Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the Inner City to Wall Street to the United Nations

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 22 -- As the drive to expel Inner City Press gathers 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.

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.

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.