By Matthew Russell Lee
As a smaller level, but pertinent on this World Press Freedom Day, the UN on May 2 along with journalists from South Sudan and Mexico put on its panel the head of an organization, the UN Correspondents Association, which it knows spent most of its meetings in 2012 trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN.
That, of course, is inconsistent with press freedom and the protection of journalist -- in fact, when the UNCA Executive Committee was shown that its kangaroo court proceeding was leading to death threats from Sri Lankan extremists, they didn't care, but rather stepped up the proceedings.
While at the time the UN repeatedly tried to say it had nothing to do with the proceeding and didn't know what UNCA was doing, it did: Voice of America wrote to the UN's Stephane Dujarric seeking the review of the accreditation of Inner City Press.
Freedom of Information Act requests, ongoing, to VOA have yielded documents showing that VOA said Reuters and Agence France Presse supported the attack on the Press; Bloomberg would have, but its lawyers said to back off. Dujarric set up a channel outside of his UN email address to field complaints.
AFP's Tim Witcher, photo by UNTV
In 2013, specious complaints against the Press have been filed by AFP's Tim Witcher (on behalf of UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous, whose abuse is Witcher's first complaint) and Reuters' Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau, UNCA's first vice president.
Charbonneau - stealth complaint here - and Ban, (c) Luiz Rampelotto
UNCA's president for 2013, Pamela Falk of CBS, screamed at Inner City Press in front of Dujarric and others in DPI, made legal threats and took photographs at DPI's March 18 raid on Inner City Press' office. Falk audio here and here and here.
Pam Falk, photos for CBS or UNCA? This photo by UNTV
So the UN knows all of this -- but put UNCA's Falk on its World Press Freedom Day panel. It was a travesty. As Falk spoke, Inner City Press put online several of the documents it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
And what was the response? UNCA's troll army, Falk's trolls are they're now known, kept up a stream of anonymous social media posts, making false claims about funding of the type that they know led to death threats in 2012, and calling the posting of US government documents obtained under FOIA, which make them look back, "cyber bullying."
Criticism is fine; but when big media corporation are so cowardly as to go anonymous this way, this is and will be the response.
DPI knows these UNCA trolls; Reuters has been shown of its involvement. Yes no one does anything. Joel Simon of CPJ was there; in a brief conversation Inner City Press raised again to him the documents obtained under FOIA. And what?
Joel Simon heard, on his panel, that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous won't answer Press questions because he doesn't like how he is covered, including on his role in 1994, as France's Deputy Permanent Representative, during the Rwanda genocide. Is this press freedom? No, this is the UN, and its UN Censorship Alliance. Watch this site.
