After UN Gives "Climate & Cities" Post to Bloomberg, He Speaks on His Africa TV Station, Covers Mining and Air France: Conflicts of Interest?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 3 -- Three days after the UN announced a "climate change and cities" post for Michael Bloomberg, and Inner City Press asked about conflicts of interest, Bloomberg is in the news on his own Bloomberg Africa TV, which covers such issues as Air France and mining on The Continent.

   So Inner City Press went to the February 3 UN noon briefing and asked for whom Bloomberg is speaking, the UN or himself?  Video here from Minute 14:52. UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky replied that his deputy Farhan Haq had answered on this on January 31. 

  But Haq on January 31 after citing "terms of reference" said they are not public, instead to look at a press release which, it turns out, contains no safeguards. Nesirky said this is an early stage, and that is true. But it already seems clear that safeguards will be necessary. For now: UNIFEED video of Ban Ki-moon and team dining with Bloomberg, here.

  On January 31 Inner City Press asked Haq if any thought had been given to possible conflicts of interest, or restrictions on how information or access from the post could be used, given Bloomberg's businesses.

  The UN's Haq replied, "I believe appropriate terms of reference have been worked out with former Mayor Bloombeg, that should be an acceptable arrangement devised between them." Video here and embedded below.

  Inner City Press asked if these "terms of reference" were public and could be seen. Haq said "No... What's public is a lengthy press release available in our office."

  But the press release does not address any safeguards on conflict of interest at all. 

  As Inner City Press noted before the UN's announcement, when Michael Bloomberg was Mayor of New York, in light of obvious conflicts of interest he stepped back from Bloomberg News. He was criticized on issues ranging from stop-and-frisk to defending banks against minimal City community reinvestment standards.

  Now, according to one gushing report, he is poised to move to the United Nations, as envoy on cities and climate change. What about new conflicts of interest, and the above critiques?

  To give what credit is due, on the evening of January 30 Reuters' UN bureau issued a breathless "exclusive" with nothing but praise of Bloomberg -- not a word of any criticism, nothing on the conflict of interest with Bloomberg News purporting to cover the UN and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Given the percentage of the piece praising Bloomberg, that would seem to be the (anonymous) sourcing.

  Meanwhile at the UN on January 30, Inner City Press on climate changeasked Ban's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq of documents leaked by Edward Snowden showing that the NSA spied on the Copenhagen talks in 2009:

Inner City Press: there’s one of the [Edward] Snowden-released documents, but there’s a reason I’m asking you is it’s published in a Danish website “Information”and it talks about the Copenhagen climate change talks of 2009. And this seems to be the document and it says that the NSA [United States National Security Agency] was involved in monitoring communications at the discussions in order to advise the United States on the position of other Governments and presumably at the UN. So, I’m wondering, this seems to get more closely into things that are of much import to the UN, to the Secretary-General. Is there any response as to this memo coming out and the propriety of such surveillance?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson: Well, we wouldn’t have any specific response to this because ultimately, again, this is a case where we’d need to know what the basic facts are and whether there was any such surveillance that’s happened. However, our basic point that we’ve articulated many times in recent months still holds: that the inviolability of diplomatic premises needs to be respected by all States.

  If Bloomberg is named on Friday, or is named at all, what will the coverage of criticism and conflicts of interest be? Watch this site.

Footnote: While giving what credit is due to Reuters' UN bureau, despite their history, it must be noted that the bureau chief has not only spied for the UN -- he has also misused the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act to get Google to block from its search a leaked document showing him trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN. All of this.. is how this UN works, or doesn't.

   

After Meeting ICC Indicted Omar al Bashir, UN's Ladsous Tells AFP “I Cannot Accept Impunity," No DRC Answers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 6 -- For UN Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous has been the worst of both worlds.

  He is soft on France's historic and colonial allies -- thearmy of Chad which recruits child soldiers, the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo and militias they support, on the rapes in Minova and most recently the Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online.

  To try to make up for or cover it that up, Ladsous now talks and plays rough, bragging about a killing in Darfur and “keeping the body.” This is not the UN; at least, it is not what the UN is supposed to be. But it is what Ladsous is turning UN Peacekeeping into.

At the UN's July 5 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked about Ladsous' extraordinary and ghoulish quote in Khartoum, where he met ICC indictee Omar al Bashir, that a “UNAMID patrol...kept a body of one of the assailants.” But even worse was coming. From the UN's transcript:

Inner City Press: Mr. Ladsous said of an attack on a UNAMID patrol in East Darfur that the UN kept the body of one of the assailants and hopes to identify, using that body, the gunmen who attacked the peacekeepers. And I just wonder, is that common? What's the legality of keeping the body of an opposing, I guess of an assailant?

Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq: Well, regarding the question of the body... one assailant was killed and the body was handed over to Government authorities.

  Then Agence France Presse, among with Reuters at the UN Ladsous' go-to place for unquestioning coverage or mere transcription of what he says, ran an interview -- exclusive, to be sure -- of Ladsous in Khartoum.

AFP allowed Ladsous to say, without any question, that "I cannot accept impunity.” This is laughable. When two units of the Congolese Army which Ladsous' DPKO supports, the 41st and 391st Battalions, committed 135 rapes at Minova in November, Ladsous spend four months trying to cover it up.

Ladsous refused to answer any Press questions about it. He took AFP,Reuters and Voice of America (which on July 5 mis-reported Nyala as “Nyla”) into the hallway for a private briefing after which nothing was reported about the Minova rapes. Video here.

Even when forced to say something about the rapes, he did it to favored scribes -- and then didn't follow through, continuing DPKO support to the units even thought only two soldiers have been arrested, for 135 rapes. Ladsous very much CAN and does accept impunity.

A week ago Inner City Press asked all four of Ladsous' spokespeople -- Kieran Dwyer, Andre-Michel Essoungou, Josephine Guerrero and Anayansi Lopez -- a simple question.

Inner City Press asked whether Congolese Army units listed in the Group of Experts report the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online, as credited by BBC and Bloomberg News, have received support from the UN's (and Ladsous') MONUSCO.

That same day receipt was acknowledged by Anayansi Lopez and a DPKO answer promised. A week later, nothing. The question has been put MONUSCO, by the new Free UN Coalition for Access, through @FUNCA_info. MONUSCO like other missions has become less responsive under Ladsous than previously under Le Roy or even Jean-Marie Guehenno. This is Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, and its approach to impunity. Watch this site.

  

Biometrics in DRC Explained by IOM As UN's Herve Ladsous Dodges & Passes Bodies to Sudan, Intervention Brigade UNspun

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 5 -- After the Democratic Republic of Congo sanctions report was put online in full text exclusively by Inner City Press, the UN has refused to answer whether it supports the Congolese Army units depicted in the report raping, looting, recruiting child soldiers and supporting the FDLR militia.

Inner City Press asked again on July 5.  Associate Spokesperson Farhan Haq had no answers, but claimed that the UN always answers questions even if late. But why can't UN Peacekeeping say in six days if it supports these units? Isn't that information kept in a computer?

  (Now the BBC has joined Bloomberg News in crediting Inner City Press for the exclusive publication (or "leaking") of the report, here.) 

  Meanwhile, by contrast, the International Organization on Migration gave Inner City Press a detailed answer to its question about IOM's “biometrics” pilot, mere hours after it and the Free UN Coalition for Access requested the information:

Subject: RE: Press question about IOM's DRC press release and biometric pilot, thanks
From: DE BOECK Laurent [at] iom.int
Date: Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 12:53 PM
To: Inner City Press, FUNCA [at] funca.info

Dear Mattheuw, Thank you for your interest. Please find below the response to your queries.

What does the Biometric Registration System consist of?

IOM DRC is currently in the process of setting up a pilot biometric registration system to be implemented in targeted displacement sites in Goma, North Kivu. This is being done in response to a current gap in humanitarian operations in North Kivu. Lacking a national registry of population, and specifically vulnerable populations, IOM and other humanitarian organizations have had to use manual registration process relying on, typically, worn and outdated voter registration cards issued by the Government of DRC to identify and track beneficiaries of aid. The proposed biometric registration system is based on previous IOM implementation including, but not limited to, Sudan (pictures attached). The process consists of finger print devices and servers to store and cross-check the information.

How many people will it apply to – target beneficiaries ?

As a pilot phase, the project will start being implemented in Goma region, targeting about 150,000 individuals staying in 4 spontaneous sites and 1 camp.

How will the information be used and with whom will it be shared?

This information will be used to identify and verify Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in areas of implementation. Due to the value of such information, IOM will adhere to strict information management principles while also engaging in information sharing with humanitarian organizations in need to such information, including the World Food Programme who was a principal partner of us in the digital registration in Sudan. A digital process would allow for more efficient e-voucher programmes and smart cards for food distribution.

Associated problems with Registration (corruption, inefficiencies etc.)

In DRC, people do not have any ID. The only proof of identity is the electoral card but unfortunately, the majority of the IDPs do not have it. As a consequence, it is very challenging to control the real identity of each person which obviously creates a number of issues during distributions. Also, IDPs in North Kivu have been regularly displaced for the past few years. As a consequence, they are usually fully aware of the mechanisms put in place by the humanitarian community to give the assistance. In Goma, people will register in different sites/camps or will split their households in order to receive few NFI kits instead of one unique for the whole family. Moreover, it remains also challenging to distinguish autochthones from displaced people, above all in an urban context such as Goma.

  This response on the use of “biometrics” stands in contrast to whistleblowers' allegations that the chief of the UN Mine Action Service in Somalia David Bax shares genetic information with US intelligence -- which UNMAS and DPKO have refused to confirm or deny for 11 days now --- and with Herve Ladsous saying that the dead body of an assailant in Darfur has been kept to help identify who the assailants were.

  Inner City Press asked Haq about the legality of keeping dead enemies' bodies; he replied that Ladsous meant it was turned over to Sudan's government for keeping -- as if that's better. Ladsous met with ICC-indicted Omar al Bashir; the UN called it “strictly necessary.” Really? Watch this site.

But wait: from DPKO we do have one answer, this:

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] UN.org
Date: Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 1:25 PM
Subject: Your question on DRC
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

Please see below the following from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations:

"The deployment of the Intervention Brigade, while a bit slower than we had wished, is progressing apace, especially given the preparations required for this type of intervention.
Two contingents (from South Africa and Tanzania) of the three are in place and have started local patrolling and staff exercises.

As it is sometimes the case in this kind of process, a memorandum of understanding is yet to be signed between South Africa and the UN. But this has no impact on the deployment of the Brigade."

  We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

  

As UN's Censorship Alliance Lashes Out from Anonymity, Ban Ki-moon's UN Does Nothing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 24 -- UN scribes from Reuters, Bloomberg News, Voice of America, Agence France Presse and others on the board of the UN Correspondents Association tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN in 2012.

   In 2013 they have started anonymous social media accounts to falsely accuse Inner City Press of being funded by terrorists.

  Inner City Press quit UNCA and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access. FUNCA presses the UN for more transparency, for example this week for access to report on the Security Council. FUNCA has also made the UN aware that its partners in UNCA are anonymous trolls.

  Most recently on May 23 Inner City Press showed UN official Stephane Dujarric that FUNCA flyers -- about reduction in press access to the Security Council -- were defaced by UNCA "leaders," right under a UN Security camera installed over the door to the office of Inner City Press and FUNCA. (Both have told the UN to take the camera down.)

Dujarric on May 23 wrote that, "someone reportedly defaced the fliers on your door. We will look into the issue in the morning."

  But nothing was heard from Dujarric by 4 pm on May 24. Inner City Press and FUNCA asked for an update. Dujarric replied at 5:01 pm, copying Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's three top spokespeople, "I have nothing to add to what I've already told you on record on all the issues you raise in your email."

  So: nothing was done, or will be done. By 8 pm, the UNCA trolls -- Dujarric's personal friends -- began again, celebrating their anonymity.

We will begin by naming the two people most in charge of UNCA. The president is Pamela Falk of CBS News, who took photographs as Inner City Press' office was raided by the UN on March 18 then threatened to sue about stories asking why she took photographs of the raid.

  Falk's first vice president and Rasputin is Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, who filed three stealth complaints (including at least one to Dujarric's personal, non-UN e-mail account) to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN after he was challenged on stealing and mislabeling exclusives, for which Reuters offers extra compensation. This is UNCA, the UN's Censorship Alliance. This is the UNCA Executive Committee. Watch this site

As Obama Spied on Rosen about North Korea, USUN Was Grilling on Leaks, Now UNSC Off Limits?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 21 -- Long before the Obama administration went after Associated Press phone calls about Yemen, back in 2009 its focus was on North Korea and Fox reporter James Rosen.

  During the negotiation and adoption of that June 2009 UN Security Council sanctions resolution, as now, Inner City Press was covering Security Council. The paranoia of the US Mission to the UN was high. Inner City Press got a leak of the final draft of the sanctions resolution and put it online.

  While other countries' mission complained, the US Mission grilled even Security Council staffers trying to figure out who leaked it.

  It was obvious at the time that North Korea would react with more tests. There was a dispute about whether force could or would be used to search ships, and about the resolution still allowing a flow of small arms and light weapons.

  But the Obama administration's attempt to stop leaks, even in that case by non-Americans, was evident even then.

Jump-cut to June 2012, when State Department-run Voice of America tried to get Inner City Press' UN accreditation "reviewed."

Documents obtained from VOA's Broadcast Board of Governors shows VOA bragging that Thomson Reuters,Agence France Presse, Bloomberg News and the UN Correspondents Association all supported the move.

Now jump-cut to May 2013, when the UN supported by UNCA, still controlled by Reuters and AFP, is trying to now limit press access to the Security Council -- no press work can be done there -- and ask yourself: who is against press freedom? The new Free UN Coalition for Access is opposing it. ng it: but which side is Obama's US Mission on?Watch this site.

Free Speech & Press Work At UN Security Council Banned in UN Proposal with UNCA; Protest by FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 21 -- The UN and its partners seem to either misunderstand or have little respect for freedom of speech, or freedom of the press to interview sources and cover the Security Council as it has in the past.

  This week new draft "Media Access Guidelines," with the old UN Correspondents Association as a named party, were provided for comment. 

   Back in February, the new Free UN Coalition for Access had submitted ten proposed reforms, so it seemed only a matter of matching these to the open draft.

  But there were major changes in the new document with UNCA as a party. As to the Security Council, they propose that

"f. The Security Council stakeout area, including the Turkish Lounge, is not to be used as a permanent workspace for the media. When the Council is not in session, correspondents should minimize the amount of time in the area, unless interviewing or conversing with a U.N. delegate or official."

  This would represent a significant roll-back from the access the press had to the Security Council before the $2 billion Capital Master Plan renovation of the UN, and even what it has had at the interim Security Council in the basement under the General Assembly.

  Previously at the Security Council, there was a round table which the press could use, to write articles or edit video. Likewise at the Interim Security Council there is a table.

  The sentence "when the Council is not in session, correspondents should minimize the amount of time in the area" shows a lack of understanding or respect for how to cover the Council.

  There are often not only consultations, but meetings in the Council between the month's President and other countries, or entities like the Red Cross. This is covering the Council, and these draft "Guidelines" would result in less access, less coverage.

  The draft rules propose to limit entry into the Delegates' Lounge to "resident" correspondents, defined as those with offices in the UN. 

  As FUNCA has repeatedly shown the Department of Public Information, it is unfair to deny such status for example to a photographer covering the UN for twenty years, but give a "resident correspondents" pass to a photographer for a wire service like Agence France Presse even if the photographer only rarely comes to the UN.

  The 2013 president of UNCA had told UNCA members she was fighting for all correspondents to have access to the Delegates' Lounge, but then named only resident correspondents in a letter. Turkish Lounge, indeed.

  Tellingly, the new draft rules state:

"Posting of notices is restricted to the bulletin boards provided by DPI, including the UNCA bulletin board (by U.N. Correspondents Association officials), and the General Access Bulletin Board (by all accredited correspondents). Signs posted on doors are limited to entry restrictions, for example, 'do not disturb' or 'on air' or the identification of your organization. All other notices (e.g. announcement of meetings/event, press releases) are prohibited unless specifically authorized by Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit (MALU).

"Failure to adhere to guidelines in this document can be grounds for withdrawal or suspension of accreditation."

   To explain this proposal, inevitably a bit of history is needed. In 2012, the UNCA Executive Committee tried to get Inner City Press thrown out -- first, of the Committee to which it was elected, then out of the UN as a whole.

  See documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act fromVoice of America, concerning Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg/UNCA and AFP.  Click here for responsive statement by the NY Civil Liberties Union.

The UNCA Executive Committee posted on its glassed-in bulletin board a four page letter (later sent anonymously to the Guardian UK) denouncing Inner City Press, for five months. MALU did nothing.

  Once Inner City Press let its due paying membership in UNCA expire, quit UNCA and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access with another elected UNCA Executive Committee member who quit in disgust, FUNCA sought to post fliers. 

  UNCA Executive Committee members tore these down, ordefaced or counterfeited them. Even then, MALU said that correspondents were free to post fliers on the doors to their offices.

  Then after advocacy with the chief of DPI, a FUNCA or "non-UNCA" bulletin board was allowed. FUNCA posted substantive fliers there, concerning such matters as how Ban Ki-moon's media availabilities should (not) be organized; no "fakeouts at the stakeout."

  During the move, there has been no bulletin board. FUNCA fliers about problems with the move were posted on the door of Inner City Press' office, along with a FUNCA sign.

  Now comes the proposal to outlaw any substantive fliers even on correspondents' office doors. What have the UN and its partner UNCA -- yes, the UN's Censorship Alliance -- come to?

  FUNCA was asked to comment on the draft Media Access Guidelines, and has raised the above points and more. It has requested explanation of the proposed changes, including those above. Rather than any explanation, this from the UN's Stephane Dujarric:

"We will look and take your proposals under consideration regarding the media access guidelines. As for the accreditation guidelines, we will tackle those after we've dealt with the move and the access issues."

Watch this site.

UN's Dujarric Fields Requests to Disaccredit ICP From UNCA Trolls, As from VOA: Now What?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 5 -- UN media accreditation official Stephane Dujarric on June 21, 2012 thanked Voice of America for having asked him to "review" the accreditation of Inner City Press. This document was obtained from VOA under the US Freedom of Information Act.

  Once the request, which VOA said was supported by Reuters and Agence France Presse, Bloomberg News and UN Correspondents Association Executive Committee members, was exposed Dujarric reverted to telling Inner City Press how to cover Ban Ki-moon and his Peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous (video).

  Now, past midnight on May 4-5, 2013 one of the anonymous social media accounts associated with UNCA has directed itself at Dujarric asking why Inner City Press is accredited to cover the UN. 

  This is an account which began with a photograph taken behind the UN Security Council stakeout. It has launched defenses of, yes, Reuters, Voice of America and CBS News,base of UNCA President Pamela Falk (video).

  So what will Dujarric do? Last month he told Inner City Press to contact him "urgently" about a single tweet mentioning Ladsous, his new Police Adviser, and World War II -- through which France "won" its Security Council veto, and thus the power to give UN Peacekeeping to Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row in the position.

  Dujarric said the tweet "crossed all bounds," and said he was just "giving Inner City Press a chance."

  But what of social media messages openly directed to Dujarric asking him to throw Inner City Press out, after having falsely alleged Inner City Press is funded by terrorists, which gave rise to death threats?

What do Dujarric and Ban Ki-moon's UN do about this? 

  There are reasons, even beyond his defense to the Free UN Coalition for Access and the NYCLU of a continuing lack of due process rules for journalists at the UN, that these UNCA trolls think they'll get a sympathetic ear and action from Dujarric. Watch this site.

South Sudan Editor Locked Up as UN Peacekeeping Bans Press, Condones Threats

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 4 -- In South Sudan, the acting editor of the Juba Monitor Michael Koma 

has been in detention for days. One question is what has been the response, if any, of the UN since it maintains a large Peacekeeping mission in the country, run by Hilde Johnson of Norway and Herve Ladsous of France?

  Ladsous openly refuses to answer Inner City Press -- that is his approach to media freedom. Hilde Johnson, when in New York, does take Press questions. But when queries are made in the UN's noon briefing, it takes some time for answers to come back, and they are sometimes are not answers to the questions actually asked.

  On May 2, when Inner City Press questioned South Sudanese journalist Oliver Modi about a statement by President Salva Kiir that his ministers should not speak about government corruption, Inner City Press put the same question to UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.

The answer that came back was to a question previously asked, about a threat by Lakes State's governor to "crucify" critical journalists. 

  On this, the UN answered that "UNMISS has informed us that it is not aware of any direct threat against individual journalists in Lakes State. However, general statements of concern have been made and this was raised with the State authorities."

  Without much effect apparently - the acting editor of the Juba Monitor remains locked up without charge.

On May 2, Ladsous' spokesperson Kieran Dwyer justified his boss' refusal to answer questions, then sought to avoid a follow up to false statement he made (for example, that he gives Inner City Press answers to its questions -- actually, these are given first to scribes who never asked the questions, from Ladsous' favorite Agence France Presse, Reuters and even Voice of America). 

  To avoid follow up, Dwyer said let's focus on serious problems in South Sudan. Video here, at end.

   Yes, let's. What is the DPKO of Ladsous, who himself Bans critical journalists, doing in South Sudan?

Also on May 2, the UN put on its "World Press Freedom Day" panel Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of UNCA, an organization which spent most of its meetings in 2012 trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN. UNCA & Bloomberg, Voice of America, Reuters, AFP.

 This year under Falk, UNCA "leaders" have descended to anonymous trolling on social media making false accusation of funding by Sri Lankan terrorists, which have led to death threats. The commitment to Press Freedom, of this UN and its UN Censorship Alliance? Dubious at best. Watch this site.