By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May 9
-- At the UN,
the head of
the UN
Correspondents
Association
felt
comfortable
trying to
dictate how
and who UN
Television
filmed on
World Press
Freedom
Day.
According to
multiple
sources,
Pamela Falk of
CBS complained
to the top of
the Department
of Public
Information
that UNTV
dared cut away
to a shot of a
skeptic during
her speech
claiming UNCA
protects
journalists. Video here on Inner City Press' YouTube channel (on full video on
UN website, here,
from Minute
30).
Now that the
video and the
UNCA attempt
to censor that
it spawned are
known, other
critics have
come forward.
This doesn't
represent us,
said one.
Another
brought up a
surge in
Falk's UNCA
twitter
accounts low
number of
followers,
pointing out
hundreds in a
row with
little
identifying
information,
some with
pornographic
profiles,
concluding,
"they're
bought
followers."
These include
"EXTREMELY
DOMINANT BBW,"
"Nudist *
Foreskin lover
#BBBH" and
"the finest of
erotic events
and vacations"
as well as
being padded
by executives
and stringers
for Falk's
CBS, like
Sharon
Hoffman, Nick
Barnets and
Luke Fredberg.
Scroll down to
the middle
hundreds of
follower here.
The
month started
when UNCA's
2013-14
president Pam
Falk
grandiosely
attempted to
launch a
Twitter
hashtag
promoting the
group. An UNCA
member, rather
than
obediently
tweeting the
contrived tag,
noted online
that when Falk
claimed the
"GA commends
UNCA every
year," UNTV
camera cuts to
@innercitypress
shaking head
in disbelief,
too funny.”
(The
UNTV video,
which we went
back and found
for the
reasons below
is online
here, from
Minute 30.)
As we
first diplomatically
recorded,
the UNTV
control room
got a
complaint
about their
camera angles.
This is called
attempted
censorship, as
is this
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
filing with
Google, here.
Now we
can report
based on
multiple
sources that
Falk herself
complained to
the top of DPI
- and that
this
complaint,
rather than
being as it
should have
been laughed
at and
rejected, was
passed on to
the control
room, trying
to dictate
even what the
camera
operators film
as cut-aways.
This is
outright
censorship:
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance's
reverse flow.
In
2012, some on
UNCA's
Executive
Board tried to
pursue the
investigative
Press for
its coverage
of UN official
Herve Ladsous
and also
separately of
France's
ambassador
Gerard Araud,
then moved
for expulsion
based on coverage
of Sri Lanka.
Now, UNCA's
president
demands that
the UN itself
change how it
films, to
censor
opposition.
Out in
the real
world, the UN
Secretariat
had no comment
on Ethiopia's
jailing
of journalists
including the
Zone 9
Bloggers,
when asked
about it by
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
As we covered
on May 8, the
UN has yet to
speak on
Yemen's
deportation
of one of the
few (but more
than two)
non-Yemeni
journalists
working in the
country. The
next story is
Myanmar -
watch this
site.
, 
