By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 14 --
The Ebola
crisis has for
now expanded
the range of
journalists
looking at the
UN system, and
they have encountered
the amateur
censorship
which has
spread from
the UN
Secretariat to
its funds and
programs and
beyond.
Yesterday the
World Health
Organization
ham-handedly
cc-ed BuzzFeed
on its
internal email
stating that
BF reporter
Jina Moore,
"who on two
occasions
reported
inaccurately,"
is banned.
Mashable has
posted the
chain of WHO
e-mails, here.
They might
have capitalized
it, "Banned,"
as in Ban
Ki-moon.
Because during
Ban's tenure
at the head of
the UN system,
his Under
Secretaries
General have
been allowed
to pick and
choose which
media to
respond to, to
say
on camera, "I
don't respond
to you,"
even to block
-- or Ban -- a
media's camera
filming from
the authorized
UN General
Assembly stakeout,
Vine
here.
Things have
reached this
state in part
because the
old United
Nations
Correspondents
Association,
which one
would expect
to push back,
has joined in
the censorship
trend.
For example,
UNCA's then-president
Giampaolo Pioli
demanded that
an article describing
his financial
relationship
with Sri
Lanka's
ambassador be
removed from
the Internet
or he would
get the Press
thrown out of
the UN.
Lo and behold,
an UNCA
then-board
member from Voice of America
wrote a letter
to the UN
requesting
just that; an
Inner City
Press FOIA
request showed
Voice of America
said it had
the support of
the UN bureau
chiefs of AFP
and Reuters
-- which has
gotten Google
to block -- or
Ban -- from
Search
even its
complaint to
the UN,
claiming it is
private and
subject to the
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act.
This UN breeds
censorship.
Still, WHO's
written
explanation of
a ban for
"inaccurate
reporting" in
the middle of
a health
crisis is a
new low. We
and the new Free UN Coalition for Access will have
more on
this.
For now,
consider the
UN did nothing
when the
President of
Sierra Leone
jailed a
journalist for
his reporting
on Ebola, as
well as for
daring to
question
President
Ernest Bai
Koroma's
performance.
The UN had a
peacekeeping
mission in the
country, has a
Country Team
and now the UN
Mission on
Ebola
Emergency
Response,
UNMEER. So at
the UN's
November 5
noon briefing
Inner City
Press asked:
Inner
City
Press: In
Sierra Leone a
journalist,
David
Tam-Baryoh,
has been put
in jail,
maximum
security
prison, for
his reporting
on Ebola under
a law that
says that it
is a crime to
undermine
Government
efforts to
fight the
epidemic. He's
also
questioned the
third term for
the Presiden
Koroma. So, I
wanted to know
what is the UN
system, given
its
involvement
through UNMEER
and otherwise,
what do they
say about this
case? Also, it
seems does
UNMEER have
any human
rights mandate
or component
to it? I
thought all
kind of UN
entities had
some
overarching or
inherent
Rights Up
Front…
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric:
There's a
country office
in all three
countries.
Human Rights
Up Front does
apply to all
UN staff and
missions. What
is… I don't
have the
particulars of
this case, but
it is clear
that
journalists
need to be
allowed to do
their work
free of
intimidation
and fear.
Inner
City
Press: What
about a law
that says,
obviously,
it's important
to fight
Ebola, but
should a
journalist be,
should a law
exist in which
you clearly
could be
arrested for…?
Spokesman:
I think,
clearly, the
media has a
very important
role to play
in fighting…
in part of our
response
against Ebola,
whether it's
fighting
stigmatization
or other
issues.
Those
are
generalities,
but what is
the UN doing?
What does Ban
Ki-moon's
"Rights Up
Front," born
of his failure
in Sri Lanka
in 2009,
really mean?
Inner City
Press and the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access have
been told that
UN inquiries
are being
made. We'll
have more on
this.
, 
