By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 22 -- On a day when the media was excluded from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's speech to the General Assembly, there was no protest at all from the decaying UN Correspondents Association.
Instead, while the Ambassadors of the US, China and South Korea were taking Press questions at the Security Council stakeout, UNCA's "leaders" were up in their offices, drafting then posting counterfeit fliers purporting to be from the Free UN Coalition for Access, FUNCA.
Rather than defend the rights of journalists, in 2012 UNCA's First Vice President Louis Charbonneau filed a secret complaint with UN Media Accreditation, then expressed support for Voice of America to stealthly request the "review" of the accreditation of Inner City Press.
Now UNCA is in no position to say anything about the due process rights of journalists.
At the North Korea stakeouts, there was little to no presence from the UNCA Executive Committee -- one of whom, Tim Witcher of Agence France-Presse, nonethelesswrote breathlessly of "new sanctions," which not only China but also South Korea disagree with as a description of the resolution.
Charbonneau, absent from the stakeout and from Ban's press conference, sat somewhere reading or merely being a pass through about KCNA's reports.
The new president, Pamela Falk of CBS, so intent on being announced as such at Monday's evenings Pakistan peacekeeping reception, did not come on North Korea nor to the Pakistani Permanent Representative's midday stakeout. President for what?
Apparently UNCA's new idea of advocacy extends only this far: to ensure they can walk up the stairs with Ambassadors. And, it seems, the right to file stealth complaints, and to post counterfeit fliers.
This can and will be seen and studied as bankruptcy. Watch this site.
