By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 19 -- That the UN would like to get its message or messages out to a wider American public by inviting in talk radio hosts is understandable. Thus for the eighth year in a row there is on June 19 “Talk Radio Day” at the UN.
But which topics will be discussed, and which swept under the rug?
Just south of Florida, for example, lies Haiti where the UN Peacekeeping mission introduced cholera -- and then refused to accept responsibility for it, to the point where Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople have refused to tell Inner City Press if Ban even received the legal papers that were taped to his Sutton Place door.
Might this be discussed on UN Talk Radio Day?
In Eastern Congo, two Army units the UN supports committed 130 rapes in Minova in November 2012. Belatedly this year there was a trial - and only two soldiers were convicted, for the 130 rapes.
Still UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous refused on May 29 to answer Press questions about suspending UN support to the rapist units, video here.
Might this and the UN's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence Policy be discussed on UN Talk Radio Day?
There are of course many well-meaning and courageous UN staff, many of whom Inner City Press is proud to have as sources. Some are whistleblowers of the kind that the UN powers that be try to fire or silence.
At the UN Development Program, Administrator Helen Clark who seeks to replace Ban Ki-moon has proposed to lay off 30% of staff in New York. Ban's spokespeople four times refused to confirm to Inner City Press that the UN received a letter of protest from three UN system wide staff unions. Might this be discussed, on UN Talk Radio Day?
In Sri Lanka while 40,000 civilians were being killed, the UN did nothing. In fact, Ban's then chief of staff, now senior adviser, Vijay Nambiar played a role in luring surrendering Tamil Tigers leaders out with a white flag.
They were summarily executed, and the UN refuses to answer questions. Might this be asked about, at UN Talk Radio Day?
One problem is that UN Talk Radio Day is used to prop up the old UN Correspondents Association, which when Inner City Press reported on the conflict of interest of UNCA's president having a past financial relationship with Sri Lanka's ambassador, and then screening Sri Lanka's war crimes denial film in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium, tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.
Using US Freedom of Information Act requests filed with Voice of America, which was represented on UNCA's board, Inner City Press obtained documents showing the involving of UNCA board members in the attempt to censor: here, here and here.
Since then, an UNCA big-media board member got one of the documents blocked, or censored, from Google's search, with a bogus filing under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, here.
A problem is that none of this has ever been addressed. There have been no reforms; the censorship remains ongoing.
Inner City Press quit UNCA and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access, which has this year opposed the UN evicting the News Agency of Nigeria while the room the UN gives UNCA sits empty and locked up most days (see here,here and here) - except UN Talk Radio Day, for which it is used. Here are the participants:
Miriam Wallach, Nachum Segal Network, 6:00AM – 9:00AM
Martha Zoller, WGAU, Athens, GA, 6:00AM – 9:00AM
John Fredericks, Mid-Atlantic States, 6:00AM – 10:00AM
Doug Stephan, Stephan Productions, 6:00AM – 10:00AM
Ellen Ratner, Talk Radio News Service, 6:30AM – 5:30PM
George Russell, WSMN, Nashua, NH, 7:00AM – 9:00AM
Ed Woodson, KFNX (Phoenix), 7:00AM – 9:00AM
Dr. Joy Browne, WOR Radio Network, 8:30AM – 10:30AM
Alan Colmes, Fox News Radio, 10:00AM – 11:00AM
Brent Seltzer & Meg McDonald, Genesis Communications 10-12
Phil Paleologos, WBSM, Providence, 10:30AM – 11:40AM
Debbie Nigro, WFAS, Westchester, NY, 12:00PM – 2:00PM
Ethan Bearman, KSCO, Santa Cruz, CA, 12:00PM – 2:00PM
Thom Hartmann, WYD Media, 12:00PM – 3:00PM
Carole Marks, Nationally Syndicated, 12:00PM – 3:00PM
Rick Smith, WIOO/WEEO, Carlisle/Harrisburg, PA, 12:00PM – 4:00PM
Scott Hennen, WZFG/Tune in Radio, 12:30PM – 2:00PM
Dr. Evelyn Higgins, CRN Digital Radio, 1:00PM – 4:00PM
Timonthy Spangler & David Fisher, KRLA, 2:00PM – 5:00PM
David Webb, SiriusXM Patriot Channel, 4:00PM – 6:00PM
Recently France's outgoing ambassador Gerard Araud said to a dues-paying UNCA member, “You are not a journalist, you are an agent.” UNCA dragged its feet.
The Free UN Coalition for Access asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric to convey to Araud and the French mission the stated position that correspondents should be treated with respect (Dujarric refused). Might that come up, at UN Talk Radio Day? We'll see. Watch this site.
