UNdisclosed
Location,
March 20 --
Cuba has
protested to
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon about
the use of UN
space for an
event
sponsored by
the UN
Correspondents
Association
and its
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS.
If
the past is
any guide, the
big media
controllers of
UNCA will try
to
spin the
protest as
proof that
they stand for
free speech.
But
they
don't. The UNCA
Executive
Committee
spent most of
its meetings
in
2012 trying to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN.
Documents
obtained
under the US
Freedom of
Information
Act from Voice
of
America show a
direct
request to the
UN's Stephane
Dujarric to
“review” the
accreditation
of Inner City
Press by VOA,
which said
it had the support
of Reuters
and Agence
France Presse.
Most
recently, when
the UN
conducted a
non-consensual
search of
Inner City
Press' office
on March 18, UNCA's Falk
was there
takin
photographs.
Despite
requests
for an
explanation,
at the UN noon
briefing of
March
19 and from the
UK, there
has been no
explanation.
Of
Falk, Cuba's
Permanent
Representative
Rodolfo Reyes
Rodriguez has
written to
Ban, “this
anti-Cuba
action by the
current
President of
UNCA does not
surprise us.
Such lady does
not have the
slightest
ethics to
separate the
discharge of
her mandate as
President of
the
UNCA from the
fulfillment of
her personal
interests and
motivations.”
Falk
refuses to
answer
questions.
The
question has
been raised
why this UNCA
is given
special status
and
space by the
UN. Even the
kitchenette in
the renovated
UN third floor
is slated to
be called the
“UNCA Pantry;”
the room for
journalist
is called the
“UNCA Club.”
The
new
Free UN
Coalition for
Access,
launched on
December 7,
2012 by two
people elected
to UNCA's
Executive
Committee in
2012 but who
quit
after, as one
of them said,
finding the
organization
“totally
corrupt,” has
suggested that
that space
should be
called UN
Journalists
club, and UNCA
not have the
key and lock
it up.
UNCA
does not
distribute its
information to
those who
don't pay it,
or
attend its
$250 a plate
dinner; its
Executive
Committee does
not even
share
information
with other
UNCA members.
They
met with Ban
Ki-moon,
got quotes but
refused to
provide a tape
or transcript,
including on
issues of Sudan and
the Congo,
which Ban's
spokesman told
Inner City
Press came up.
This
is the UN's
Censorship
Alliance -
given UNCA's
recent record,
any
claims that it
represents
free speech
are laughable.
And if the UN
continues to
“partner” with
it and give it
special
status, it
further
corrupts both
organization.
Watch this
site.
, 
