After
Censorship,
UNCA Turn Out
Down 14%,
Reuters VP
Down 30%,
Delay Opposed
by FUNCA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 11 --
The decay
of the UN
Correspondents
Association
has been
confirmed in
the low turn
out of in the
organization's
largely fixed
elections,
held January
8-10.
Despite
UNCA's
claim to have
200-some
members, even
last year only
102 people
cast ballots.
But this time,
after a year
in which the
UNCA Executive
Committee
spent most of
its meetings
trying to expel
then dis-accredit
Inner City
Press,
turn-out fell
14%, to a mere
88 votes cast.
This
decline took
place despite
the UNCA
Executive
Committee violating
the UNCA
Constitution
by pushing the
election past
the December
15 deadline
and into
January,
allegedly to
get more
candidates and
more turn-out.
Video
here.
In
a tell-tale
sign of UNCA's
decay, there
was no
competition
for the
top six
positions.
Nevertheless,
running
unopposed,
First Vice
President
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters got
votes from
only 55 of the
88 people
casting
ballots. His
vote count
fell 30% from
the previous
year, more
than double
UNCA's overall
14% decline in
turnout.
Getting
less
than
two-thirds of
the votes in a
race with no
opponent at
all is not
only
not a mandate:
it is message
that it is
over. Here are
the results
in January
2013 for the
unopposed six,
and the vote
count they [or
their
predecessor]
got previously
in December,
2011:
1/13
12/11
65
[85]
President:
Pamela Falk,
CBS News TV
& Radio
55
79
First Vice
President:
Louis
Charbonneau,
Reuters;
60
71
2nd VP: Masood
Haider, Dawn;
56
62
3rd VP:
Sylviane
Zehil,
L'Orient le
Jour;
55
[71]
Treasurer:
Bouchra
Benyoussef,
Maghreb Arab
Press;
67
81
Secretary:
Barbara Plett,
BBC.
This
is decay. Here
are the vote
counts for the
nine "at
large"
positions on
the UNCA
Executive
Committee:
39
- Nizar
Abboub,
Al-Akhbar
Lebanon
47 - Nabil Abi
Saab, Alhurra
TV
45 - Talal
Al-Haj, Al
Arabiya News
Channel
42 - Ali
Barada,
An-Nahar/France
24
39 - Courtney
Brooks, Radio
Free
Europe/Radio
Liberty
47 - Denis
Fitzgerald,
Saudi Press
Agency
37- Mercedes
Gallego,
Vocento
44 - Zhenqiu
GU, Xinhua
News Agency
41 -
Kahraman
Halicelik,
Turkish Radio
& TV (TRT)
55 - Melissa
Kent,
CBC/Radio-Canada
33 - Evelyn
Leopold,
Huffington
Post
Contributor
52 - Yasuomi
Sawa, Kyodo
News
57 - Tim
Witcher,
Agence-France-Presse
This
last, from AFP, began
in September
2011 to ask
for UNCA
"action"
against Inner
City Press for
its reporting
on Herve
Ladsous being
named
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to the top
post in UN
Peacekeeping.
In
June of 2012 Witcher
told the
outgoing /
gone
Treasurer,
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice of
America, that
AFP
would join
VOA
in writing to
the UN to get
Inner City
Press
dis-accredited.
Charbonneau
said "his
people"
at Reuters
would do the
same.
As
twice noted,
the
new President
has not said a
word on the
topics of
censorship, or
the need
for conflict
of interest
rules for the
UNCA Executive
Committee.
Now on
January 11,
the UN has
announced that
not only will
media space at
the UN be
reduced by
40%, but the
move back to
the renovated
building
is being
delayed until
April.
All UN phone
lines that
media have
used, in the
case of Inner
City Press to
call back the
UN
Peacekeeping
missions and
whistleblowers
in the Congo,
Cote d'Ivoire
and Haiti, are
being
eliminated.
And
what has UNCA
said about it?
NOTHING. This
is decay. The
Free
UN
Coalition for
Access,
FUNCA, has
already
written to the
UN to
protest both
moves:
-Please
provide an
explanation of
the further
delay to April
of the move
back to the
renovated
building.
-FUNCA objects
to the
elimination of
the UN phone
lines, which
as noted prove
useful in
covering UN
Peacekeeping
missions in
the DRCongo,
Cote d'Ivoire
and
Haiti.
Now it is
unilaterally
announced that
the lines and
long-used
telephone
numbers are
gone. FUNCA
asks for an
explanation,
and objects.
-Finally, for
now (this
supplements
FUNCA's
previous
"feedback"
letter), this
is a request
that the
"final" floor
plans be sent
be e-mail, as
the earlier
ones were. If
it was thought
that e-mail of
the scanned
plans was the
best way to
make
correspondents
aware of the
draft plans,
why not the
final plans?
Watch
this site.
, 
