By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 20 -- The UN might not actually protect civilians, but it has been counted on to issue reports, often statistical, about demographics, discrimination and forms of development.
But the UN Population Fund's “State of the World Population 2010,” despite its title, is a sort of extended pro-UN magazine article written by former New York Times UN correspondent Barbara Crossette.
When Ms. Crossette introduced the publication to the UN press corps on October 20, it was first in a faux Q & A format with a UNFPA staffer.
When this staffer cum questioner opened the floor for questions, Ms. Crossette answered the first question about UN peacekeepers by saying “the UN is unfairly blamed.”
Inner City Press then asked, since her report contained photos and quotes from Secretary Bank Ban Ki-moon's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallstrom, whether Ms. Crossette thought Wallstrom was unfairly blamed for not having heard of the mass rapes in the Congo until three weeks after they occurred. (Even then, Ms. Wallstrom did not go to the Congo for several more weeks.)
Ms. Crossette pointed out that Ms. Wallstrom “prefers to be called MargoT” (with a T) and talked about Wallstrom's more recent statements. But what about the breakdown in communications between the MONUSCO peacekeeping mission (and wider UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and Ms. Wallstrom's office, which has been in operation for months?
When Inner City Press followed up by asking about the UN's role in negotiations with disproportionately few women in both the Kivus in the Congo and in Doha about Darfur, Ms. Crossette said it is the governments which choose who goes to the peace talks. But the UN flies them - and pays. As does UNFPA.
The UNFPA editor of Ms. Crossette's report, Richard Kollodge, then said that it would be better to ask DPKO about this. Ms. Crossette went on to say “I don't speak for UNFPA, I speak as a journalist.”
After the press conference, several correspondents questioned just this. If a person is paid by the UN to write a pro-UN report, is it an act of journalism? How much was Ms. Crossette paid, and how was she selected? Would a report more critical of the UN have been published by UNFPA?
What, one correspondent asked, about Ms. Crossette functioning as The Nation magazine's UN correspondent while being paid by the UN to write pro-UN reports? Certainly The Nation is free to be pro-multilateralism and pro-UN. But why not then called UN spokesman Martin Nesirky The Nation's UN Correspondent?
(Inner City Press has learned from a number of Ms. Crossette's dispatches in her former positions. But the questions about UNFPA's pay and selection process and implications should be answered.)
A request after the press conference for the type of information one expects to be in a report like “State of the World Population 2010” resulted in an offer to produce a “statistics expert” later. Why does an anecdotal (faux) journalistic report have such a title? Questions, questions. Watch this site.
Footnote: As we reported on October 18, MONUSCO chief Roger Meece, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations that day, refused from the podium to say when he had informed Ms. Wallstrom about the rapes, which e-mails indicate MONUSCO became aware of from July 30 onward. Afterward, his special assistant Reuben Culpin urged Inner City Press not to wait to ask Meece on his way out, but rather to send the questions by e-mail.
Inner City Press did, to both Messrs. Culpin and Meece. But Culpin's email said “out of the office,” and in the two days since, no answer has been provided. So much for “ask DPKO.” Inner City Press even asked Farhan Haq of Nesirky's office, without yet getting a response. But the inquiry will continue.
