By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 9 --
While Sri
Lankan
government
media uses a
proceeding
at the UN
against Inner
City Press as
putting war
crimes in the
past,
on June 8 in
the UN's North
Lawn building
Inner City
Press asked
Sri
Lankan
Permanent
Representative
Palitha Kohona
about two
articles and
one
forthcoming.
Kohona's
answer
was that the
dogs would be
called off "if you
issue a
public apology
to me."
But Inner City
Press'
reporting that
Kohona was
involved in
luring Tamil
surrenderees
to their
deaths by
summary
execution is
based on
facts,
including the
recollection
of the since
deceased Marie
Colvin.
That
Kohona paid
money as rent
to Giampaolo
Pioli, the
President of
the
UN
Correspondents
Association
which has now
"suspended"
Inner
City Press and
began
a "Board of
Examination"
with an eye
toward total
expulsion,
has
subsequently
been admitted
by Pioli
himself.
So
it is striking
that the
demands of
Kohona and
Pioli are
identical: a
public
apology, or
else attacks
that lead to
threatening
phone calls
from
Sinhalese
extremists
will continue.
Kohona may
view this as
just part
of his job for
the Rajapaksa
government,
like getting
Pioli to let
Sri Lanka
screen inside
the UN its
video
responding to
UK Channel 4's
documentary
"Killing
Fields of Sri
Lanka" --
which was NOT
shown in "Pioli's
Playhouse" or
elsewhere in the
UN, due to a
celebration
for Ban
Ki-moon.
But
for the
president of a
journalists'
association to
fan anti press
freedom flames
in order to
extract a
blanket
apology for
legitimate
reporting on a
conflict of
interest is
more
surprising,
and troubling.
And
increasingly
the usually
low (low)
profile Pioli
is being
noticed.
Ambassadors
who had
assumed that
the "UNCA
versus Inner
City
Press fight"
was, as one of
them put it
early last
week,
"Reuters,
AFP
and Bloomberg
as big media
fighting a
harder
working
blogger," now
marvel at
Pioli's deeds,
and role.
This
being the UN,
some see
opportunity in
all this, and
are starting
to
inquire into
how to pay for
a place in
what they call
Casa Pioli.
Apparently,
said one at a
reception
Friday night,
if you pay
rent to
Pioli, he will
use his
position in
UNCA to attack
journalists
who
question your
country.
France,
for
example, has
had some
success in
Pioli's UNCA,
most directly
through
Timothy
Witcher of
Agence France
Presse, which
derives over
40% of its
income from
"subscriptions"
to AFP by
government
offices.
When
the French
Mission to the
UN was shamed
by Inner City
Press' report
that the
Mission was
unaware that
the Sarkozy
Administration
had
switched its
candidate to
head UN
Peacekeeping
from Jerome
Bonnafont
to Herve
Ladsous, they
got
Witcher of
AFP, through
Pioli's UNCA,
to
spend weeks
concocting a
statement
denouncing
press use of
what other
journalists
say.
(AFP
was not the
source, but
this didn't
matter. For
the record,
Witcher
says he didn't
"draft" the
statement, but
rather wanted
greater
punishment
such as the
lawless
"suspension"
Pioli
meted out on
June 8.)
So
who wants to
pay for space
in Casa Pioli?
Watch this
site.
