UN
Censorship on
Cameroon
Attributable
to UN DPI's
Smale, Set To
Spin SG in CAR
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope;
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
October 17 – Senior UN officials
claim they care about and want
coverage of crisis like those in
Cameroon, then block Press
coverage while taking public
money to pursue their largely
European interests. More than a
month ago Inner City Press wrote
to UN Department of Public
Information chief Alison Smale explaining
how the eviction and
restrictions imposed by her
predecessor Cristina Gallach
would result in censorship and a
reduction in coverage during the
General Assembly Week. There was
no response - and has been none
since, such that Inner City
Press was hindered on October 17
as it covered (Southern)
Cameroonians raising questions
bout Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' praise of Paul Biya,
UN cover up of his abuses
prospectively during the Central
Africa trip Smale wants to spin.
And Guterres and his team know,
his office has confirmed receipt
of this, the Inner City Press
has asked the UN "Spokesman, as
is relevant here, about the UN
Department of Public
Information, about human rights
violations in Cameroon unacted
on by the UN, and about the UN's
lack of transparency as
identified not only by the Press
but also the UN's own Advisory
Committee on Administrative and
Budgetary Questions. The answers
were UNsatisfactory, and UN DPI
has been entirely
unresponsive... Other
correspondents could walk around
freely; I had to get an escort
and minder. Meanwhile my
long-time work space sat, for
yet another day, unused by the
Egyptian state media DPI has
tried to assign it to, which
rarely comes in and never asks
questions. I have repeatedly
written to the new head of DPI,
without any response at all. I
was told that since the former
USG evicted Inner City Press,
reversal would have to await the
new USG. I waited, I wrote, I
waited - nothing. Nothing at
all. Nor now have there been
answers about DPI's planned
hiring of outside consultants,
and if these would be used in
the planned “good-news” coverage
of the upcoming trip to the
Central African Republic. These
are all questions that should be
answered, and the Press asking
about this, and about Cameroon,
Yemen, Myanmar, Western Sahara,
Kenya and the UN
“irregularities” exposed in the
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe case
should not be targeted and
treated differently than other
correspondents here. It is a
conflict of interest for DPI,
admittedly under Smale promoting
your image, to control and limit
the access of the critical
independent press. There should
have been rules - the meeting I
covered 20 months ago was
nowhere listed as closed, I got
no hearing or appeal - and it
should all now be belatedly
reversed, Inner City Press
restored to its work space in
S-303 and resident correspondent
returned." 24 hours, the clock
continues to tick. From the very
first day of the GA week, an
event about migration no less,
Inner City Press was arbitrarily
banned. And on the Friday of the
Week, Smale's DPI minders
told Inner City Press it could
not, as other less active
correspondents could, speak to
participants in the UN's
(politicized) meeting about the
humanitarian situation, just as
it was also restricted in its
coverage of Cameroon and other
issues. This was raised to Smale
the next day, when UN officials
and diplomats were working
(although many of Smale's
"resident correspondents" like Egypt's
Akhbar al Yom, Pakistan's Daily
Dawn and others didn't even come
in). But again from Smale, no
reforms, no response. Perhaps
this was due to the elections in
her former beat, Germany. But
these issues are her
responsibility; she is being
paid for this. Here's our
September 23 Smale-mail: "Dear
Under Secretary General Smale:
This follows up on the request /
petition I sent you earlier this
month, before the now-concluding
UN General Assembly High Level
Week. My unjustifiable lack of
resident correspondent status,
which I had asked be restored
before the High Level Week, has
resulted for example in me being
barred from speaking with
attendees outside yesterday's
Yemen humanitarian meeting.
Resident Correspondents,
including those who rarely come
in and never ask questions, like
Akhbar al Yom, were given access
to passes to the 1B level,
without escorts. For me, whose
resident correspondent
accreditation was taken without
a hearing or appeal for pursuing
the UN bribery story by covering
a meeting in the UN Press
Briefing Room, two separate
escorts or minders were required
to access the Yemen meeting.
While inside the meeting I was
told I could stakeout / wait
outside the meeting and speak to
participants as they left, my
DPI minders told me I could not
speak with anyone, even
diplomats who wanted to speak. I
reiterate my formal request to
be restored to my longtime
shared office S303 (I am willing
to help rarely present Akhbar al
Yom to relocate to the bullpen
or wherever else), and to have
my resident correspondent
accreditation restored, early
this coming week. I can provide
any further information, by
email, phone or in person. (By
contrast, the only event Egypt
state media Akhbar al Yom
“covered” was the SG - Sisi
bilateral, as UNCA “pool;” when
I asked DPI's MALU for basic
information such as who attended
or was observed at the bilat,
none was provided.) For your
information during this High
Level Week I put questions to
the foreign minister of Libya,
the UN's Libya envoy, the UK
minister for the Middle East
Alistair Burt (on Yemen), the
head of UNRWA, the head of UNHCR
(on Burundi), SRSG Louise Arbour
(on Libya) and, as you saw, the
EC minister and Deputy Secretary
General. More could be said, but
this should be enough. To
continue to restrict my
movements in the UN more than
other journalist, to keep me out
of my long time office such that
I can barely and sometimes not
download and edit video of these
Q&A, in favor of a no-show,
no-question state media is
UNjustifiable. It should be
reversed today, or early next
week. Today Saturday I am
writing this while covering the
Secretary General's bilateral
meetings on the 27th floor, if
you are in the UN and need any
further information. If you
don't mind, please confirm
receipt of this email." Not even
that. Now the UN Security
Council won't even hold a single
Yemen meeting in September,
despite its members' professions
of concern. When a Yemen meeting
during the UN General Assembly
week was held at 8 am on
September 22, new UN Relief
Chief Mark Lowcock introduced as
speakers the foreign ministers
of Sweden and the Netherlands,
representatives of Japan and the
UAE, and the UN's dubious envoy
Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed. While
billed as a humanitarian
meeting, the UAE spoke without
irony about outside
interference. (Yemen's
representative spoke in Arabic;
Inner City Press streamed
Periscope video).
To get to the meeting, held in
UN Conference Room 5, Inner City
Press unlike other no-show
reporters like Egypt's Akhbar al
Yom was required to get a UN
escort or minder, who told Inner
City Press it could not ask
questions or speak with anyone.
This despite UN OCHA telling
Inner City Press it could wait
outside and speak to people as
they left. So the UN's
retaliatory eviction of Inner
City Press for covering UN
corruption now results in it,
unlike the Saudi and pro-Saudi
media in the meeting, being
unable to speak to the
participants. This is today's UN
- it has been directly raised to
the new head of DPI, Alison
Smale, without response as she
focuses on the election on her
previous beat, Germany. Now
this, from the UNSC: "The
briefing and consultation on
Yemen is postponed for next
month and we'll have no meeting
scheduled tomorrow afternoon."
Pathetic. As it this: while
Canada joins The Netherlands at
the UN in Geneva in calling for
an investigation of possible war
crimes in Yemen including the
Saudi-led coalition's killing of
civilians, Canada has continued
a $15 billion arms deal with
Saudi Arabia. When Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
held a press conference at the
UN on September 21, Inner City
Press went early, intending to
ask him to explain this
incongruity or seeming
hypocrisy. Trudeau's spokesman
announced that the questioners
had been “pre-determined,” but
did not explain how. So in a
lull after what the spokesman
called the last question - would
Trudeau be a mediator on
Venezuela - Inner City Press
asked about Canadian arms sales
to Saudi while calling for a
probe. At first Trudeau said he
was happy to answer the
question. Then he said no, he
would not reward “bad behavior,”
and instead reached out for
question in French about day
care. (Inner City Press notes
that pre-determining questioners
is bad behavior. Apparently the
CBC journalist who was given the
first question agreed to it; the
organization only the day before
sent an Egyptian state media
correspondent as the lone “pooler”
in Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' meeting with General
Sisi.) Eearlier on September 21
when UK minister Alistair Burt
came in front of the UN Security
Council to speak about
accountability for Daesh in
Iraq, Inner City Press deferred
to a timely question about the
referendum in Kurdistan. Then
during lull - identical to
that in which it put its
question to Trudeau - Inner City
Press asked Burt about his
quote, about accountability for
the bombing of civilians in
Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition
with UK bombs, that "Our view is
that it is for the Coalition
itself, in the first instance,
to conduct such investigations.
They have the best insight into
their own military procedures
and will be able to conduct the
most thorough and conclusive
investigations.” Inner City
Press asked how he can say this,
given that the Saudis have
investigated less than five
percent of the killings. Video here.
Burt's answer focused on the
peace process - what peace
process? At least Burt answered,
and did not like Trudeau try to
call merely asking the question
in a lull "bad behavior" - we'll
have more on this.
***
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