Thursday, April 18, 2013

UN Official Dujarric Questions Inner City Press About Tweet Mentioning WW2, Won't Says How Photos of Raid on Press Office Leaked: Censorship?



By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 18, updated -- One month after the UN raided Inner City Press' office, rifled through papers and took photographs, leaked three days later to BuzzFeed.com, UN Department of Public Information official Stephane Dujarric asked Inner City Press to call him, urgently.
  Would Dujarric finally answer how photographs taken while DPI was inside and in control of Inner City Press' office were leaked, just after BuzzFeed contacted Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to ask about the raid?
  No. The urgent matter about which Dujarric asked to be called, even as Inner City Press waited to cover the forthcoming UN Security Council press elements on Syria, was a single tweet from earlier in the day.
  Alongside dozens of tweets about the day's Security Council meeting on Syria, about the UN and cholera in Haiti,Western Sahara and the Rwanda genocide, as well as thebeating in The Bronx of a man from Bangladesh “for” the Boston bombings, and Reuters' pre-released obituary of George Soros, Inner City Press had in 140 characters summarized a UN personnel announcement.
  The announcement, e-mailed to the press at 3:27 pm, began: “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Mr. Stefan Feller of Germany as the new United Nations Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.”
  Half an hour later, seeing the announcement during a lull in Security Council negotiations, Inner City Press tweeted: “For #UN Police Adviser under #Ladsous, switch is from #Sweden to #Germany, Mr Feller. #WW2. Can you say, #LADSOUS2013?”
  At 6:20 pm, the UN's Dujarric wrote to Inner City Press and to the Free UN Coalition for Access which it co-founded, “Please call me as soon as you can. I'm in the office. It's rather urgent.”
  Inner City Press stopped working and called -- thinking it might finally be an answer as to how the photos taken during DPI's raid of Inner City Press' office were leaked to BuzzFeed. But no.
  Dujarric demanded to know what Inner City Press meant by “#WW2.” He said it offended millions of people, to mention “World War Two” in connection with a German UN official. And see below.
  He did not mention “#LADSOUS2013,” though he has in other meetings. 
  Herve Ladsous is the head of UN Peacekeeping who, after being asked by Inner City Press for example about his speeches (and now memo) at the UN during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, has refused to answer Inner City Press' questions, for example about 126 rapes at Minovo by the Congolese Army.
  On December 18, 2012, Ladsous directed his spokesman to seize the microphone of UN Television, run by Dujarric, to try to avoid an Inner City Press question about the Minova rapes. Video here.
  When FUNCA complained to Dujarric's supervisor, the response weeks later was the Dujarric has spoken, individually and quietly, to Ladsous' spokesman. Since then, other abuses of journalists' rights at the stakeout have occurred.
  Inner City Press asked Dujarric, who had previously blocked Inner City Press from his own Twitter account, if he “polices” other journalists tweets. He claimed that he does. We can have more on this.
  FUNCA and Inner City Press believe it is inappropriate for the UN official in charge of accrediting journalists to be able to enter the UN to simultaneously critique what they write. Dujarric has tried it in the past. But this time, it seems ever more pre-textual.
  When Inner City Press asked him again to explain how the photographs taken while DPI was in control of Inner City Press' office were leaked to BuzzFeed, through an e-mail addressed called “Concerned UN Reporter,” Dujarric accused Inner City Press of trying to change the topic.
  But Inner City Press has been asking this question, without satisfaction, since late March. It is clear: DPI is responsible, the photographs were taken while it was in control of the office.
  DPI will not say who it let in -- the president of the UN Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS, was seen taking photographs, but has issued a legal threat against Inner City Press even questioning it -- nor with whom it shared the photographs its staff took.
  We can state: we know that DPI staff shared photographs taken inside Inner City Press' office with other Dujarric-accreditated correspondents. That was inappropriate, and now it is time to answer.
  Or to censor? Watch this site.
Update: Dujarric subsequently sent this:
From: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 6:57 PM
Subject: Your recent tweet
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Dear Matthew, 


You have the right to publish or post what ever you want but I must take issue with your recent posting on Twitter. 

Your  tweet this afternoon (see screen shot below)  regarding the appointment of Stefan Feller of Germany as the new UN police advisor is beyond the pale.
Putting a World War II hashtag next the name of someone just because he is German is plainly deeply offensive. I would hope that in the future you pause before you tweet. 

I would appreciate it if you could post my email in full on Inner City Press.   

best 

Steph 
  
_____________________________ 
Stephane Dujarric (Mr.)
Director
News & Media Division | Department of Public Information
United Nations Headquarters |  Room: S-1056 
New York, NY, 10017
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