After
UN
Correspondents
Association
Chief Shouts
of
Crime &
Slander, New
Season
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 25 –
The president
of the UN
Correspondents
Association on
February 22
called Inner
City Press “a mugger”
and said that
it might be “
a crime”
to send
questions to
other media
organizations
about their
policies.
The
new president,
a CBS
reporter,
screamed at
Inner City
Press that it
was “slander”
to
say her name
on air at the
UN noon
briefing.
On February
21, Inner City
Press on
behalf of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
questioned
the right of
UNCA to claim
the first
question at
briefings,
that day and
in the future.
Monday saw a
continuation
of this
attempt to
buttress
UNCA's
increasingly
dubious
position, announced by the
group's
president on
February 15.
Meanwhile
the
UNCA first
vice president
from Reuters
-- also
unnamed here
-- complained
about Inner
City Press'
series of
reports about
how he
and his Agence
France Presse
counterpart, in support of
Voice of
America,
sought to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
in 2012.
Apparently,
the Reuters
bureau chief
is now saying
the the Voice
of America
documents
obtained under
the US Freedom
of Information
Act contain mis-statements
by
the VOA bureau
chief.
But he
again refused
to answer when
asked directly
about a
document
obtained under
FOIA
reflecting
that UNCA met
“very quietly”
with UN
officials to
get Inner City
Press thrown
out. Click
here for audio;
click here
to view the
document.
FUNCA
was launched
on December 7,
2012, to
improve the
access of
journalists
around the
world covering
the UN and its
agencies and
to defend
freedom of the
press from the
type of
stealth attack
launched by
Big Media
members of
UNCA in 2012.
Since
the name-shy
CBS reporter
took over its
presidency
last month,
however, UNCA
has sunk to
new lows. Its
“leaders”
including from
AFP have torn
down flyers
calling for reforms of
archaic and
exclusionary
UN Media
Access
Guidelines in
which UNCA has
partnered.
They are also
connected to
at least four
anonymous
social media
accounts which
try to
discredit
FUNCA members,
to the point
of alleging
funding by
terrorists.
Nevertheless,
the
UNCA president
after saying
“I have
nothing to say
to this man”
asked Inner
City Press to
come back to
UNCA. Well, no. UNCA
is the
organization
whose leaders
banded
together in
2012 to try to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN.
Inner
City Press
asked, and
asks: why
didn't the CBS
reporter, who
is a lawyer,
do at least
minimal due
diligence
before
accepting the
former
UNCA
president's
nomination to
run unopposed
for the
position he
wanted to give
up?
Her
reports, when
they happen,
are called “Up
To The
Minute.” But
when asked
whether she
was aware of
or looked into
UNCA's recent
activities
before
becoming
UNCA's
figurehead,
she cited a
writer, Alan
Riding, who
was at the UN
forty years
ago and now
lives in
Paris.
We say, name
dropping won't
cut it
anymore, and
information
from forty
year ago is
not really Up
To The Minute.
That
the
interchange
was on the
record was
repeatedly
emphasized to
her and her
first vice
president from
Reuters, who
says his past
censorship
demands should
not or even
cannot be
reported. On
February 22 he
endeavored
again to
dictate the
contents of
this website,
and of FUNCA
flyers.
Neither is
acceptable.
Since
the UNCA
president has
tried to say
she was
misquoted --
even verbatim
quotes of what
she said at
UN's untimely,
unconstitutional
annual
meeting on
February 15 --
we are
uploading audio
of her two and
a half minute
February 22
“opening
statement,"
click here.
Calm but
crazy, as
one listener
has put it,
while noting
the static on
the recording
it was not
known would
have to be
uploaded.
Misquoted?
Hardly.
Minutes
later,
she was
cutting off
any attempt by
Inner City
Press to
respond, throwing
around and
misusing words
like
“slander.”
Click here
for another
sample three
and a half
minutes,
and here
for a final
clip where in
the face of a
critique of
UNCA as "Big
Media" heavy,
she screamed
only, "Don't
write about
me."
While
she trumpets
her law
degree,
frankly she
does not seem
understand the
First
Amendment to
the US
Constitution.
For the
record,
writing to
Voice of
America is
protected
petition of
government for
the redress of
grievances --
it is not even
plausibly a
“crime,” as
she claimed.
Screaming,
name dropping
and attempts
at
intimidation
won't work: a
new season has
begun. Watch
this site.
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