As
Alison Smale Takes Over UN DPI,
Raid on UN by Nigeria
Covered Up, Nasser
& DSG Censor
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
August 11 – After seven months
at the UN, Antonio Guterres on
August 9 named as his chief of
Global Communications Alison
Smale. Sometime in September -
the UN wouldn't give Inner
City Press a date when it
asked at the end the August 10
noon briefing,
video here
- she will take over a
Department of Public
Information that has been in
decline in recent years. DPI
has now launched a "latest
news" website, which on August
11 didn't even mention the raid
on its humanitarian camp in
Maiduguri by Nigerian
government forces, which
themselves contradicted
the UN's claims. Note
to Nasser, who has not responded
on this, or it seems really to
Smale: it's not "news" if you
cannot tell the truth, and if
you censor others. Is this
"Global Communications"?
Just this month
the use of photos by DPI
staff, without any credit to
the UN, was exposed
by Inner City Press.
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric
twice insisted is was only
“small” operations which do
this. But Inner City Press has
twice asked about a photo
of Guterres' predecessor Ban
Ki-moon, credited only to
“Mark Garten/AFP,” here.
Blaming some
(“small”) media while bending
over backwards for others is a
more pervasive problem at the
DPI Smale will be taking over.
The New York Times, to
continue with that
publication, profiled Inner
City Press as the “first
blogger” in the UN, here.
The New
Yorker followed suit.
But once Inner City Press
started to blog and about UN
corruption, everything
changed.
As questioned
even by the UN's own Special
Rapporteurs on Freedom of
Expression and on Human Rights
Defenders, here,
DPI evicted
and still restricts
investigative Inner City Press
for seeking to cover and
live-stream an event held in
the UN Press Briefing Room, by
a group which received funding
from Ng Lap Seng, convicted
last month of UN bribery.
Inner City Press covered the
trial, after having
pre-eviction asked DPI and its
partners about their links
with Ng's "South South"
empire.
A 2000-signature
petition
to Guterres and his Deputy
Amina J. Mohammed, urging
reinstatement of Inner City
Press to resident
correspondent status and its
office, which sits unused by
the Egyptian state media DPI
has tried to assign it to, has
yet to be answered. On August
10, Inner City Press waited
and managed to ask
Deputy Mohammed a question,
devoting it to Cameroon which
it covers, and not this
eminently reversible
censorship issue.
But it must be
resolved: this week Inner City
Press was unable to follow the
Cameroon delegation to a part
of the UN building which other
correspondents can access, and
was likewise unable to
stakeout a meeting on Lebanon
which others did. Inner City
Press has urged Maher Nasser,
the acting head of DPI from
April 1 until whenever Smale
arrives, to return Inner City
Press to its office and access
equal to less active resident
correspondents; Nasser on
August 8 said he would
“review” but he has yet to
“revert,” in UN-speak.
Inner City Press
has urged that the restoration
be done now, before Smale
arrives, to take this legacy
censorship issue off her sure
to be full plate, and to avoid
a distasteful and censorious
"try out" which is not
required of other journalists
asking questions at the UN
everyday (and many who rarely
even come in or report on the
UN.) But the UN continues both
with corruption, and
censorship. Global
Communications? We'll have
more on this.
***
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