Media Critique: Watching or Whitewashing UN's FIB or Force Intervention Brigade, of DR Congo Bombs & Reuters Spying for UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 25 -- Who will watch the UN's FIB, its Force Intervention Brigade in Eastern Congo?

  When the FIB's component from Tanzania practiced raiding a medical tent clearly marked with a red cross, Al Jazeera was there to film it. When it went on-air, Inner City Press at the UN in New York (before Al Jazeera America became UNviewable there since August 20) saw it and wrote a story, dubbing this practice for violating the Geneva Conventions, here.

  In fairness we note that the reporter on the piece told Inner City Press on August 25 that he "saw it as rehearsal attack against an empty tent. Not on a medical camp."

  While some humanitarians who have contacted Inner City Press disagree, it seems a fair point, when coupled with recognition that the UN's FIB needs a hard look.

  But who will give that hard look? We have shown, just last week at the UN in New York, that wire service Reuters was willing to channel an unnamed UN official's spin that the M23 rebels had entered the no-weapons security zone, even as the acting chief of UN Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet told Inner City Press and a different, less UN-useful wire service thatthere had been no violation of the security zone.

  Compared to the re-type shop (and worse) its UN bureau has become, Reuters has relatively better reporters in Kinshasa and Cote d'Ivoire. The latter, Joe Bavier we've met and liked and so held off saying this. But to unself-consciously say that MONUSCO of course must respond to protect civilians -- "they have a clear obligation to respond" -- without mentioning that MONUSCO and UN Peacekeeping are still assisting the Congolese Army units which raped 135 women and girls in Minova, seems to require noting.

  As then does calling the "UN far and away the most credible source" or observer -- after the UN covered up and stonewalled on not only the Minova rapes, but its own role in bringing cholera to Haiti. (Al Jazeera's recent 30 minute documentary on the topic was not viewable in the UN, as protested by the new Free UN Coalition for Access,@FUNCA_info)

  Deeming the UN, from the outset, the most credible source may be a less than journalistic approach -- for purposes of this piece, in the Congo, but in Syria and elsewhere as well.

    For now on DRC this still remains outstanding: at Friday's noon briefing, video here from Minute 10:15, Inner City Press asked the UN's outgoing deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey about the answer, when Inner City Press and another journalist asked UN Peacekeeping acting chief Edmond Mulet Thursday if the M23 rebels had entered the security zone established around Goma.

  "No," Mulet said. "Just mortars." He went on to refer to the separate "red line" established when M23 agreed in Kampala to pull out of Goma. (The portion of that agreement that gave M23 one third of the security force at the Goma airport remains unimplemented.)

  But later on Thursday, the wire service Reuters reported "a senior U.N. official, who asked not to be named, said that on Thursday the rebels entered a security zone surrounding Goma" -- which Mulet, the acting chief of DPKO, had just denied. Inner City Press and the other journalist waited to ask Mulet again, and got the same answer.

  So who is this "senior UN official who asked not to be named"? In UN Peacekeeping, only Herve Ladsous is senior to and could over-rule Mulet.

  Ladsous has in the past spoon-fed answers of dubious veracity to this same Reuters UN bureau bragging for example about the Congolese Army imposing accountability for the 135 rapes in Minova in November 2012.

   But with only a few arrests for the 135 rapes, Ladsous' DPKO continues supporting the 391st Battalion, even as it is now implicated in corpse desecration.

That the UN would try to use Reuters, willingly, resonates with a documented instance in June 2012 when Reuters UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau gave to UN official Stephane Dujarric an internal UNCA anti-Press document,three minutes after saying he would not do so. Story here,audio here, document here, in which Charbonneau tells Dujarric, "You didn't get this from me."

  So is Reuters' "senior UN official who asked not to be named" someone junior to Mulet, or as another journalist suggested, no one at all? 

  On August 23, Del Buey said he knew what Mulet had said, and has "seen other reports." He said he'd have to check. But August 23 was his last day at the UN (the Free UN Coalition for Access wished him well, video here at Minute 9:55).  So we'll see. Watch this site.

   

On Haiti Cholera, No More UN Comment, Al Jazeera America Piece Not Shown in UN, Washington Post Editorials Ignored

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 22 -- On having brought cholera to Haiti, the UN's deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey on August 22 told Inner City Press, "We have said everything we're going to say about that, we are not going to comment any more.... we have addressed it." But where?

Video of Q&A here, from Minute 10:35.

Inner City Press first reported this week that the UN's new report on Haiti talks about efforts against cholera, but not how it got to Haiti. The report is belatedly on the UN's website, here, as S/2013/493; see Paragraphs 50 and 51.

   It was this same omission that led the Washington Post to run a follow-up editorial on August 16. Inner City Press on August 22 belatedly asked Del Buey about the editorial (Secretary General Ban Ki-moon did not address or take a question about it at his August 20 press encounter), and about a new half-hour documentary by Al Jazeera America.

  Del Buey refused to comment on either. Nor did he respond to Inner City Press' complaint that in-house UN TV, which used to have Al Jazeera English and BBC, now does not have BBC or Al Jazeera America -- but still has France 24. (The Free UN Coalition for Access raised this on August 21 to UNTV's supervisor Stephane Dujarric, without response.)

  After sitting on legal claims for more than a year, Ban's UN ruled the claims were "not receivable."

  Then when Inner City Press asked for a more detailed legal argument, Ban's last top lawyer Patricia O'Brien said there was just "nothing more to say."

  Inner City Press has asked the US Mission to the UN, too, since Ban listens so much to them. But even after 19 members of Congress wrote to Ban about the issue, the US Mission has not follow up on the issue of accountability.

  During new Ambassador Samantha Power's Twitter town hall on August 15, as Inner City Press noted, she glaringly did not respond to the tweets about the UN's role in bringing cholera to Haiti. Some supporters of the think that to ignore this is best. They are wrong: it makes the UN unable to credible preach about rule of law and accountability.

  Ban's chief of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous has simply refused to taken this and other questions from the Press, compilation video here. Ban has a new chief lawyer from Portugal. Can he be credible without addressing this issue? Watch this site.

   

Al Jazeera America's Hour One Mirrors Qatar on Egypt, Upbeat from the Bay Area, Even Asks ICP for Video of UN on Miranda Detention

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 20 -- Al Jazeera America launched today with an hour of news from 4 to 5 pm, New York time. It was heavy with news from Egypt, largely mirroring the foreign policy of Qatar, AJAM's funder. But the word Qatar was not used.

  The domestic US stories ranged from guns in schools to wild fires in Idaho, with a correspondent already on the scene. The profile of US firefighters was upbeat, consonant with the testimonial of the channel's American employees in the one hour promotional video that ran before the news.

  To Inner City Press, which previously covered Joe Kennedy's Bronx television commercials for CITGO, there was something of an echo: the US seen from a perspective from, or funded by, outside. An outsider perspective can be fresh.

  Monday's first hour was cautious, largely siding with Bay Area officials on the safety of their new bridge in Melissa Chan's piece, for example. Will AJAM uncover municipal corruption? Will it cover the New York City electoral races, like CNN with Bill de Blasio and MSNBC with Bill Thompson tonight?

Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access on August 19 repeated asked the UN to make sure Al Jazeera America would be on the UN's in-house television network, since it's no longer streaming on the Internet. 

  It was put where Al Jazeera Arabic used to be, though the sound quality in the UN was bad. While a FUNCA question on media access Tuesday has so far been ignored, we give them credit for getting AJAM on.

  Watching from the UN, Inner City Press tweet-critiquedthat AJAM's piece on the UK's detention of journalist Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda was heavy with day-old footage and did not include, for example, the UN's answer to the Press earlier on Tuesday that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has "no" comment on Miranda's detention.

  From Washington, Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan asked if Inner City Press had fresher video, that AJAM would run it. So citation was provided to the UN's footage of its noon briefing. (Video here, from Minute 16:50.) So we'll see.

  Anchor Tony Harris bantered about J.C. Penney with Aly Velshi, who'll do his own show from West 33rd Street. John Terrett who in full disclosure was on a UN Security Council trip in Khartoum with Inner City Press, and stood up strongly to the handlers, covered Kodak with word play. There was a sports segment on A-Rod, featuring Gary Sheffield prominently featuring his own book. There was that constant, like death and taxes: weather.

  On Al Jazeera and the UN, this sad news cannot go unreported: Al Jazeera cameraman Glenn Gabel, also a fan of motorcycles, tragically died on Friday on his bike, just days before this launch. Among the UN press corps and in many other places, not least by his partner Kristen, and their two young sons, Sawyer and Jax, Glenn will be sorely missed. Rest in Peace.

   

Qatar Behind Paywall, No Al Jazeera America at UN in NY, French Control Like UN Peacekeeping?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 20 -- On August 19 inside the UN in New York City, after a day-long Security Council debate about the protection of civilians, the Qatar-funded channel Al Jazeera was no longer available, at least not in English.

  It used to be on the UN's in-house EZTV. But Monday night this turned to a Microsoft blue screen -- Windows 7, by the way -- and only the Arabic version remained available. On the Internet, the live stream of Al Jazeera English had ended, with instructions to lobby cable TV systems to include the new Al Jazeera America.

The Free UN Coalition for Access, which presses for media access of all kinds, asked the UN official in charge of UN TV, Stephane Dujarric, if the UN will be getting Al Jazeera America, or AJAM.

  While not yet responding to FUNCA (or Inner City Press) on a range of other UN media access issues, Dujarric to his credit did answer this one: "We hope to have Al Jazeera English back on air soon."

But how? The UN's EZTV uses Time Warner cable -- at least, its logo floats on the screen for other channels previously available in the UN that have now gone dormant, like BBC, TV 5 and MSNBC. And Al Jazeera America lists Time Warner as among the cable systems it says must be lobbied to put it on.

Will the UN lobby Time Warner? Or is it making other arrangements? 

  Expanding into other issues raised without response by FUNCA such as the media covering the UN General Assembly now being confined to broken down photo booth, with no seats for the press or public inside the GA, and anonymous trolling by the UN's silent partner, Inner City Press asked Dujarric, "what of UNGA booth and other basic fixes raised since June?"

These "basic fixes" include issues like Dujarric's partner the UN Correspondents Association at least not attacking the Press with confidential complaints about questions being asked "too aggressively" of UN officials like Herve Ladsous and with anonymous social media trolling. Dujarric's supervisors long ago vowed the latter would end, but the problem continues even August 19, like the unfixed GA booths.

 (FUNCA began in December 2012 by asking the UN to adopt content neutral media accreditation policy and due process rules for journalists on stealth complaints like Voice of America's, after the UN didn't substantively respond to a related NYCLU request for these.)

  Dujarric counseled to "relax," and "patience," with a hashtag no less. But even just on the Al Jazeera issue, the August 20 imposition of a paywall (not that Qatar needs the money) was known of long in advance. 

  Given CNN's, even CNNi's, rotation of stories, now international news options inside the UN are centered around French government controlled France 24.

  FUNCA will not relax with that -- France already controls UN Peacekeeping through Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the post. It's time to open up the UN, in this and other ways. Watch @FUNCA_info, and this site.