By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 26, new short video -- When the UN refuses to answer a question that it both could and should answer, what is one to do?
The UN has admitted that it erred in entering Inner City Press' office, or at least part of the office, on March 18 without even notifying Inner City Press.
The UN in this case is not only lawless, but also logic-less.
Since photographs taken in the part of the office have since been given to BuzzFeed by an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail address, whose cowardly creator then spoke in defense of the UN Correspondents Association which has tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, Inner City Press has asked the UN who it let into its office, without its knowledge or consent.
And despite its purported apology, the UN has refused to provide this basic information. Inner City Press requested it on March 22, and was given an evasive answer by the UN's Stephane Dujarric that “regarding the photos on BuzzFeed, they were not shared by the UN with the author and I can't very well ask her where she got them.”
But that was obvious, unless it was a UN officials, and not as is more obvious an UNCA “leader,” who opened the nameless “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail account to send them to BuzzFeed.
On March 26, the UNCA "leaders" create what is at minimum a fifth anonymous social media account to try to undermine Inner City Press with countries' missions to the UN. It's the UN Cowardice Association.
Dujarric also demanded to know who in the UN had asked Inner City Press to remove from YouTube the post-raid video(s) it openly filmed in its own office. Inner City Press provided the name, but has heard nothing back from Dujarric on this.
Does the demand to remove the video stand?
So Inner City Press on March 25 asked the head of the Department of Public Information, it is for “DPI to determine which UN personnel it had in Inner City Press' office on March 18, which of them took photographs, and with whom they shared these photographs.”
The response, such as it was, came not from the head of DPI but from Stephane Dujarric again, who this time wrote, “I personally looked at our pictures and those posted on BuzzFeed and it's clear that they are not the same photographs.”
But clearly the photographs were taken inside Inner City Press' office. So, by whom?
Inner City Pesss, beyond the short video uploaded today, has more post-raid video, and even some of the names. There is also the DPI staffer who actually "led" the raid, whose name Inner Cit Press purposely, in solidarity, hasn't yet published.
But isn't it for the UN, especially after it admits that it was wrong, to identify who it let it, who took the photos, and with whom they shared them?
At Tuesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked:
Inner City Press: I asked you yesterday, you’d asked me to ask Stéphane [Dujarric] about this entry without consent or notice into the Inner City Press office on Monday. His answer now acknowledges that they should not have entered the Inner City Press portion of the office without providing notice. But they did; fine. He’s said that the photographs taken, he said, these are not our photographs that were given to Buzzfeed. I don’t know if that means DPI (Department of Public Information) or all of the UN individuals who went in. Pam Falk of UNCA (United Nations Correspondents Association) has said they were not her photographs; she did take photographs, but has made a legal threat not to write about that they may be her photographs. So I really, I just want very simple answers. Since the UN acknowledges that the entry was now improper, what individuals were allowed to enter that portion of the office, which of them took photographs and to where did they give those photographs since DPI is the one that allowed them to enter and acknowledges that it was wrong? I want to close this one off.
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: I know that you wrote to the Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and Communications yesterday, and that you received a reply from Stéphane Dujarric, I don’t have anything to add to that.
Inner City Press: One follow-up on that, my question is: he is saying it is not the UN’s photographs, so inevitably that makes me believe the only person I am aware that took photographs was Pamela Falk of UNCA, but she has made a legal threat that if I write that, I guess CBC News will sue. So I am asking you, it’s simple to clean it up; I didn’t take the photograph, the photographs were taken that day, clearly in an area that DPI invited individuals into. So I was limited to one question — who did they invite in?
Spokesperson Nesirky: I don’t have anything to add beyond what I have already said.
Not only is the UN lawless -- it is also, on this, logic-less. Nesirky said, “ I know that you wrote to the Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and Communications yesterday, and that you received a reply from Stéphane Dujarric.”
That's one of the problems. But regarding the USG for DPI to whom Inner City Press actually directed the question, and in light of Dujarric's refusal to address either a false letter he sent Inner City Press on February 27 in defense of UNCA and Falk or the outrageous demand by a UN “doctor” to remove from YouTube a video filmed in Inner City Press' own office, here is a short video, click here to view.
It intends to reflect the intentions of the USG of DPI, and the disconnect with what his DPI and the UN are actually doing: threatening, raiding, handing photos to their favorites, stonewalling: click here to view.
We will have more on this. Watch this site.
