Inside
UN, CIA
Official &
“Accurate
Reporting on
US” Pitched by
UNCA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
9 -- What is
the function
of what's
called the UN
Correspondents
Association?
Tomorrow April
10 it is
summoning its
members to “an
informal
off-the-record
meeting” with
the “Deputy
Director,
Media Hub of
the Americas,
U.S.
Department of
State Bureau
of Public
Affairs.”
The summons,
sent by UNCA
President
Giampaolo
Pioli, links
to a
self-description
of this US
Bureau of
Public
Affairs, that
“PA/IME works
in close
collaboration
with State
Department and
interagency
colleagues to
create and
manage tools
to ensure
accurate
coverage of
U.S. foreign
policy by
major
international
media.”
UNCA
represents
only part of
the UN press
corps. This
writer, for
example, quit
the group
after
2012.
UNCA is said
by UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric to receive
the first
question in
the UN Press
Briefing Room
“by tradition,”
even after UNCA's
Executive
Board
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN
for its reporting
about Sri
Lanka, UN
Peacekeeping
and colonialism
(Herve Ladsous)
among other
topics.
Now UNCA wants
to facilitate
“accurate
coverage of
U.S. foreign
policy.” Does
it perform
this service
for other
countries?
Inner City
Press, like
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access which
it co-founded
after quitting
UNCA, is not
against
"accurate
coverage of US
foreign
policy." Last
month, Inner
City Press
asked the US
State
Department
about Yemen
(including
the decision not to
evacuate
Yemeni
Americans from
the country),
Cuba
(the US restrictions
on its
diplomats at
the UN),
the Maldives,
Middle
East and
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo.
In each case,
Inner City
Press reported
the answers in
full, where
possible with
video.
But why
provide this
platform for
one country
and not
others?
Earlier on April
10 UNCA will
have a
presentation
by a former US
CIA employee
who served in
Saipan, Korea,
Vietnam and
"Burma," as
the UNCA
notice puts
it.
What has happened
to this UNCA
under Pioli
and presumably
current
Executive
Committee
members from Reuters,
the US
Broadcast
Board of
Governors
and ANSA? And
how now can
the UN
continue to
“partner” with
UNCA,
exclusively,
using this
partial group
as a proxy for
the wider
press corps?
Earlier
on April 9,
when the UN
with little
notice
canceled its
question and
answer noon
briefing in
deference to a
"press
encounter"
with Ban
Ki-moon at
which Dujarric
handpicked the
questioners
and Ban
notably did
not call for a
halt or even
pause in
airstrikes on
Yemen, UNCA
said nothing.
(They will,
however, have
a "Prosecco
toast" with
Ban later in
the month.)
The
Free
UN Coalition
spoke up in criticism,
as here. We'll
have more on
and of this.
, 
