By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 1 -- At
the request
of the UN
representatives
of five
big media
corporations,
a "Board of
Examination"
was today
formed to
"investigate"
Inner City
Press with an
eye to
expelling it.
The
requesters
include Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters, Timothy
Witcher of
Agence
France Presse,
Flavia
Krause-Jackson
of Bloomberg,
Talal Al-Haj
of
Al-Arabia and
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice of
America, plus
UN
Correspondents
Association
president
Giampaolo
Pioli. They're
dubbed
the "P5 plus
1" at the UN.
Pioli,
who has
demanded that
Inner City
Press remove
from the
Internet an
article
mentioning
that he took
rent money
from Sri
Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
to the UN
and then
arranged to
screen in the
UN a Sri
Lankan
government
film denying
war crimes,
refused to
recuse himself
from the
purge.
Instead,
Pioli
named to his
"Board of
Examination"
an Italian
journalist
with an office
right next to
his on what
many call
"Italian row"
on the UN's
press floor
over the
library: Anna
Guaita of "Il
Messaggero,"
one of the few
Italian
newspapers
Pioli does not
list himself
as working
for.
Inner
City Press,
shown the
names only
minutes before
the vote,
asked that
Pioli's
Guaita be
replaced by,
for example,
photographer
Luiz
Rampelotto,
who
was elected to
the UNCA
Executive
Committee with
more support
than an
indicter.
Rampolotto
quit the
Executive
Committee, he
says, after
seeing how
"corrupt" it
is. He was not
permitted to
serve
on the Board
now
"investigating"
Inner City
Press.
Instead,
Pioli
named to the
Board of
Examination
the
subordinate at
Xinhua of one
of
the voters to
investigate
Inner City
Press. Inner
City Press
predicted that
this process
of censorship
and witch hunt
would
further weaken
UNCA.
Inner
City Press
asked to
respond on,
but Friday was
against denied
access to, the
same UNCA
e-mail channel
that Pioli
used to accuse
Inner City
Press
of unnamed
violations.
When Inner
City Press
said this was
then like
"State TV,"
Pakistani
correspondent
Masood Haider
roared that
this was an
outrageous
comparison.
But is it?
UNCA
is supposed
to have
elections, in
which Inner
City Press has
in past year
run and
won. Now Pioli
and his gang
have decided
to use their
"State
TV" to issue
propaganda and
denunciations
of a
journalist
whose
critiques they
do not like.
In
explanation
they say,
"Well you have
your blog to
respond" - an
attitude akin
in
spirit some
countries' in
the Gulf's
approach to
bloggers.
One
of the
Executive
Committee
members who
voted against
Inner City
Press being
allowed to use
UNCA's "State
TV" email
channel to
rebut the
vague charge
letter they
sent out had
not, it turned
out, even read
the charge
letter. Pioli
claimed that
the use of the
State TV
channel
was been voted
on -- but it
wasn't.
Inner
City Press
asked to film
Friday's
meeting to
pick the
"Board of
Examination"
to expel it,
but was denied
the right.
Censorship,
apparently,
can best be
demanded off
camera.
Pioli
has been
managing the
witch hunt
with the the
support and
nearly under
the
control of Lou
Charbonneau of
Reuters -- who
as noted stole
Inner City
Press' March
28 hard-won
exclusive that
US official
Jeffrey
Feltman
would come
work at the UN,
unlike Foreign
Policy's "The
Cable" which
gave credit.
Then
Charbonneau
refused a
request to
answer why,
while having
filed a
complaint
against Inner
City Press with
the
Media
Accreditation
Unit.
Charbonneau
asks that his
co-stealers be
named. Okay:
they are Arshad
Mohammed and
Warren
Strobel,
double
"editing" by
Vicki Allen
and Eric
Beech. All for
a story that
small media
Inner City
Press had
seven weeks
before.
Perhaps it is
anger at this
that drives
this
retaliation.
Reuters
has been
asked up to
the level of
editor Stephen
J. Adler if
this, and
Charbonneau
personal
policy of not
crediting
Inner City
Press, are
appropriate,
so far without
response.
Bloomberg's
Matthew
Winkler has
similarly been
directly
informed,
without
response.
The
involvement of
US taxpayer
funded Voice
of America in
this witch
hunt against
an
independent
investigative
news site in
the UN seems
particularly
outrageous,
and VoA's top
editors have
been asked to
explain it.
VoA's Besheer
signed the
charge letter
and left; she
has been
counted
voting by
proxy against
Inner City
Press and its
challenges to
Board
members,
without even
hearing them,
as has the
representative
of Al
Jazeera.
One
of the few
specified
charged
against Inner
City Press is
"report[ing]
on
confidential
committee
discussions
about [its]
behavior."
These
had in fact
been
discussions of
or demand for
censorship. At
least
four times,
UNCA
leadership
have demanded
that Inner
City Press
take
material off
the Internet:
twice
involving Sri
Lanka and
France.
Both
Missions are
behind this
move against
Inner City
Press. The French
Mission used
Tim Witcher of
Agence France
Presse to seek
an UNCA
denunciation
of
Inner City
Press in
September 2011
for having
shown that the
French
Mission
didn't know
that Nicolas
Sarkozy at the
last minute
switched
as his person
atop UN
Peacekeeping
from Jerome
Bonnafont,
whose
premature
bragging Inner
City Press
also exposed,
to his second
choice, Herve
Ladsous.
Witcher
accused
Inner City
Press of using
overheard
information,
and demanded
that
UNCA censure
Inner City
Press, which
it did in an
email to all
members that
Inner City
Press was not
allowed to
reply to.
Since
then, Ladsous
has on camera
refused
to answer
Inner City
Press'
questions
about cholera
in Haiti
and about Sri Lanka,
saying
"Well,
Mister, I will
start
answering your
questions when
you stop
insulting
me and making
malicious and
insulting
insinuations."
Video
here, at
Minute 28:10.
The
UNCA Executive
Committee did
NOTHING to
support the
right to an
answer at the
UN,
even omitting
the entire
issue from its
sanitized
Party-controlled
minutes.
Sri
Lanka, whose
Permanent
Representative
Palitha Kohona
paid rent to
Pioli, not
only
asked and got
Pioli's
permission to
screen inside
the UN a
rebuttal
to UK Channel
4's "Killing
Fields" film
documenting
war
crimes - it
also wrote to
Pioli and
other
Executive
Committee
members
asking that
they censure
Inner City
Press from
reporting on
General
Shavendra
Silva serving
on Ban
Ki-moon's
Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations.
The
UNCA Executive
Committee not
only did not
support Inner
City Press -
it allowed
itself
to be cited in
support of
excluding ANY
Press coverage
of the
SAG meetings
to see if
Silva attended.
It was then
that Pioli's
prior
financial
relationship
with Sri
Lankan
ambassador
Kohona, when
he worked in
the UN Office
of Legal
Affairs, again
became
relevant.
Inner City
Press reported
on it, and
Pioli pushed
the proceeding
to
expel Inner
City Press.
In
an attempt not
to stop
reporting on
the UN, which
appears to be
the goal,
Inner City
Press on May
31 did not
write about
this
continuing
Kafka-esque
process among
the four
stories it
published, on
Sudan,
the
IMF, top
UN jobs
and the International
Criminal
Court.
Nor did Inner
City Press
writing about
this on Jun 1
before the
3:30 pm kangaroo
court session,
instead
covering Syria
& Somalia,
noting a press
conference
with only two
journalists,
none of these
UNCA big media
members, busy
with witch
hunt.
Rather, Inner
City Press
directed
simple due
process
requests to
the UNCA
Executive
Committee,
none of which
have been
implemented or
even responded
to. Inner City
Press argued
to the
Committee
without
response:
those
who
have used
exclusives
without credit
cannot be
viewed as
sufficiently
impartial.
For
the
record, while
it was said in
April that all
UNCA Executive
Committee
members should
contact each
other directly
when problems
arise, when I
wrote on May
21 to Lou
Charbonneau
about his and
Reuters'
uncredited use
of Inner City
Press' March
28 exclusive
about Feltman
coming to head
DPA -- which
for example
Foreign
Policy's "The
Cable" did
credit -- Lou
never
responded.
Finally
on
May 23 he said
he has a
policy of not
crediting
Inner City
Press, at
least for the
last year.
I am concerned
by this, and
became even
more troubled
when I learned
that he had
filed a
complaint
about me with
MALU and
Stephane
Dujarric based
only on my
speech- that I
told him he
disgusted me .
He also sent
copies to
Giampaolo,
Maggie and Tim
(who notably
is not an
officer.) I
was
never informed
of the
complaint.
The
complaint
would in fact
benefit his
employer, some
missions and
even
UN officials
like Ban
Ki-moon and
Herve Ladsous.
If
published
material can
be defined by
the UNCA
Executive
Committee as
"harassment,"
then any
subject of
critical press
coverage
could make a
harassment
charge.
I
have never
filed a
complaint with
MALU against
any UNCA
Executive
Committee
member, or any
UNCA member or
journalist at
the UN at all.
While
Lou
Charbonneau's
complaint to
MALU says I am
somehow making
it hard for
him and
unnamed others
to work, I
view the
complaint as
an attempt to
STOP me
from working
at the UN. For
the record I
view all of
this as a
violation of
UNCA
Constitution
Article 1 (3),
and where
applicable the
First
Amendment.
I am opposing
this and
will oppose
this 100%.
In
a
last ditch
attempt to
avoid this
time-wasting
fight of big
media
versus small,
and after
getting no
response from
the other 14
members
of the
Executive
Committee,
Inner City
Press reached
out to one of
the five
accusers:
Talal Al-Haj,
pointing out
they'd both
asked
questions at
that day's
stakeout on
Sudan and
Syria, and
that even a
UN Ambassador
told Inner
City Press
that Pioli was
wrong to
accept
rent from a
person he
purportedly
covers,
"regardless of
screening the
genocide
denial movie
in the UN."
Al-Haj
rebuffed
this and has
said he will
denounce it,
to an email
list he
will not
share. We will
have more on
this.
It
seems obvious
that this
"Board of
Examination,"
which Al-Haj
demanded
"investigate"
Inner City
Press' stories
and so
sources,
must produce a
written
report that
must be made public.
It
must equally
look into the
underlying
complaints,
including the
French
Mission's
communications
with Tim
Witcher about
Ladsous,
Pioli's Kohona
and
other Sri
Lanka and
diplomatic
financial
links.
It must look
into
the financial
and other
relationships
of those from
whom Pioli has
sought hearsay
testimony and
support for
this
retaliatory
purge. This is
a sad swansong
of a career
that may or
may not have
been
distinguished
but is now
conflicted.
That's why
Inner City
Press was
vague in its
June 1 UN
question:
Inner
City
Press: many
media
organizations
have rules
that their
journalists
shouldn’t have
a financial
relationship
even as a
landlord with
the people
that they
cover. Some
missions here
actually have
that same
understanding
that their
people in
their
missions
wouldn’t enter
into such
engagements
with
ostensibly
independent
journalists.
So I wanted to
know, whether
within the UN
system has any
principles or
ideas or
thoughts on
the idea of UN
officials
entering into
a financial
relationship
with the
journalists
who are
ostensibly
covering them
independently.
Any thoughts?
Deputy
Spokesperson:
I would have
to check on
that, I have
got no
information.
We’ll have to
check with the
ethics people
on that.
Inner
City
Press: Can you
get back to
me?
Deputy
Spokesperson:
Yeah, we’ll
try and get
back to you on
that.
Inner
City
Press: Okay.
As quickly as
possible, if
you could?
Still
nothing.
UNCA's Board
must
collect
evidence on
Reuters'
awareness of
but refusal to
credit Inner
City Press'
March 28
exclusive in
its pick-ups
of May 21 and
afterward and
other media
organizations'
theft of such
Inner City
Press
exclusives as
the 14 kilos
of cocaine
found in the
UN mail room
earlier this
year.
Those
involved in
uncredited use
of exclusives
should not
serve on the
Board of
Examination or
vote on its
findings.
Beyond
indictors
Reuters, Bloomberg,
AFP,
which beyond
Reuters on
Feltman all
stole Inner
City Press' cocaine in the
UN mail room
exclusive
story, we
can now name Talal
Al-Haq of
Al-Arabiya,
who without
credit said
June 1 his
sources told
him Darfur
envoy Ibrahim
Gambari is
leaving.
Inner City
Press reported
that a full
ten days ago
on May 21
and has
fielded
questions
since. Maybe
Al-Haj's
sources read
it in Inner
City Press.
And one of the
Board of
Examination
members chosen
by Pioli
further passed
on, then tried
to erase
having passed
on, Al-Haj's
uncredited use
of the
week-old
Gambari
exclusive, and
therefore with
all due
respect should
not serve on
the Board.
Watch this
site.