VOA
Asks UN to
Expel Press
& UNCA
Censors,
Group-Think
&
Mundo111
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 22 -- As
the drive
to expel
Inner City
Press has
gathered
force at the
UN, the UN
Correspondents
Association
has
repeatedly
been informed
that its
"Board of
Examination"
proceeding to
investigate
Inner City
Press has
given rise to
death
threats
from extremist
supporters of
the Sri Lankan
government.
One
UNCA
Executive
Committee
member, shown
a copy of a
Sri Lankan
cartoon
of Inner City
Press'
reporter with
a "Goebbels"
sign on,
said, "I don't
care, I'm not
responsible
for this."
Reuters'
Lou
Charbonneau,
UNCA's First
Vice
President,
turned the
cartoon over
to
not look at
it, before
voting to
continue the
Board of
Examination.
Now
an
UNCA
Executive
Committee
letter that,
it was
promised, was
"for
UNCA
members only"
has been
posted in full
on
Guardian.co.uk
by one
"Mundo111."
While
there is much
to be said
against the
letter,
its two main
claims, that
there was
never an
attempt to
censor Inner
City Press and
there is no
attempt
to dis-accredit
Inner City
Press from the
UN as a whole
are both
demonstrably
false.
The
blanket
apology
that UNCA
President
Giampaolo
Pioli and
those around
him have
demanded would
involve
Inner City
Press not
ever covering
"other
UN
correspondents"
-- no matter
what they do.
And
UNCA
Treasurer
Margaret
Besheer has
had her US
government
employer,
Voice
of America,
formally ask
the UN to
review the
accreditation
status of
Inner City
Press -- a
violation of
several
provisions of
the First
Amendment
to the US
Constitution,
including
freedom of
speech and of
the press, and
the right to
petition the
government and
its agencies
for a redress
of grievances.
The
one safeguard
UNCA President
Giampaolo
Pioli offered
was that the
letter
appointing
a replacement
for an
Examiner who
resigned would
be "only for
UNCA members."
Inner
City Press
scoffed, since
the Sri Lankan
Mission to the
UN and then
the
government
press had
immediately
gotten copies
of the the letter by
Reuters' Louis
Charbonneau,
Agence France
Presse'
Timothy
Witcher,
Bloomberg's
Flavia
Krause-Jackson
of Bloomberg,
Al-Arabia's
Talal
Al-Haj and
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice of
America --
which Inner
City
Press never
put online.
But Pioli
insisted this
would be for
UNCA
members only.
The
next day as
Inner City
Press covered,
as one of only
two
correspondents
present,
a Security
Council
meeting about
Mali, several
Council
diplomats
asked about
the UNCA
letter, which
they had
already seen.
Now,
after the
four remaining
members of the
UNCA Board of
Examination
asked Inner
City Press to
implement a
"cease fire,"
the entire
UNCA
letter has
been posted
as a comment
on a
Guardian.co.uk
story about
the
controversy,
by an
anonymous
poster going
by "Mundo111"
who
has made no
other postings
and has no
profile.
Pioli
then --
after the posting
by "Mundo111"
-- took an
unprecedented
secret ballot
vote to
approve the
use of the
"for UNCA
members
only" letter
as the
response to
the press.
Inner City
Press
responded to
all Executive
Committee
members:
I
am requesting
an UNCA
Executive
Board
explanation of
the complaint
and request to
Stephane
Dujarric and
MALU to
"review [my]
status
as an
accredited
U.N.
correspondent"
based on
nothing more
than
what I have
written,
including in
responsive
e-mails to the
UNCA
Executive
Board that
were sent to
Voice of
America's
Margaret
Besheer
just like
every other
member.
Given
that
complaint, it
makes it
difficult or
impossible for
me to defend
my rights in
this UNCA
kangaroo
court, or even
to respond to
e-mails
from the new
Examiners you
have
appointed,
since
apparently any
email
or written
material you
don't like you
view as
grounds to try
to
throw the
writer and
journalist out
of the UN.
Given,
again,
the vague
accusation of
"harassment,"
I will have to
take
understandable
steps to seek
to counter
this attack on
my
livelihood.
Since
the
VOA complaint
refers to
"other
journalists"
beyond
Margaret
Besheer, and
explicitly
refers to
UNCA, I
ascribe the
request to
eject me from
the UN to you.
I
note you
(Giampaolo)
have now
essentially
set up a
secret ballot
system on
these
important
matters, with
votes going
only to you.
This
is
unprecedented
and improper,
and for the
record, I do
not accept
your secret
vote counts.
I
reiterated
that you have
attempted to
censor me,
even telling
me what
and who I can
cover.
I
have pointed
out conflicts
of interest
and
pre-judgment
by the
ever-shifting
members of the
Board of
Examiners.
I
reiterate: the
Examiner
should be /
should have
been
professors of
journalism and
ethics, and
not those with
personal
stakes or
friendships or
pre-judged
positions.
Some
Executive
Committee
members said
they were only
part of this
kangaroo
court because
it was not
trying to
thrown me out
of the UN. But
now
it is. That,
is what you
should
address.
But
so far there
has been no
response at
all. Meanwhile
the VOA / UNCA
request that
the UN review
the
accreditation
status of
Inner City
Press claims
that similar
emails Inner
City Press
sent to the
whole
Executive
Committee
including
VOA's Margaret
Besheer
constitute
"harassment."
To rebut the
baseless
accusation,
Inner City
Press has been
urged to
publish all of
these emails,
"WikiLeaks-style."
But perhaps
Mondo111,
whoever in the
UNCA Executive
Committee that
is, will do
it. Watch this
site.
, 
