UN Celebrates Censorship and Itself, Stories on Nepotism, Sri Lanka & Corruption Ordered Down, Champagne Glasses Raised

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 4 -- How does censorship work at the UN? 

 Yesterday Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson about Ban's son in law Siddharth Chatterjee being named country representative to Kenya of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

  The spokesperson did not answer that, instead telling Inner City Press, "I think you know how to reach UNFPA." Video here, from Minute 6:30. The questions Inner City Press has submitted are below. 

  When Inner City Press reported on complaints of nepotism in the hiring of Ban's son in law Chatterjee, and another publication picked up and credited Inner City Press' reporting, Chatterjee contacted that publication and demanded that its story be taken off the Internet, which happened.

  Chatterjee asked the publication's reporter to tell Inner City Press to also remove from the Internet its story. Inner City Press refused.

  This is too widespread in the UN system. After Inner City Press reported as context for the screening in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium of a Sri Lanka government film denying it committed war crimes that the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association had previously rented a Manhattan apartment to Sri Lanka's Ambassador, other threats began.

  Inner City Press was told to take its report off the Internet. Instead, Inner City Press offered to publish any response; none was ever provided. Instead, the Executive Committee of the UN Correspondents Association, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance, began a kangaroo court proceeding seeking to expel Inner City Press.

  In the midst of this, in a meeting of the UNCA Executive Committee (to which Inner City Press had been elected, before now having quit the organization and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access to actually advocate for rather than undermine freedom of the press), Inner City Press was quizzed about its sources. As it always does and will do, Inner City Press refused to disclose its sources.

When the UNCA proceeding against Inner City Press was reported in Sri Lanka (and supposedly internal UNCA documents from it were immediately leaked to the UN byUNCA's first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, click here for that), death threats began to arrive from extremist supporters of Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa government. The UNCA Executive Committee's response was that this was not its problem.

  This all culminated in UNCA Executive Committee members from Voice of America and Reuters urging the UN to throw Inner City Press out of the UN. 

   Since VOA is a US government agency, Inner City Press continuing its reporting has been able to use the US Freedom of Information Act to obtain hundreds of pages of documents, including VOA's request that Inner City Press' accreditation be "reviewed," and its statement that UNCA spoke with the UN about throwing Inner City Press out of the UN and that Reuters' Charbonneau and Agence France Presse's Tim Witcher supported its request.

So this is the UN's Censorship Alliance, UNCA. In 2013, UNCA "leaders" responded to the formation of the new Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info by creating multiple imposter Twitter accounts of FUNCA, then of Inner City Press itself, as exposed by MediaBistro.

  That outside exposure slowed it, temporarily; nothing had been done by current and apparently future UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS, who was directly told on the recordabout the UNCA trolling ultimately attributable to her under command responsibility. Audio here and here; here for the statement "the fundamental problem is your website" from the Reuters first vice president of the UN Censorship Alliance. 

  They continued with their trolling campaign as recently as November 27, the day before Thanksgiving.

  And today in the clubhouse the UN gives to what has become its Censorship Alliance, Ban Ki-moon is the invited guest to raise a glass of champagne for an UNCA photo competition in which UN Photo is being given one of the prizes.

2d update: We note that photographer Cia Pak organized the competition, using the UNCA space because it's there [or, because the UN gives UNCA that space, rather than calling it for example the "UN Journalists' Club" and letting other use it.] Pak says he sent out the invitation to apply worldwide, for any UN related photographs. He indicates that in future years the volunteer judges will not vote on photos by those whom they supervise. Vaya con Dios. 

  FUNCA has previously noted that just as journalists in the US White House complain when in-house administration photographers are given exclusive access banning the independent press, the UN too should stop this. But UNCA is giving this award. 

  What's next, when the UN Censorship Alliance again invites Ban later this month and charges guests $250 a plate -- an award to UN News Centre or Ban's speech writers, from the UN's Censorship Alliance? Falk is running unopposed to continue this, along with a Reuters replacement, other censors, indicters and kangaroo court "judges." There have been no reforms at all this the above described. This is how censorship at the UN works.

  Here are the questions Inner City Press has put to the two top spokespeople at UNFPA:

This is a request for UNFPA to confirm or deny that Siddhartha Chatterjee has been selected "as the new head of the United Nations Population Fund in Kenya."

If so, please confirm or deny that the government of Kenya has "delayed accept[ing] the appointment" and describe how that acceptance process works, what has happened so far and where it stands.

Also, please describe in detail the recruitment and selection process for the position and how the son in law of the UN Secretary General was selected, and please comment on those who see the potential for nepotism or favoritism.

Watch this site.

   

UN Censors Go Trolling Even on Thanksgiving, Fan of Ladsous, Jarba and Sri Lanka Government, UNCA Prez Pam Falk Sycophant to Power

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 29 -- Amid the UN's humanitarian work there is ugliness: bringing cholera to Haiti then refusing to be accountable, turning a blind eye during the slaughter of 40,000 in Sri Lanka, allowing impunity for mass rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, so far, by its own peacekeepers in Mali.

  Inside the UN's own headquarters, even among those ostensibly covering the UN, there is ugliness too. For example: insiders among the UN Correspondents Association's executive committee, past, present and future, have not only tried to get other journalists thrown out of the UN -- in 2013 under the leadership of Pamela Falk of CBS, they began anonymous trolling social media campaigns, UNacccountable.

  And on November 27, 2013, the day before US Thanksgiving, they've been at it again.

  It began in late 2011, when UNCA's executive committee or whose who control it decided to demand the deletion from the Internet of an on-the-record factual article about financial background relevant to UNCA's screening of a Sri Lanka government film denying war crimes, they became the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  When a 2013 UNCA executive committee member filed a stealth complaint with UN Security leading with how Inner City Press posed a question to UN Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, who refused Press questions (video here, UK coverage here), the UN's Censorship Alliance slipped lower, under 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS.

  As reported by Media Bistro, two UNCA board members began false Inner City Press twitter accounts. Exposed, neither of these two are listed as running -- usually there is no competition -- for re-election in 2014. But one, Louis Charbonneau, is simply to be replaced by another Reuters scribe, endorsed by Falk; the other Tim Witcher, the earliest Ladsous fan, has become an endorser too.

  On November 27, 2013, the UNCA trolls were at it again, anonymously, online. Those who partner with UNCA and prop it up, informed, have not stopped it, nor has UNCA's "leadership." When what began as a press organization descends into trying to censor or get other journalists thrown out, it calls out for scrutiny and coverage. This Press coverage is on the record, just as Inner City Press also covers the UN Staff Union, its budget committees, "Ethics" Office and other arcania. Unlike the UNCA counterfeiters and trolls, it is on the record, by name, for attribution.

  Inner City Press for now makes a single, sample observation, publicly: the 2013 and one-party system style presumptive 2014 UNCA chief Pamela Falk, who demands first questions at the UN on topics she does not write or broadcast on, cravenly directed alongside her UNCA's troll campaign a red white and blue American photo to US Ambassador Power. That is called: being a sycophant to P/power.

  And there are others, trying to get on the inside with this group of trolls and censors? Watch this site.

   

At UN, Rights in Conflict as HRW & UNCA Trolls Let France Off Hook, Vienna +20 Clash

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 17 -- At the UN there's a lot of talk about human rights, but sometimes it's in conflict. Double standards we cover daily, but this is about double booking.

On September 18 not only UN official Ivan Simonovic but also Gerhard Doujak, Head of the Human Rights Department in the Austrian Ministry of European and International Affairs, are set to speak at 11:15 am in the UN Press Briefing Room on the topic of "Vienna +20 Human Rights achievements, shortcomings and the way forward."

But a mere 15 minutes prior, UN perennial Human Rights Watch is holding a press conference on a topic on which the Security Council took no action in August nor so far in September: the Central African Republic.

  Why didn't the Security Council pass the expected resolution in August? Because the pen holder France had its diplomats on vacations, as Inner City Press reported. But you won't hear that from HRW.

Nor did HRW say anything when Herve Ladsous of UN Peacekeeping met in July with Omar al Bashir, who is indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court. HRW's statements are, shall we say, highly selective.

  Who is hosting this HRW event? The UN Correspondents Association, which also in July hosted what it called a "UN briefing" by Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba. 

  On July 26, and again earlier today, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Office of the Spokesperson if they was really a "UN briefing."

From the July 26 UN transcript:

Inner City Press: currently, there is a meeting in the North Lawn Building of the Syrian coalition with members of the Security Council. They may be doing a stakeout now. But I wanted to ask you this. I’ve seen, although it wasn’t sent to me, a notice of a press conference in the UN building by the Syrian Coalition in room 310 of the United Nations, and I wanted you to describe what this press conference is. Is it a UN press conference? Is it only open to individuals who have paid money in order to attend it? And I saw one of the speakers described as the Special Representative of the Syrian Coalition to the United Nations, and I wanted to know, is there such a thing? Is there official representation to the United Nations by the Syrian opposition and on what basis does the UN give a large room to the UN Correspondents Association for meetings of this type, which they only promote to members that pay them money?

Deputy Spokesperson: Well, I’ll have to check on that, Matthew. I don’t have the information with me, but we’ll check on that and get back to you.

  But no one ever did get back to Inner City Press with an answer to this question, including the Department of Public Information which partners with UNCA and gives it this special but unexplained status. 

  DPI has been informed of anonymous social media trolling linked with UNCA Executive Committee members (two of whom, Louis "The UN Spy" Charbonneau of Reuters and Tim Witcher of AFP, have been exposed in MediaBistro: these are HRW's partners.) 

  But even on September 17, the UNCA-linked trolling continued. And so, on Wednesday, the correct place is in neither. Watch this site.

  

Angered at US Climb-Down on Syria, UN Trolls Linked to Reuters & AFP Start Again

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 14 -- Those disappointed that the US will not, at least for now, be bombing Syria include not only the Gulf-sponsored rebels but also some big media correspondents at the UN.

Just after Inner City Press published an analysis for the deal reached in Geneva between the US and Russia, the anonymous social media trolling which was linked this week in MediaBistro to Louis Charbonneau of Reuters and Tim Witcher of AFP began again.

 (One might say, just as the lack of relevance of France and the UK was exposed by this US - Russia deal, the servile nature of their associated media was also exposed.)

Both Charbonneau and Witcher are officers of the UN Correspondents Association, a group which sponsored Saudi-supported Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba for a faux "UN briefing" in late July, in a room give by the UN to UNCA with little transparency.

Questions by the Free UN Coalition for Access@FUNCA_info to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople, if this really was a "UN briefing" and the basis on which a large room is given to a group which represents less then ten percent of the journalist who will cover the UN General Assembly have gone unanswered.

The UN Department of Public Information, which "partners" with UNCA, is entirely aware of the anonymous trolling, which has included counterfeit @InnerCityPress accounts. But counterfeiting continues, and trolling linked to the UNCA officers. 

  At least one DPI official has improperly received from Charbonneau internal UNCA anti-Press documents, three minutes after Charbonneau promised he would not do so -story here, audio here, document here. That is Reuters and UNCA spying for the UN, still not addressed. What goes the other way? We will have more on this.

   

UNable To Be On Record, Reuters' Mean Girl Charbonneau & AFP's Twitchy Tim Troll MediaBistro, Scribes on Syria

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 12 -- While the daytime at the UN on Thursday concerned France's Agence France Presse- and Reuters-enabled attempt to hijack and spin the forthcoming Sellstrom report on chemical weapons on Syria, the named trolls continued their anonymous work under assumed names.

  On September 9, Reuters' Louis "Mean Girl" Charbonneau and AFP's "Twitchy" Tim Witcher were exposed for having tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and for passive-aggressive shenanigans since. 

  Rather than respond on the record, they poured in comments under false names, as they did in March. But for what?

  Both are tools of France on the issue of Rwanda and the DRC. And so they pitch to MediaBistro the idea that because MONUSCO -- pre Kobler, mind you -- decided to denounce an Inner City Press story since proved even the Group of Experts report (of which Inner City Press exclusively published the full text, as credited by the BBC), this helps their anonymous cause. It is laughable.

  Tim Witcher of AFP is a scribe who filed a complaint with UN Security leading with the way Inner City Press asked a question to Frenchman Herve Ladsous. According to documents obtained from Voice of America's Broadcasting Board of Governors, his AFP office fully supported trying to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. VOA letter here, document on AFP here.

Tim Witcher at UN: ready to complain for Ladsous?

Louis Charbonnneau is a troll who spied for the UN, handing them an internal UN Correspondents Association documentthree minutes after promising not to do so. Story here, audio here, document here.

Lou "Mean Girl" Charbonneau handing what to Ban?

  Neither was seen at the evening's UN scene at the Norwegian consul general's -- rather, only UNCA 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS was there, leaving even before Geir Pedersen spoke. 

  Falk has time to ask inane questions she never writes about, but not to clean up UNCA trolling house. It's sad, really. Big media that can't even speak in its own name, merely pass throughs for the French and UK government? And, in the case of Charbonneau of Reuters, spying for the UN? Watch this site.

   

After Reuters & AFP Exposed as UN Trolls in MediaBistro, Anonymous Fightback, Crying About Office Space

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 11 -- Two days after UN insiders Louis Charbonneau of Reuters and Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse were called out as anonymous trolls in MediaBistro, they still had no response, at least in their own names.

Rather, a series of anonymous commenters weighed in, trying to convince the MediaBistro author that at least one of their two imposter @InnerCityPress accounts had always been labeled "Satire" and "Not."

  Neither is true, as the reporter himself soon realized. Still rather than actually responding and explaining for example why Charbonneau gave an internal document of the UN Correspondents Association to UN accreditation official Stephane Dujarric three minutes after promising not to (story here, audio here, document here), they just continued to troll. But they left finger prints.

  For example one of the names adopted for these comments is "David Spring" -- the same one used in March to argue that Inner City Press once "made" another journalist cry. This is exactly an argument (and person) used by Charbonneau, then parroted by ventriloquist David Spring.

Lou "Mean Girl" Charbonneau, the handing goes both ways?

  Since this troll's head is again raised, it must again be pointed out: an Italian reporter at the UN took so much offense to Inner City Press quoting another correspondent about the unfairness of so many Italian media getting offices, and all near each other as “Italian row,” that she cried.

  Inner City Press apologized but seriously, the UN's unfairness in giving out office space has had to be raised in 2013 as well. Three separate affiliates of the US State Department, including Voice of America, each have separate offices, while other countries' wire services were asked to share space.

  Now in September 2013 it remains the fact that Russia's ITAR TASS is confined to a windowless photocopy room, while others have their own offices facing the river, from which to troll and write inaccurate stories. Who's crying now? Watch this site.

   

Exposed as Trolls, UNCA Scribes of AFP, Reuters & CBS Just Keep On, Giving Tie to UK Deputy, Ban's Shabiha?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- On a night when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon blithely gave a speech in honor of UN Ambassador Samantha Power, while purporting to be an honest broker between parties on Syria, the group now known as Ban's shabiha resumed their anonymous social media trolling.

  Earlier today, Ban's insider journalists' campaign to impersonate the @InnerCityPress twitter feed, named one of two "Twitterati 100" covering the UN by Foreign Policy magazine, was exposed in MediaBistro's FishBowlNY. 

  The reporter there saw the documentary evidence of Reuter's Lou Charbonneau and AFP's Tim Witcher having tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, joining Voice of America according to VOA documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. VOA here, Reuters here, AFP here.

  But beyond a bogus anonymous comment on the story calling Inner City Press is "pro Syria, pro Rwanda and anti French," later on Monday another of the UNCA-linked troll accounts started up again.

  It was strange: earlier on Monday UNCA's clearly outgunned 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS had sent all UNCA members a desparate e-mail presenting herself and unnamed Executive Committee members as the victim, when they have been responsible for the trolling since February 2013.

  Rather than try to reign in her those who actually run UNCA, or who seemingly work more directly with the UN, Falk send that e-mail and let them continue. This ill-serves her own members.

  So did the faux "UN briefing" she and some on the UNCA board sponsored by Saudi supported Syria rebel boss Jarba. It was publicized only to those who pay money to UNCA. There was no right to reply. But it was called a "UN briefing."

  UNCA through its Executive Committee is decidedly one-sided and, at least as some see it, unprofessional. They give gifts (and documents, in the case of Reuters) to those they are supposed to cover. Last week, UNCA bigwigs gave a tie to departing UK Deputy Permanent Representative Parham, he thanked them and some notable others.

  Parham is a fine guy: but is this appropriate?

  UNCA gave a tie to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's Deputy Spokesman on his way INTO the job. An UNCA past president made campaign contributions to candidates ostensibly being covered. The current president for 2013, Pamela Falk, openly tweets at Western ambassadors: look! Look at the positive coverage I am giving! 

  When Inner City Press asked, at a UN noon briefing, for a description of the UN's relationship with UNCA and details about the Jarba briefing, no answer was provided. It's that the UN uses UNCA or its Executive Committee. In 2012 this involved UNCA Executive Committee members from Voice of America, Reuters and AFP trying to get Inner City Pressthrown out of the UN.

  In that campaign, Reuters Lou Charbonneau gave the UN's Stephane Dujarric an anti-Press internal UNCA document,three minutes after promising not to. Story here, audio here,document here.

Reuters' & UNCA's Charbonneau hand to Ban

And now, this new campaign: the counterfeiting of Inner City Press' twitter feed, just after it was named one of two "Twitterati 100" covering the UN (no UNCA member was named) by Foreign Policy magazine, by so far two fake social media accounts, targeted for example at Parham's boss Mark Lyall Grant, as Australian Ambassador (and Security Council president for September) Gary Quinlan. 

Ban's UNCA Lunch of the Lost, Feb 7, 2013, credit Evan Schneider, UNPhoto. From left: OSSG's Del Buey; Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency; OSSG's Nesirky; Melissa Kent of CBC; Sylviane Zehil of L'Orient le Jour; Tim Witcher of AFP; Ali Barada of An-Nahar; Ban Ki-moon, Kahraman Halicelik of Turkish Radio & TV; Pamela S. Falk of CBS; Lou Charbonneau of Reuters; Bouchra Benyoussef of Maghreb Arab Press; Yasuomi Sawa of Kyodo News; Masood Haider of Dawn; Unknown; Zhenqiu Gu of Xinhua; Stephane Dujarric of UN DPI

  It's nasty -- a Syria style tactic, you might say. Some, not without irony, see in UNCA's Executive Committee Ban Ki-moon's shabiha. Watch this site.

   

After AFP & Reuters at UN Named as Trolls in MediaBistro, Anonymous Reply Calls Inner City Press "Pro Syria, Pro Rwanda, Anti French"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- Amid Syria spin and mis-information at the UN, insider journalists' campaign to impersonate the @InnerCityPress twitter feed, named one of two "Twitterati 100" covering the UN by Foreign Policy magazine, was exposed today in MediaBistro's FishBowlNY.

  The response? Anonymous commenting on the expose, of course. A person purporting to speak for (all?) UN jouralists says that Inner City Press is "pro Syria, pro Rwanda and anti French." Wonder who that could be?

  The "pro Syria" is telling. The counterfeit accounts began just after InnerCityPress.com published a piece on the three questions permitted to US Ambassador Samantha Power on Syria.

 All were Executive Committee members of the UN Correspondents Association, which sponsored in late July a faux "UN briefing" by Saudi supported Syria rebel boss Ahmad al Jarba, in an event publicized only to those who pay UNCA money.

As recounted in the MediaBistro piece, the imposter twitter accounts were pitched at every follower of the Free UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, which Inner City Press co-founded. Then they began to be pitched at the 6,700 followers of @InnerCityPress, purely to create confusion and harm.

Now the old UN Correspondents Association, whose Executive Committee has tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and who agreed to limit media access to the Security Council and General Assembly, has emailed that it too has a twitter account. 

   But UNCA has only 19 followers -- and its six tweets are all mere links posted by UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk, who was informed of Team UNCA's trolling in February but has done nothing to stop it. The UN Department of Public Information, which partners (exclusively it seems) with UNCA did not stop it.

The glassed-in bulletin board in front of the large meeting room the UN gives to UNCA, for example for the faux "UN briefing" by Jarba, has not been updated since February -- a wan letter from Falk.

  But FUNCA's fliers on a non-glassed in bulletin board FUNCA fought to get installed on the fourth floor are taken down by the UN at the end of each month. The UN has tried to create a one party system, while presenting itself as a voice of democracy and even free speech elsewhere. 

  When a petition for a media work table at the Security Council was presented to DPI, some who signed it were questioned by UNCA. When people join FUNCA, they are targeted, most often anonymously. (By contrast, these exposes are on the record, and have been limited to those who control UNCA, not the regular members.) Co-founder Luiz Rampelotto's work was stolen by the trolls. So@FUNCA_info proceeds as it does. We'll have more on this. 

The anonymous commenter says Inner City Press has been accusing Reuters and AFP. But the documents were released under the Freedom of Information Act by the Voice of America and its Broadcast Board of Governors.

Voice of America tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN (letter of VOA's Steve Redisch to the UN's Stephane Dujarric, here); VOA documents say they had the support of Reuters (here) and AFP (here).

Also, Reuters' bureau chief Louis Charbonneau gave an anti-Press internal UNCA document to the UN's Dujarric three minutes after promising not to do so. Story here, audio here,document here.  Reuters bigwigs including Stephen J. Adler have been made aware of all this and have done nothing.

  These are documents, which MediaBistro had when it published its expose. Anonymous trolling can't answer why UNCA's first vice president Lou Charbonneau of Reuters gave an internal UNCA document to UN Accreditation official Dujarric. 

  UNCA has not addressed it, Dujarric and DPI have not. What is UNCA's role with the UN - to spy for it? To give internal documents against other journalists - in that case, one elected to UNCA's Executive Committee?

  AFP's Tim Witcher filed a complaint with UN Security leading with how Inner City Press asked a question of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping. This is on the record. And there's more. Watch this site.