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

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 14 -- With the UN Correspondents Association through Pamela Falk trying to brand every UN press conference and even UN Security Council presidency with the name UNCA, it was perhaps not surprising that UNCA under her leadership bought Twitter followers, as reported May 9 and 10.

   But as questions about how paid to buy the followers grow, the question of who bought them appears to be resolved. Just as UNCA's account shot up in the last week of April -- only to fall precipitously after being exposed -- so too Pam Falk's own account shot up in late April. See photo of graph here, showing Falk suddenly jumping to over 7000 followers. Only yesterday, over 400 of these were dropped. Guilty knowledge? Compare to UNCA's sudden leap, here. Case closed.

   The reason this is pursued is that UNCA has become the UN's Censorship Alliance, having tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, then dragging its feet when asked to speak up for other attacked journalists, and now even trying to dictate to UNTV what it can and cannot film.

   Also as detailed below, after Falk complained to the top of the UN Department of Public Information that UN TV camera operators dared film skeptical reaction to her May 1 "press freedom" speech, now Falk has uploaded the speech with the skepticism edited out - unloading it in the name of "UNCA Journalists." UNCA, already the UN's Censorship Alliance, is being taken ever lower.

  UNCA went up to 5,500 on May 3, 2014. See photo of graph which counters cover-up, here. That UNCA's middle followers had few to no connections to the UN, journalism or international affairs and little profile information except some pornographic come-ons was noted in an article on the evening of May 9, here.

  By May 10, the UNCA account's followers had suddenly fallen back down below 300, in what some are calling a cover up, as Falk's UNCA did once exposed for lining up for a free Samsung television through the UN and the South Korean mission. Once exposed, it was canceled - and Falk's UNCA demanded a "correction." And now? There are calls for an explanation of the spike and collapse, who paid for it, even, was UN wi-fi used. Not that the UN would pursue, much less fix, that...

  In order to prop up its UN Censorship Alliance, the UN gives UNCA a big room on the third floor. It has been closed and scarcely used for months, as a big screen TV (Samsung through the South Korean mission until exposed) and other UN work was done. Now Falk announces that in four weeks time a toast will be raised mid-day then the room will be open 10-4, for "all" correspondents. If so, why name it for the Censorship Alliance? To prop it up.

   On May 1, Falk 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).

  But Falk uploaded, in the name of UNCA Journalists, a ham-handedly edited version of her speech with only the skeptical cut-away removed. This is censorship; there are other words for it as well. Falk has been pitching the video to, for example, the UN Spokesman and an account @NelsonMandela.

  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 the 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."

  Now, even after the reversal or cover-up, the question of precisely how this happened remains, and new questions need answering.

  These included "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.

  These and hundreds of other followers bought by UNCA were removed between May 9 and May 10.

  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.