues, at
odds with the
United States,
not just on
Syria. We’re
seeing with
the Snowden
case that they
simply aren’t
cooperating
with the US.”
Video
here, from
Minute 15:30.
In
fact, Snowden
flew as a
transit
passenger into
Russia, which
does not
require a
visa. He has
stayed since
in the transit
terminal of
the
airport
outside of
Moscow. Both
questions are
entirely from
a US
point of view.
But this is
the UN, as in
United Nations
Correspondents
Association.
Or is it?
Filing
the 2012
request for
the UN
Department of
Public
Information's
Stephane
Dujarric to
“review” Inner
City Press'
accreditation
was
Voice
of America,
document as
obtained under
the Freedom of
Information
Act here.
Earlier on
Tuesday, VOA's
Margaret
Besheer
asked Syrian
Ambassador
Bashar
Ja'afari a
similarly
loaded
question
about
Hezbollah. He
replied, “Are
you a young
journalist or
an old
journalist?
... If you
were a real
journalist,
you could not
ask
that.”
The
same might be
said for
asking the US
ambassador
about
“autocratic”
Ecuador
claiming “to
represent
democracy.”
But this is
UNCA --
and it is why
Dujarric's
and others in
DPI's attempt
to outlaw
even
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access'
sign is so
unsavory. As
it turns
out,
they work
together.
Who's
autocratic,
again? Watch
this site.
, 
