On French Paris Attacks Resolution, Amendments & Delay UNexplained by French Mission, Including to Diplomats

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 20, updated -- After France circulated in the UN Security Council the post-Paris Attacks resolution repeatedly talked about by French President Francois Hollande, it immediately on November 19 put it "in blue" for voting, which would then take place as early as November 20. And UNTV - and the French Mission spokesperson to favored scribes - aid the vote would occur, at 3 pm.

But when 3 o'clock came, while UNTV was at the Security Council stakeout, there was no vote. Exiting the Council were the Permanent Representatives of Jordan, New Zealand and Spain, along with Staffan de Mistura and UN OCHA's Stephen O'Brien: an UNrelated humanitarian meeting.

  Other diplomats milled around; there were complaints against the French mission. One said, I shouldn't be learning this from (your) Twitter. Others said there had been amendments, adding an explanation of Article 51 for Russia, so explain post-Libya how the resolution should not be misused. We'll have more on this. For now, UNTV sent this: "Time yet to be decided pm   LIVE   Security Council 7564th meeting:  Adoption: Resolution on counterterrorism"

 In the morning when French Ambassador Francois Delattre entered the Security Council for a regularly scheduled meeting about Peacekeeping Operations featuring Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row atop UN Peacekeeping, Delattre spoke about the French draft resolution.Periscope video here. As fast transcribed by InnerCityPro.com:

“We hope for a vote the sooner the better, I cannot tell you when exactly, but it is one week after the attacks... There is no reason frankly there is only good spirit and good vibes so to speak around the table... I am cautious by nature, the mood is really good.

 “We try to have something that can unite everyone at the Security Council the Russians included. We think we should not waste time, we have a good partnership with Ambassador Churkin with all the other ambassadors... it's a question of the last mile, I will tell you more as soon as I know.”

  Inner City Press and others asked about Mali and the attack on the Radisson Hotel there. Delattre said, “We are closely watching the situation with great concern of course but no particular comment at this stage.” No comment? Shouldn't a terrorist attack in sub-Saharan Africa be added to the French draft? Some say the vote might be as early at 1 pm. 

Update: the French mission spokesperson doled this out later to favored correspondents Update II: UNTV says 3 pm: 
 "3:00pm   LIVE   Security Council 7564th meeting: Adoption: Resolution on counterterrorism"

  Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin on Thursday afternoon told reporters he saw nothing "offensive in it," that a couple of days could have improved it but that perhaps both resolutions could be adopted,citing 9/11/01 as a precedent.

 On his way into the Security Council's regularly scheduled meeting on Kosovo, Churkin stopped and told the press that “Theirs is much more narrow draft, ours is broader, more fundamental so basically I don't see much of a contradiction. We're studying it. I don't [see] anything particularly offensive. This is a good draft, we are looking at it. Maybe if they took a day or two more to work on it they could have improved a thing or two.”

   On if both draft resolutions could be adopted, Churkin said, “I think they could, because if you think back to events after 9/11, first there was a short draft then a couple of weeks later there was a more comprehensive draft.”

The day before on November 18 after Russia circulatedits resolution, French Permanent Representative Francois Delattre came out to talk to the media, not on UNTV but by the steps. He said, as fast transcribed by InnerCityPro:

"Russia requested this meeting on the issue of terrorism, and introduced once again this September 30th draft resolution... I repeated our total determination to fight Daesh, a fight which requires a united response from the whole international community. As you know French President Francois Hollande announced that the Security Council must adopt as soon as possible a resolution on the fight against Daesh. We are actively working to prepare a text that will be short, strong, and focused on the fight against our common enemy, Daesh. Short, strong, and focused on the fight against Daesh. And in this respect we consider the Russian proposal is a contribution that will be carefully studied.

 "I think we have two different texts here. The text we have in mind, and that we are working on very closely, strongly, following President Hollande’s statement, is a text that is strong, short, that is Daesh-centered, and that has one goal after the tragic Paris attack, which is to make sure that the international community is united, finally united, in the fight against Daesh. We all know the threat. The threat is still here. So this is our political responsibility asa the Security Council to have this text adopted, not for long, or endless negotiations about the niceties, but one, simple, clear political message. We need, and this is our responsibility, to have a text which all key actors of the international community can unite in order to act, and to act together." 

Together?

"  On November 17 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that Ban would sign the condolence book at the French Mission to the UN that afternoon.

  After 2 pm, the UN emailed out “*SG PHOTO-OP ADDED*” so Inner City Press went to the French Mission to cover it.

  In the lobby of 245 East 47th Street, also known as One Dag, the security officer said he would call upstairs to French Mission, on the 44th floor, and get the OK. The guard handed the photo to Inner City Press, which explained why it was here, that the UN has announced this photo-op. The guard took the phone back. Video here.

  “They say no,” the guard said. France 24 was upstairs, and others who did not even report on it. Inner City Press waited in the lobby, exchanging pleasantries with a half dozen diplomats including the Permanent Representative of Palau; passers-by in the One Dag lobby included the Permanent Representative of a country France has criticized for, ironically, freedom of the press. Video here.

  Ban Ki-moon and French Ambassador Francois Delattre came down,accompanied by Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric. The UN convoy pulled out onto Second Avenue. Later Dujarric's office would send out Ban's remarks -- Ban refused the only question asked -- and UNTV would distribute video of Ban and Mrs. Ban signing, even shots of the French hand-picked scribes in attendance. Would Charlie Hebdo have made the cut?

 On November 18, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Dujarric:

Inner City Press: You announced yesterday at this signing of the condolence book at the French Mission by the Secretary-General.  So I wanted to know, it seemed like I tried to go to your office.  You weren't there.  I went to MALU [Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit].  It seems like it's a UN thing, so I went to cover it, but I was unable to cover it when they called upstairs from the downstairs…

Spokesman Dujarric:  If it's a UN thing, if it happens in the UN.

Inner City Press:  Right.  Is it the Secretary-General's position where space exists for his outside events that UN journalists should be able to cover it or not?

Spokesman:  We rely on our hosts.

Back on September 28, 2015, the day of the UN Peacekeeping summit at the UN, Inner City Press managed to ask French President Francois Hollande about alleged rapes by French troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) and about French head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous having linked rapes to “recreation” and R&R. Video here.

  Hollande replied that when French troops are charged -- as they have been, in CAR -- France pushes for prosecutions, but also due process. Does that explain the one-year delay in the Sangaris CAR case?  The question was not taken.

  Later on September 28, Inner City Press went to cover the High Level Meeting on Peacekeeping, and found Ladsous slouched in his hair, wanly applauding pledges then glaring up at the photographers booth where Inner City Press was. Something is very wrong at the top of UN Peacekeeping - until it is addressed, the various commitments ring hollow.

A year after French President Francois Hollande tried to privatize the UN Press Briefing Room by having non-French journalists removed, his team on September 27, 2015 adopted a different strategy for the same result. At 8:40 am the UN said there would be a press conference by Hollande in just five minutes, at 8:45 am. Call it innovation.

  Apparently in his press conference, Hollande had many of the seats in the front of the UN Press Briefing Room “reserved” - because Brazil cited this as a precedent for their 11:30 am press conference by Dilma Rousseff (that's another story).  France, returning with Hollande for a session scheduled for 2:15 pm, again tried to control spaces in the front rows, as did the old UN Correspondents Association, which ejected a visiting journalist from “its” seat.

 And the question for Hollande? For Inner City Press, it would be what actions have been taken on the French soldiers alleged to have raped children in the Central African Republic. Watch this site.

Update: After Hollande came in, two people who had sat next to Inner City Press through the entire Japanese briefing from 1:30 pm got up, to give their seat to Laurent Fabuis and Royale. Then a lady approached Inner City Press, in full view of UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, and told Inner City Press to move, she's a "minister." Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access said Non, je suis journaliste, je veux poser ma question.

Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon said Peru's President Humala regretted not being present. But he WAS present, next to Hollande. Inner City Press asked Humala about the Trans Pacific Partnership on September 27: watch this site.

Back on September 23, 2014 the entourage of French President Francois Hollande repeatedly ordered the UN accredited Press to leave the UN's Press Briefing Room.

  A briefing by Hollande had been scheduled for 11 am, then was canceled. But at 10:55 am as a previous briefing about climate change was ending, Inner City Press was told to leave the room.

  The question, On whose orders? was not answered. Instead a woman in the French delegation said the room was "reserved." 

   This is not a restaurant, Inner City Press replied, now on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which advocates for the rights of journalists and for a Freedom of Information Act covering the UN.

  Another member of the French delegation said loudly, "They'll take away his accreditation." It was not necessarily an idle threat: the UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric had looked into the room as this happened. 

   Inner City Press said, if UN Media Accreditation -- or UN Security -- tell me to leave, I will. But not before. Video here.

  Meanwhile the representative of the old UN Correspondents Alliance meekly left; previously, UNCA did nothing when previous French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud in this room told a Lebanese reporter, "You are not a journalist, you are an agent."

  After a time, the woman from Hollande's entourage said that the chief of UN Media Accreditation, whom she made a point of saying she knows well, was not answering the phone. A French security guard told Inner City Press to leave. But this is not their role, in the UN briefing room.

  Finally the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius and the new Permanent Representative to the UN came and sat in the front room with Inner City Press and FUNCA.  Hollande appeared from the doorway Spokesman Dujarric had looked out of.

  Hollande said he had come mostly about climate change, but that a French citizen had been taken hostage in Algeria by a group linked with ISIL or "Da'ech," as he called the group. He said arms deliveries would continue; he noted the previous night's air strikes, by others, on Syria.

  Hollande said he would meet in the afternoon with the Syrian Opposition Coalition's Hadi al Bahra, who he called the only legitimate leader of Syria. Then he left without taking questions.

  The day before, UNCA hosted al Bahra (as they had his predecessor Ahmad Jarba) in the clubhouse the UN gives this group, publicized only to those which pay it dues. Given that UNCA did nothing when Araud told the Lebanese reporter "you are not a journalist, you are an agent," why didn't Hollande hold his press conference in the club of UNCA, the UN's Censorship Alliance?

After Paris Attacks, France Yet to Circulate UN Security Council Draft Resolution, Bans Press from SG's Signing of Condolence Book, UN Says It's "Left Up to Host"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 18 -- With France yet to circulate in theUN Security Council the post-Paris Attacks resolution repeatedly talked about by French President Francois Hollande, on November 18 Russia circulated a resolution. Afterward French Permanent Representative Francois Delattre came out to talk to the media, not on UNTV but by the steps. He said, as fast transcribed by InnerCityPro:

"Russia requested this meeting on the issue of terrorism, and introduced once again this September 30th draft resolution... I repeated our total determination to fight Daesh, a fight which requires a united response from the whole international community. As you know French President Francois Hollande announced that the Security Council must adopt as soon as possible a resolution on the fight against Daesh. We are actively working to prepare a text that will be short, strong, and focused on the fight against our common enemy, Daesh. Short, strong, and focused on the fight against Daesh. And in this respect we consider the Russian proposal is a contribution that will be carefully studied.

 "I think we have two different texts here. The text we have in mind, and that we are working on very closely, strongly, following President Hollande’s statement, is a text that is strong, short, that is Daesh-centered, and that has one goal after the tragic Paris attack, which is to make sure that the international community is united, finally united, in the fight against Daesh. We all know the threat. The threat is still here. So this is our political responsibility asa the Security Council to have this text adopted, not for long, or endless negotiations about the niceties, but one, simple, clear political message. We need, and this is our responsibility, to have a text which all key actors of the international community can unite in order to act, and to act together." 

Together?

"  On November 17 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that Ban would sign the condolence book at the French Mission to the UN that afternoon.

  After 2 pm, the UN emailed out “*SG PHOTO-OP ADDED*” so Inner City Press went to the French Mission to cover it.

  In the lobby of 245 East 47th Street, also known as One Dag, the security officer said he would call upstairs to French Mission, on the 44th floor, and get the OK. The guard handed the photo to Inner City Press, which explained why it was here, that the UN has announced this photo-op. The guard took the phone back. Video here.

  “They say no,” the guard said. France 24 was upstairs, and others who did not even report on it. Inner City Press waited in the lobby, exchanging pleasantries with a half dozen diplomats including the Permanent Representative of Palau; passers-by in the One Dag lobby included the Permanent Representative of a country France has criticized for, ironically, freedom of the press. Video here.

  Ban Ki-moon and French Ambassador Francois Delattre came down,accompanied by Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric. The UN convoy pulled out onto Second Avenue. Later Dujarric's office would send out Ban's remarks -- Ban refused the only question asked -- and UNTV would distribute video of Ban and Mrs. Ban signing, even shots of the French hand-picked scribes in attendance. Would Charlie Hebdo have made the cut?

 On November 18, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Dujarric:

Inner City Press: You announced yesterday at this signing of the condolence book at the French Mission by the Secretary-General.  So I wanted to know, it seemed like I tried to go to your office.  You weren't there.  I went to MALU [Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit].  It seems like it's a UN thing, so I went to cover it, but I was unable to cover it when they called upstairs from the downstairs…

Spokesman Dujarric:  If it's a UN thing, if it happens in the UN.

Inner City Press:  Right.  Is it the Secretary-General's position where space exists for his outside events that UN journalists should be able to cover it or not?

Spokesman:  We rely on our hosts.

Back on September 28, 2015, the day of the UN Peacekeeping summit at the UN, Inner City Press managed to ask French President Francois Hollande about alleged rapes by French troops in the Central African Republic (CAR) and about French head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous having linked rapes to “recreation” and R&R. Video here.

  Hollande replied that when French troops are charged -- as they have been, in CAR -- France pushes for prosecutions, but also due process. Does that explain the one-year delay in the Sangaris CAR case?  The question was not taken.

  Later on September 28, Inner City Press went to cover the High Level Meeting on Peacekeeping, and found Ladsous slouched in his hair, wanly applauding pledges then glaring up at the photographers booth where Inner City Press was. Something is very wrong at the top of UN Peacekeeping - until it is addressed, the various commitments ring hollow.

A year after French President Francois Hollande tried to privatize the UN Press Briefing Room by having non-French journalists removed, his team on September 27, 2015 adopted a different strategy for the same result. At 8:40 am the UN said there would be a press conference by Hollande in just five minutes, at 8:45 am. Call it innovation.

  Apparently in his press conference, Hollande had many of the seats in the front of the UN Press Briefing Room “reserved” - because Brazil cited this as a precedent for their 11:30 am press conference by Dilma Rousseff (that's another story).  France, returning with Hollande for a session scheduled for 2:15 pm, again tried to control spaces in the front rows, as did the old UN Correspondents Association, which ejected a visiting journalist from “its” seat.

 And the question for Hollande? For Inner City Press, it would be what actions have been taken on the French soldiers alleged to have raped children in the Central African Republic. Watch this site.

Update: After Hollande came in, two people who had sat next to Inner City Press through the entire Japanese briefing from 1:30 pm got up, to give their seat to Laurent Fabuis and Royale. Then a lady approached Inner City Press, in full view of UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, and told Inner City Press to move, she's a "minister." Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access said Non, je suis journaliste, je veux poser ma question.

Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon said Peru's President Humala regretted not being present. But he WAS present, next to Hollande. Inner City Press asked Humala about the Trans Pacific Partnership on September 27: watch this site.

Back on September 23, 2014 the entourage of French President Francois Hollande repeatedly ordered the UN accredited Press to leave the UN's Press Briefing Room.

  A briefing by Hollande had been scheduled for 11 am, then was canceled. But at 10:55 am as a previous briefing about climate change was ending, Inner City Press was told to leave the room.

  The question, On whose orders? was not answered. Instead a woman in the French delegation said the room was "reserved." 

   This is not a restaurant, Inner City Press replied, now on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which advocates for the rights of journalists and for a Freedom of Information Act covering the UN.

  Another member of the French delegation said loudly, "They'll take away his accreditation." It was not necessarily an idle threat: the UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric had looked into the room as this happened. 

   Inner City Press said, if UN Media Accreditation -- or UN Security -- tell me to leave, I will. But not before. Video here.

  Meanwhile the representative of the old UN Correspondents Alliance meekly left; previously, UNCA did nothing when previous French Permanent Representative Gerard Araud in this room told a Lebanese reporter, "You are not a journalist, you are an agent."

  After a time, the woman from Hollande's entourage said that the chief of UN Media Accreditation, whom she made a point of saying she knows well, was not answering the phone. A French security guard told Inner City Press to leave. But this is not their role, in the UN briefing room.

  Finally the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius and the new Permanent Representative to the UN came and sat in the front room with Inner City Press and FUNCA.  Hollande appeared from the doorway Spokesman Dujarric had looked out of.

  Hollande said he had come mostly about climate change, but that a French citizen had been taken hostage in Algeria by a group linked with ISIL or "Da'ech," as he called the group. He said arms deliveries would continue; he noted the previous night's air strikes, by others, on Syria.

  Hollande said he would meet in the afternoon with the Syrian Opposition Coalition's Hadi al Bahra, who he called the only legitimate leader of Syria. Then he left without taking questions.

  The day before, UNCA hosted al Bahra (as they had his predecessor Ahmad Jarba) in the clubhouse the UN gives this group, publicized only to those which pay it dues. Given that UNCA did nothing when Araud told the Lebanese reporter "you are not a journalist, you are an agent," why didn't Hollande hold his press conference in the club of UNCA, the UN's Censorship Alliance?

France's UNSC Month, From "I Have to Run" to No FDLR Fight, No Gao Report, No Statement on Airstrike on Yemen IDP Camp

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- For France's month as President of the Security Council, its Ambassador Francois Delattre held the normal Program of Work press conference. But when asked an Africa question at the end by Inner City Press he said, “I have to run.”

   Delattre repeated this at his first media stakeout of the month on March 4 on Mali, telling Inner City Press, I'm sorry, I have to run, I know it's the second time. Video here, Vine here.

   As the month wore on, even though his spokesman made a point to call on someone, anyone, rather than Inner City Press, Delattre found it easier to take the questions, often prefacing them with “les fideles” (the faithful, meaning, those actually at the UNTV stakeout to ask questions).

   But let's review some answers, or the lack of them. Throughout the month Inner City Press asked about UN peacekeepers' having shot at demonstrators in Gao in Mali.Delattre did not directly answer; his spokesman answered via Twitter that making the report public will be up to the Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon.

  Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq about the report - which was supposed to be presented in March - on March 30 and was told it is not ready, there was no answer on if it will be made public. 

 So much for transparency, including of UN Peacekeeping run four times in a row now by France. 

   Nor were there any answers during the month on the outright SALE of UN Peacekeeping posts in the DR Congo and Haiti by Deputy Permanent Representative Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire. Inner City Press scoop series here. So much for accountability.

  On March 19, Inner City Press asked Delattre about UN Peacekeeping having waived its stated human rights due diligence policy in order to support DRC generals fighting the Lord's Resistance Army, but refusing any waiver, as an excuse NOT to fight the Hutu FDLR militia. This question was dodged, at best, story here. So much for consistency.

  Bigger picture, this is the problem with a colonial power like France controlling UN Peacekeeping for so long. We'll have more on this.

  By month's end, an outstanding issue was the airstrikes against the Haradh IDP camp in Yemen. Inner City Press asked Delattre at his March 30 stakeout about the issue; he said it had not reached the Council. Video here.

  Later in the day he said this was the last meeting, merci. They adjourned with their friends and perhaps even Ladsous and scribes who ask no hard question or questions at all (by Delattre's logic, should these be called "les infideles"?) for the last time to France's Park Avenue apartment, being replaced by a “mere” brownstone in the East Fifties. 

  And those shot in Gao, used in DRC and Haiti, and bombed in Yemen? Let them eat... 

Note: in fairness, or tellingly, this was still better than the last French UNSC presidencies. This is perhaps a step along a road. Onward and upward.

   

At UN, French Minister Taubira on Counter-Terrorism Takes No Questions on Dieudonne Prosecution, Lazarevic Hostage Deal in Mali: Rule of Law?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 10 -- Amid attacks on journalists and freedom of expression in countries all over the world, the United Nations under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is no sanctuary, nor champion, the Free UN Coalition for Access has found.  Sometimes, however, it is better than member states.

 On February 10, France - and, apparently, a French UN official -- controlled a press conference in the UN press briefing room by Christiane Taubira, French Minister of Justice and "Keeper of the Seals." The subject ostensibly was counter-terrorism and the rule of law, but the hand-picked questions left some major issues unaddressed.

  For example, what is the rule of law rationale for prosecuting Dieudonne for a Facebook post, while championing the free speech rights of Charlie Hebdo? This obvious rule of law question was not asked or allowed.

 The first question was set aside by the UN Correspondents Association,become the UN's Censorship Alliance; the other questions were also largely in French, right to the final question.

 A question was taken about Assad, and answered despite Minister Taubira prefacing her long answer with a statement she has nothing to do with foreign policy.

  Ok that - what about the rule of law and the traded release of four"Islamic extremists" (so described by the BBC) for French hostage in Mali Serge Lazarevic, in light of the current (and forthcoming) UN Security Council resolutions prohibiting this?

  The rule of law, of course, would also include prohibitions on bribery. Inner City Press on February 7 exclusively reported on UN jobs for sale in UN Peacekeeping run by Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row in the post. After Inner City Press asked the UN on February 9, the UN deputy spokesperson read an answer on February 10, of Ladsous' purported action, and inaction by the Ouattara government in Cite d'Ivoire. We'll have more on this.

 The point, for now, is that it is always better to take questions - particularly when making claims about freedom of the press and the rule of law.

 Back on January 22 France and Germany similarly controlled a press conference in the UN briefing room. French minister Harlem Desir called for social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to crack down on anti-Semitic posts. 

 Inner City Press, including for the new Free UN Coalition for Access,sought to asked the French minister about the detention of comedian Dieudonne, after the Hollande government's unequivocal support for Charlie Hebdo's cartoons. 

 But the question was not allowed: the French mission called on the old UN Correspondents Association, a representative who did not complain when Hollande took over the UN briefing room in September, and then on France 24. (Germany called on ARD and DPA.)

  Reuters wrote up the French proposal -- ironically by a scribe, Charbonneau, who himself has used false filings for censorship, calling his own leaked anti-Press email a copyrighted work, here, to get it removed and censored from Google's Search.

 On January 23, Inner City Press for FUNCA asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the detention of Dieudonne, transcript here:

Inner City Press / Free UN Coalition for Access: I've been meaning to ask this for a few days. In France, after the understandable, and I guess, laudable rallying around the cartoons and the right to draw what you want, the comedian Dieudonné was arrested for something he posted on Facebook. And I wanted to know, what does the Secretary-General think of the arrest of a comedian right after the Government championed another form of satire?

Spokesman Dujarric: I understand. I'm not going to get into the details of that particular case, but I think if you… if I could reread what I just said, I think it's important that any laws that are there to criminalize or regulate hate speech be applied equally so that the laws themselves don't generate further discord.

  It's a better answer than France - which did not even allow the questions. As to the UN,  beyond stealth attempts to get the Pressthrown out of the UN, there is often little but platitudes about attacks elsewhere.  FUNCA is Pressing the issue.

  On January 20, Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Bahrain sentencing Nabeel Rajab to six months in jail for a single tweet. Video here.

  Spokesman Dujarric said he expected a statement on that later in the day -- three hours later there was none -- then cited the right of expression, generally. 

 The day before on January 19, Inner City Press on behalf of FUNCA asked Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq about Turkey having ordered Twitter, Google and Facebook to remove content by BirGun about alleged Erdogan government support to Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria, and threatening to ban Twitter entirely for not taking down the BirGun feed.

   Haq replied vaguely about the right to circulate information but said he would not speculate about the future of Twitter in Turkey.  Video here. 

  It is not speculation: earlier this year Turkey banned both Twitter and YouTube. The Erdogan government has made the same (mis) use of copyright claims to censor leaked material as Reuters at the UN, here.

   

Free UN Coalition for Access Asks UN of Dieudonne, After French Mission to the UN Hand-Picks Questions, Reuters Censors Echo

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 23 -- Amid attacks on journalists and freedom of expression in countries all over the world, the United Nations under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is no sanctuary, nor champion, the Free UN Coalition for Access has found.  Sometimes, however, it is better than member states.

 On January 22 France and Germany controlled a press conference in the UN briefing room. French minister Harlem Desir called for social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to crack down on anti-Semitic posts. 

 Inner City Press, including for the new Free UN Coalition for Access, sought to asked the French minister about the detention of comedian Dieudonne, after the Hollande government's unequivocal support for Charlie Hebdo's cartoons. 

 But the question was not allowed: the French mission called on the old UN Correspondents Association, a representative who did not complain when Hollande took over the UN briefing room in September, and then on France 24. (Germany called on ARD and DPA.)

  Reuters wrote up the French proposal -- ironically by a scribe, Charbonneau, who himself has used false filings for censorship, calling his own leaked anti-Press email a copyrighted work, here, to get it removed and censored from Google's Search.

 On January 23, Inner City Press for FUNCA asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the detention of Dieudonne, video here:

Inner City Press / Free UN Coalition for Access: I've been meaning to ask this for a few days. In France, after the understandable, and I guess, laudable rallying around the cartoons and the right to draw what you want, the comedian Dieudonné was arrested for something he posted on Facebook. And I wanted to know, what does the Secretary-General think of the arrest of a comedian right after the Government championed another form of satire?

Spokesman Dujarric: I understand. I'm not going to get into the details of that particular case, but I think if you… if I could reread what I just said, I think it's important that any laws that are there to criminalize or regulate hate speech be applied equally so that the laws themselves don't generate further discord.

  It's a better answer than France - which did not even allow the questions. As to the UN,  beyond stealth attempts to get the Pressthrown out of the UN, there is often little but platitudes about attacks elsewhere.  FUNCA is Pressing the issue.

  On January 20, Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Bahrain sentencing Nabeel Rajab to six months in jail for a single tweet. Video here.

  Spokesman Dujarric said he expected a statement on that later in the day -- three hours later there was none -- then cited the right of expression, generally. 

 The day before on January 19, Inner City Press on behalf of FUNCA asked Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq about Turkey having ordered Twitter, Google and Facebook to remove content by BirGun about alleged Erdogan government support to Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria, and threatening to ban Twitter entirely for not taking down the BirGun feed.

   Haq replied vaguely about the right to circulate information but said he would not speculate about the future of Twitter in Turkey.  Video here. 

  It is not speculation: earlier this year Turkey banned both Twitter and YouTube. The Erdogan government has made the same (mis) use of copyright claims to censor leaked material as Reuters at the UN, here.

   

On UN's Ban Ki-moon "Relieved Terrorists Have Been Killed," UNanswered Questions from Free UN Coalition for Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 9 -- Shortly after police raids in Paris in connection with the attack on the publication Charlie Hebdo, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, “I am relieved that these terrorists have been killed by the authorities of the French government.”

  This was transcribed by the UN as a Press Encounter at France's Mission to the UN, though the UN did not provide notice to journalist who cover the UN through its UN Media Alert.

  About that lack of notice, or selective notice, and the substance of Ban Ki-moon's quote, Inner City Press went as part of a Free UN Coalition for Access delegation to the UN Spokesperson's Office to ask. But the lead spokesman is said to be on his way to India with Ban Ki-moon; the deputy was out to lunch. So this was sent to these two UN spokespeople:

"Please explain why when the Secretary General held a “Press Encounter” at the French Mission it was not listed in the day's UN Media Alert or any update thereto. I asked in MALU and was told it had been only UNTV and UN Photo. But there are two questions, presumably from two correspondents, in the read-out.

"Given the similar omission earlier this week, please explain how the correspondents permitted to accompany the SG and ask the two questions were selected.

"On substance, on the SG's line that “I am relieved that these terrorists have been killed by the authorities of the French government” please state the SG's understanding at the time he said it of how the decedents died and were killed, and the consistency of this statement with UN positions on the death penalty, human rights while combating terrorism and extra-judicial executions."

  There has been no answer. It is said that the UN let the French Mission choose which journalists could be there "the Secretary General's Press Encounter." Would this be done for other countries?

  Apparently, none of the scribes who were invited asked a follow up about Ban Ki-moon's relief, the next question was simply to repeat it in French.

  How many governments, like that of the just voted-out Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka, will like and use what Ban said, that it is a relief to kill terrorists? What will the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid, Special Repporteurs like Ben Emmerson and those on extra-judicial executions, have to say? We'll follow this.  UN sent this out:

PRESS ENCOUNTER AT THE SIGNING OF THE CONDOLENCES BOOK AT THE PERMANENT MISSION OF FRANCE TO THE UNITED NATIONS

New York, 9 January 2015

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, could you tell us what you wrote and what your feelings are now that there have been reports that the perpetrators have been killed?

SG: I have expressed on behalf of the United Nations my most sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the people and Government of France on this unacceptable terrorist attack against the magazine Charlie Hebdo. Yesterday, I telephoned President Hollande and conveyed my messages again, expressing our condolences and also encouraging him to show courage in overcoming this tragedy and difficult situation. As you may remember yesterday when I had the press stakeout, I emphasized that this is not a country, a war against religion or between religions – it is not anything on religion or belief by somebody or some country. This is a purely unacceptable terrorist attack – criminality. This kind of criminality must be brought to justice, in the name of humanity. I am relieved that these terrorists have been killed by the authorities of the French government.

  How and to whom is news doled out at the UN, when something big, and bad in the case of today's Charlie Hebdo murders in France, happens in the wider world? 

  And why does the UN dole out Ban Ki-moon's quotes this way? Inner City Press asked, video here.

  On January 7 the UN did not announce even to all journalists inside the UN, much less to reporters in New York and around the world, or to the public, that Ban Ki-moon would read a statement about Charlie Hebdo. It was not put live on UNTV. Only those who paid money were notified in writing of Ban's "remarks," and after they were read out, they rushed to file this news.

  Some filed only one or two lines, like the Kuwait News Agency. (Ironic, because Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access had asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric just the day before about Kuwait imposing a year and eight months sentence for insulting the Emir). But KUNA in its short piece included the venue Ban had gift his remarks to, the UN Correspondents Association, now the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  That's the larger irony or absurdity: that Ban would make remarks against censorship in the clubhouse of a group whose board tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, whose then and now president demanded that an article about him and a financial link to Sri Lanka's ambassador be taken off the Internet. Ils ne sont pas Charlie.Or, #IlsNeSontPasCharlie

  Mostly, Ban's line or two were worked into larger stories, without any analysis much less critique of the UN -- that's the deal. Voice of America (see here and here), Agence France Presse (see here and here), Reuters (see here, hereand straight up censorship, here).

  A photographic wire service sold a shot of Ban and UNCA's president Giampaolo Pioli looking like he was asleep - this while Pioli has said no one could be a member of UNCA and of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, thereby excluding FUNCA's hard-working photographic media. This is how it works.

  Ban Ki-moon's online public schedule for January 7 listed, and still at 2:45 pm only lists, two appointments: “12:00 p.m. Meeting with Mr. Mehdi Jomaa, Prime Minister of Tunisia and 3:30 p.m. Meeting with Mr. Jack Rosen, Chief Executive, Rosen Partners, LLC.”

    But UN correspondents who had paid money to UNCA,now the UN's Censorship Alliance, had been sent an e-mail that Ban would make remarks in the clubhouse the UN gives them, sometime after 10:15 am.

   There at 10 am, UN Television was putting cameras in -- but still, nothing in the UN Media Alert or even UNTV Pool report. It became clear, while standing in front of the UN Censorship Alliance's clubhouse, that Ban would be using this private event to make his remarks on Charlie Hebdo, and predictable take no questions.

   What is the relationship between Ban's UN and UNCA? Journalists accredited to cover the UN are told, if they ask, that they are not required to join UNCA - and Inner City Press is not a member, having quit the group after being elected to its Executive Committee for 2011-12 and before, and then co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access. 

   At noon on January 7, Inner City Press for FUNCA asked Ban's spokesman Dujarric why it was not in the Media Alert. Click here for video of that Q&A, and one on Sri Lanka, and from outside the private event, here.

   But the UN was using UNCA as a proxy for the whole press corps - trying, as more than one correspondent put it, to make them join UNCA to not “miss news” such as this.

  The past and returned president of UNCA, Giampaolo Pioli, has said that no correspondent who is a member of the Free UN Coalition for Access can be a member of UNCA. And the notification of and invitation to Ban's “remarks” was sent only to UNCA members, who pay dues money to UNCA.

  Is this appropriate?

  Inner City Press, after doing its best to cover Ban's short - and yes, questionless - remarks from the space outside the UN Censorship Alliance's clubhouse, Tweeted photo here,audio from source here, went to the day's UN noon briefing and asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric why Ban's prepared remarks on the Charlie Hebdo killings had not been in the Media Alert.

  Dujarric replied that it was too short notice and said that it had been “squawked” -- only to in-house journalists who were inside the UN building -- at 9:45 am.  But that left a full hour to e-mail a Media Alert update to the wider list of journalists accredited to cover the UN. It wasn't done: it's the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  Inner City Press for FUNCA asked Dujarric why it wasn't listed on Ban's public schedule, while Rosen Partners was (Inner City Press asked what that meeting was about but was not told.)

  Dujarric replied that speaking to UNCA -- ostensibly wishing happy New Year to the journalists covering the UN, in an event publicized only to the subset which pays money to UNCA -- was an in-house event. Correspondents can, it seems, become too embedded.

  When asked why he would hold a Ban Ki-moon news event without making sure it was in the Media Alert, Pioli said “we have nothing to do with the Media Alert.” And that is one of the problems, or reality: UNCA is not ABOUT wider access to news at the UN.

  In fact, UNCA board members including Pioli tried to get Inner City Press thrown out in 2012, after demanding thatarticles and even photographs be taken down. #WeAreCharlie, as they say.

  At the end of the day's UN noon briefing, in which another journalist reminded Dujarric that not all UN correspondents are members of UNCA and the UNCA only sends notices to its dues paying members, Dujarric said he would look into that. That is not enough.

  Tellingly, from the Twitter feed of UNCA, which Dujarric claims can be relied on as a middleman to reach the UN press corps, Inner City Press is blocked. Any particular media could do it - but with UNCA doing it, the UN must cease using UNCA as a middle-man, as its Censorship Alliance.

 Notices should be sent to all UN accredited media. There is no reason to use UNCA as a middle-man. That Ban should not partner in this way with censors is another question. Prepared remarks should be in the Media Alert.  This is basic - and the Free UN Coalition for Access will remain on the case.