By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
8 -- The US
Agency for
International
Development,
has defended
its role in
developing a
faux /
parallel
"Cuban
Twitter," exposed
by the AP.
Now the US
Broadcasting
Board of Governors,
on whose board
the Secretary
of State
serves and
which oversees
Voice of
America, Al
Hurra and Radio/TV
Marti among
others, is
promoting and
defending the
propriety
of its
own version of
Cuban Twitter
- on Twitter.
In the same
feed, BBG brags that VOA's
David Ensor is
involved in the
protection of
journalists.
But in 2012,
Ensor along
with Steve
Redisch were
involved in
trying to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN.
Ensor
wrote that a
"quote from
Reuters will
definitely
help!"
Document here.
This quote
concerned a
previous "for
the record"
complaint by
Reuters bureau
chief which
he's since
gotten banned
from Google's
Search by claiming it
was
copyrighted:
that is, censorship
via the Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act.
So these
ostensible
champions of
freedom of the
press are
actually engaged
in trying to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out -- or its
accreditation
"reviewed" --
and in trying
to erase and
censor the
documents that
show this.
BBG since
being exposed
by its own
Freedom of
Information
Act responses
began reflexively
denying
through its
FOIA official
Andrew Krog
any and all
FOIA requests
from Inner
City Press,
including
about BBG's
operations in
Sudan and Afghanistan.
Protection of
journalists,
indeed.
To the
main "Cuban Twitter"
story, there
is a UN aspect.
USAID
spokesperson
Matt Herrick's
statement does
not address
the United
Nations link,
on which UN
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
declined to
comment on
April 3.
James
Eberhard
worked on and
with the US
strategy since
at least July
2010. But he
is also
described
as "James
Eberhard, CEO
and founder of
GeoPoll...
GeoPoll was
recently used
by the United
Nations to
complete its
MY World
global survey,
bringing in 13
percent of
total
responses in
weeks. It is
also being
used by the
World Food
Programme on
an ongoing
basis to
assess
nutrition
access in
specific
regions within
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo."
Of
this last, the
UN itself
said:
"In
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo, a
partnership
with GeoPoll
is helping us
to conduct the
poll via
mobile
surveys, so we
will be able
to gather data
from large
numbers of
respondents
who are
otherwise
unreachable in
a country with
limited
internet
connectivity.We
expect to
reach
approximately
15,000-18,000
people in the
DRC in the
coming weeks."
Eberhard
has
spoken
at the UN:
Forty-Ninth
Session
of the
Commission for
Social
Development, 9
to 18 February
2011
Tuesday
8
February 2.
Conference
Room: D, NLB
Organizers:
Division
for Social
Policy and
Development,
co-sponsored
with Search
for Common
Ground
Theme:
Youth-led
Social
Development
and Young
Philanthropy
Speakers:
Mr.
Ryan Allis,
co-founded
“iContact”;
Mr. James
Eberhard,
Founder and
Chairman,
Mobile Accord.
, 
