At UN,
Scam Election
of Censoring
Party Planner
Has Attackers
of Free Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 8 --
The day before
an election
with no
competition
for the top
six spots
of the UN
Correspondents
Association,
fliers raising
the point that
the fix was in
were torn down
in
the UN, in the
press floor
above the Dag
Hammarskjold
Library.
Downstairs in
the press
corps' outward
looking face,
fliers
that had
been defaced
with "Looney
Club" were
cleaned and
left up, to
make it appear
all was well
with UNCA.
But nothing
could be
further from
the truth.
An
organization
which once
played the
role of making
the UN more
transparent
and accessible
has devolved
into at best a
party
planner,
at worst a
proponent of
censorship as
was shown in
2012.
Five
big media
members of the
UNCA Executive
Committee
sought to
expel a
smaller
investigative
media which dared
to raise
questions of
conflict of
interest.
When a legal
defense was
mounted, three
of the
five decided
to ask the UN
to
dis-accredit
the Press, in
a
stealth
June 20, 2012
letter from
Voice of
America to
the UN's
Stephane
Dujarric.
While
Voice of
America's
Steve Redisch
was the signer
of the letter,
his UN
bureau chief Margaret
Besheer had
told him that
her colleagues
from
Reuters
and Agence
France-Presse,
Louis
Charbonneau
and Tim
Witcher
respectively,
would support
the letter or
write their
own.
This
is not
speculation:
Inner City
Press filed a
Freedom of
Information
Act request,
since Voice of
America is a
US government
agency.
In
early August
some documents
came in (more
were released
on appeal
in early
December),
with Besheer
assuring her
bosses
that UNCA had
met with the
UN, "very
quietly,"
to get Inner
City Press
thrown out.
It
is not
therefore
surprising
that Besheer
is not
"running"
for
re-election.
Nor is the president
who oversaw
this travesty,
nor
one of the
five big media
denouncers of
the Press, nor
another voting
with them.
But
Charbonneau is
pursuing
without
competition
another term
as first vice
president.
With a
replacement
president
who is not as
frequently at
the UN, he
seems to
believe he
would
again be the
one running
the show, to
the benefit of
himself if not
of Reuters.
Witcher
too
is running
again, if only
for an "at
large" seat.
So is
another reporter
they used, to
file a
complaint with
the UN which
the
official
complained to
found
"frivolous"
upon review.
And
so something
is sick within
UNCA, and this
fixed election
will not
fix it.
The response
of Inner City
Press has been
to launch a
new and
needed
organization
actually
fighting for
media rights
with regard to
the UN: the Free UN Coalition for Access, FUNCA.
Its fliers
have been
defaced and
torn down but
there will be
no stopping
it. Watch this
site.
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