By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 29 -- Two
months after
Inner City
Press broke
the story
that US
official
Jeffrey
Feltman would
come to head
the UN
Department
of Political
Affairs,
on May 29
Inner City
Press asked
Syrian
Ambassador
Bashar
Ja'afari for
his comment. Video
here, from
Minute
25.
While
noting he has
yet to receive
"a letter from
the Secretary
General"
confirming
Feltman,
Ja'afari said
that for
Feltman to
head DPA "is
a sign of
escalation.
This is not a
sign of
keeping things
under the law,
the
international
law."
Ja'afari said
the UN is not,
or should not
be,
"about
imposing
national
interests on
the
international
community." He
said the head
of DPA should
be "impartial,
neutral" and
he does not
see Feltman
that way. He
is not alone.
When
Inner City
Press published
its March 28
exclusive, it
ran a quote
that
"'This
would
strip from the
UN its last
scrap of
credibility in
the Middle
East,' he
said, adding
that 'more
shoes would be
thrown at Ban
Ki-moon.' He
said, however,
that Ban might
be 'so out of
touch' -- or
so powerless
or craven --
that he would
rubber stamp
the nomination
of a Permanent
Five member of
the Security
Council as he
had France's
ill-fated
and 11th hour
nomination of
Herve Ladsous
as the UN's
top
peacekeeper."
Reuters on May
21 stole
without credit
Inner City
Press' March
28 exclusive
about Feltman
coming to the
UN. Beyond not
giving
appropriate
and legally
required
credit, the
Reuters piece
had no
analysis of
Feltman of the
type widely
heard, or
hear-able, in
the UN.
Reuters
bureau
chief Louis
Charbonneau
said that more
than a year
ago he --
and, he
noted, another
Reuters
reporter than
at the UN with
him -- stopped
giving
credit to
any Inner City
Press stories.
He said credit
is only a
courtesy, not
ever required.
By contrast, Foreign
Policy's "The
Cable"
did give
credit,
stating that
it
"was first
reported in
March
by the U.N.
blog Inner
City
Press,
and was
reported again
by Reuters Monday."
On
May
22, the
day
after the
uncredited
theft by
Reuters, Inner
City Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
-- and former
Reuters
reporter
-- Martin
Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press: Martin,
I wanted to
first ask you
this: back in
March,
Inner City
Press reported
that Jeffrey
Feltman,
Assistant
Secretary-General
for Near
Eastern
Affairs, would
be replacing
Mr.
[B. Lynn]
Pascoe. This
now seems to
be getting
closer, and I
understand,
you guys don’t
confirm that,
but I wanted
to ask you
something that
is a pretty
pervasive
thought or
criticism of
this --
what would the
Secretary-General
say to those
who say this
would put
his and the
UN’s policy in
this important
issue, area of
the Middle
East, seeming
to be either a
subset of or
conflated with
United
States foreign
policy in the
same area?
Would he have
any response,
is there
anything to be
said to that
analysis?
Spokesperson Nesirky:
The short
answer is no,
Matthew. If or
when there are
any
appointments
to be
announced, we
will make
announcements,
okay. I
don’t have
anything for
you on this,
okay. Yeah.
Any other
questions?
Matthew, this
is the last
question.
Inner
City
Press: One
question in
the whole noon
briefing, I
don’t
understand.
Perhaps
now it's
not so
difficult to
understand.
Since then,
Nesirky and
now his Deputy
have refused
to answer
whether the UN
gives
journalists
the right to
see complaints
like
Charbonneau's
which are
filed against
them.
Repeated
inquiries with
Reuters if
this is an
acceptable
policy have
gone
unanswered, by
"ethics"
chief Greg
McCune then
Reuters CEO
James C.
Smith. Most
recently
Reuters editor
in chief
Stephen J.
Adler has been
asked.
Reuters,
despite
making most of
its money from
"high
frequency
trading" as
one source
puts it,
should be
expected to
answer this
question, and
whether
Reuters is
behind
Charbonneau's
complaints
against Inner
City
Press to
the UN Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit and
now the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
as the
Rasputin of
five big media
against
a smaller more
independent
one from which
they take
stories.
This
witch hunt's
next step is
said to be the
naming by June
1 of a "board
of
examination"
to
"investigate"
Inner City
Press --
the
idea being
that they can
name this
board without
yet having
disclosed
the
complaints,
complainants
or witnesses
(who, of
course, should
not
be on the
Board of
Examination).
Inner
City Press
has proposed
three long
time UN
correspondents
to the Board
of
Examination,
if it goes
forward, and
the recusal of
UNCA's
President,
who continues
to demand that
Inner City
Press
apologize for
its
Sri
Lanka and
seeming
conflict of
interest
reporting.
The article,
at Pioli's
request, was
modified to
specify that
the payments
were rent, now
seven or eight
years ago.
But
the question
cannot be
censored, whether Pioli
should have
recused
himself them
from screening
the Sri Lankan
government's
rebuttal to
"Killing
Fields," which
was not shown
in the UN due
to an event
for Ban
Ki-moon.
That Pioli
should recuse
himself now is
clear, and the
request has
been formally
made. Watch
this site.