UNSC
Congo Trip, 1st
Reported by
ICP, Seeks
Scribes Only
Through
UNCA, Scam
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 18,
updated -- For
the UN
Security
Council's October trip
to Africa's
Great Lakes
region, on
which Inner
City Press exclusively
reported one
week ago,
some have been
asked if they
would like to
go
along as
scribes.
How
was the
request made,
and to whom?
Unlike in the
past, it was
NOT
sent to all UN
accredited
correspondents,
or even just
resident
correspondents
with desk
space in the
UN.
No,
the offer was
made only
through what's
called the UN
Correspondents
Association.
This entity's
2013 president
Pamela Falk of
CBS in turn
only sent the
information to
those who pay
money.
Beyond
the money,
Inner City
Press quit
UNCA in
December 2012
after
documenting
that several
UNCA
Executive
Committee
members tried
to
get Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN.
UNCA's first
vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters
even spied
for the UN,
providing an
anti-Press
internal UNCA
document
to the UN's
top
accreditation
official three minutes
after he
promised not
to. Story
here, audio here,
document
here.
UNCA
Executive
Committee
member Tim
Witcher of
Agence France
Presse filed
a complaint
with the UN
leading with
the way in
which Inner
City
Press
posed a
question to
Herve Ladsous,
who before
heading UN
Peacekeeping
served as France's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
to
the UN during
the Rwanda
genocide,
arguing for
the escape of
the
genocidaires
into the
Eastern Congo.
In
this context,
how the
information
about press
space to cover
the
Security
Council's trip
to the region
be given out
only through
UNCA?
Journalists
are told they
don't have to
join UNCA, and
in fact fewer
than 10% of
the
journalists
accredited to
cover the UN
General
Assembly are
UNCA members.
This
means of
distribution
of information
is
illegitimate,
and after
protest by the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
was eliminated
with
regard to
twenty passes
to cover the
UN conference
room area next
week.
So why is trip
information,
to an area as
ideologically
charged
as the Great
Lakes,
distributed
this limited
and
illegitimate
way?
Apparently,
BECAUSE it is
ideologically
charged. But
FUNCA is
protesting it.
Watch this
site.
Update:
One hour after
publication of
the above, and
after inquiry
with and
request for
explanation
from Ban
Ki-moon's Office
of the
Spokesperson,
the information
was sent out
to the full
list, not just
the UNCA
sub-set. But
still: no
explanation.
Watch this
site.
, 
