As
UN Evicted Press With No
Appeal, Insiders Hyped
Churkin's Complaint About
Reuters
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Part of Series,
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
February 20 – With diplomats,
political capital was to be
spent on the problems of their
country, or “their”
journalists. Some were
protected: if the UN tried to
oust a Moroccan journalist,
which they wouldn't, for
example, Ambassador Omar
Hilale would be sure to
protest. It wouldn't happen.
When Russia's Vitaly Churkin
called out Reuters' Lou
Charbonneau, an advocate
then and later, the UN
insiders who ignored what
Ban's Gallach and before that
Voice of America did sprung to
the defense of corporate
Reuters. A journalist
shouldn't need powerful
supporters to cover the UN: it
defeated the purpose. But that
is how it worked.
And the hierarchy, too.
In a press conference to begin
Angola's month as Security
Council president, a
non-favored journalist began a
question about the impact of
sanctions. Ol' Charbonneau of
Reuters cut her off; I
instinctively flipped him the
bird. Probably I'll be the one
to get in trouble, I thought.
Before when Reuters'
Charbonneau complained
to the UN for the first time
to try to get me out and it
got leaked
to me, he managed to get it blocked or BANned
from Google's Search, calling
it copyrighted, saying he'd
never meant for it to be
public.
Wasn't that true of
most leaks anyone including
Reuters published? But it
didn't matter, consistency.
The UN did whatever it wanted,
and most missions just wanted
to try to have the ear or
fingers of the scribes at
Reuters. Freedom of the press
be damned.
And so without an
office I spent whatever time
the Security Council wasn't
meeting, the time I couldn't
access the second floor, down
in the Vienna Cafe in the
basement. Two of the tables
had electrical outlets. Both
were on the outside, and
people passing by would ask
me, “How are you?” I didn't
know what to say. “They threw
me out?” “Ban Ki-moon is
corrupt?” I just nodded.
A guy working for the
UN's caterer whom I'd known
for at least six years told me
it was all Ban Ki-moon's
fault, and to just wait for
the next SG. But that was ten
months away. Wouldn't I get
all the way thrown out by
then?
Another guy I'd know a
while, a guy who worked in the
office of the new President of
the General Assembly Mogens
Lykketoft, told me to not
worry too much about it and
get an ulcer. “Think of your
stomach,” he said. “It's not
worth it.”
“But they don't deserve
for me to stand down and walk
away,” I told him.
“It's not about them,
it's about your health,” he
said.
Another journalist came
and told me that after I was
ousted from the UNCA meeting
back on January 29, the woman
who Lou Charbonneau had later
cut off - maybe WHY he cut her
off - had stood up fro me, and
said Giampaolo Pioli should
have said, “You are mentally
sick.” He said that he
and another had tried to
propose that UNCA find another
room, other than the UN Press
Briefing Room, for its
meeting. But to no avail.
It was for trying to cover
this meeting that I had been
thrown out, and that all this
was happening. I couldn't get
my mind around it: it was so
petty and pretextual, but it
was real. Had I made a
mistake? But if not this
“incident,” as Gallach has put
it, wouldn't it have been
another? This was Ban
Ki-moon's revenge. So I
emailed him and chief of staff
Mulet a copy of the Jaffna video. Surely they would care?
But they didn't. The stations
of the cross continued.
***
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