Sri Lanka Uses Zeid's Pushback to Ban Probe, As Kohona's Landlord Giampaolo Pioli Did, UN Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 9 -- On Sri Lanka at UN headquarters in New York the disinterest and delegation continue. On November 3, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman about Sri Lanka's allegations about "blank human rights complaint forms." There was no substantive answer; four days later, it was Prince Zeid from Geneva who spoke out.

   And now the Sri Lankan government has predictably shot back, blaming Zeid's statement for what they were already doing: banning the human rights investigators.

Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha has written to Zeid, "This type of action on your part would regrettably constrain constructive engagement which the Government of Sri Lanka has consistently sought to pursue." Right.

  In UN headquarters this is pattern used by the United Nations Correspondents Association under Giampaolo Pioli. 

  When Inner City Press reported as context for Pioli's unilateral decision grant an "UNCA" screening for Sri Lanka's war crimes denial film "Lies Agreed To" that Pioli had rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Aryashinha's counterpart in New York Palitha Kohona, Pioli said take the story off the Internet or he would get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.

  When Inner City Press complained about this attempt at censorship, by a group that was ostensibly supposed to defend journalists and freedom of the press, these complaints including sent in writing to the private owners of Pioli's listed employers QUOTIDIANO NAZIONALE/LA NAZIONE/Il Resto del Carlino / IL GIORNO, Poligrafici Editoriale S.p.A. via Stefania Dal Rio, and to Voice of America -- 

this was used as the excuse to, yes, try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.  Here is Voice of America's letter, for which it said it had the support of AFP andReuters, which then moved to censor its own anti-Press complaint to the UN, here.

  Writing to QUOTIDIANO NAZIONALE/LA NAZIONE/Il Resto del Carlino / IL GIORNO, Poligrafici Editoriale S.p.A. was said, by Voice of America, to havethese companies "preparing a libel lawsuit" -- never filed. It was only meant to silence and censor. And now Pioli reappears, annointed by two year figure head Pamela Falk, to take the helm again at UNCA, become not the UN Correspondents Association but rather the UN's Censorship Alliance.

   In 2009 it was Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who went on the Rajapaksas' victory tour of the bloodbath on the beach. Some of Inner City Press' coverage is here.

 In 2011 Sri Lanka's denial of war crimes, “Lies Agreed To,” was screened inside the UN, hosted by the then-president of UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance.

On November 3, Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about a new development, transcript here:

Inner City Press: In Sri Lanka, a newspaper has reported that the Government is searching people down for having “blank human right complaints forms” to the inquiry of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. And since, obviously, there are people who are now charged with this and on the run, I wanted to know: Can you state from this podium or sometime today, are there even… do such forms even exist? Is there a blank form for this inquiry? And if so--

Spokesman Dujarric: I don't know. You may want to refer that question to the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights here.

Inner City Press: Okay. Even if it were to exist, should people be hunted down for having these forms?

Spokesman Dujarric: Obviously, I can't tell you… I don't know of the existence of these forms or whether there is a police action against it. Obviously, it's important that people have the right to cooperate, should they wish, with any UN human rights investigation

The article is easy to find; it is in The Island, which got leaked one of Ban Ki-moon's wan reports on Sri Lanka. But eight hours later, nothing. 

 In the interim, the previous president of UNCA Giampaolo Pioli, who when Inner City Press reported on his screening of Rajapaksa's war crimes denial film and the fact that Pioli previously rented one of his apartments to Palitha Kohona, still Sri Lanka's Ambassador, tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, made a new move.

  Pioli is positioning himself to again head UNCA, posting his name as the only candidate, endorsed by Pamela Falk of CBS who filled in for his for two years. UNCA has not been reformed in any way since its kangaroo proceeding against Inner City Press resulted in death threats.

  Inner City Press submitted requests under the US Freedom of Information Act to Voice of America, whoseMargaret Basheer wrote at the time that the newspaper of UNCA's president -- Pioli -- was preparing to sue Inner City Press for libel for the entirely true report that Pioli rented real estate to Kohona -- pictured below with Pioli and Shavendra Silva.

 It was pure intimidation and big media abuse, an attempt to censor. Inner City Press raised the death threats from Sri Lanka to Pioli's private held newspaper in Italy -- which allows Pioli to, for example, make campaign contributions to politicians he is supposedly covering -- resulting in yet more threats of litigation, attempts to intimidate and censor. There are more more documents obtained under FOIA, and audio clips, most not yet published.

Since then, Inner City Press quit UNCA and co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access. But Ban Ki-moon's UN continues to prop up its UN Censorship Alliance, giving it a big room for free to hold screenings in, setting aside all first questions for it, using it to pretend to be doing a good job on press freedom and such issues as Sri Lanka war crimes. We'll have more on this.

   

Ignoring Syria Scoops, Pioli's UNCA Tries to Pick 2 More Hanging Judges

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 -- As Press inquiries continued Sunday into the UN's leaked notice Friday that its Syria mission was limiting its "mobile activities," the UN Correspondents Association Executive Committee and President Giapaolo Pioli was engaged in trying to replace the second resigning member of the "Board of Examination" they established to investigate Inner City Press with an eye toward expelling it.

   The first of Pioli's five Examiners to resign was unilaterally replaced on June 15. By whom? By a close friend of a disgruntedly former UN reporter who recently resurrected a complaint about Press reporting of French mission briefings. 

  His offer of testimony is implicitly connected to an attempt to get another UN reporting job and return to New York. In the Wild West, now on the far East Side of Manhattan, this is called a hanging judge.

   But, tellingly, on June 15 a second examiner resigned, concluding that a mediated solution has become unlikely. Pioli has demanded a blanket apology for Inner City Press' factual reporting that Pioli rented his apartment to Palitha Kohona, now the Sri Lankan ambassador whose request to screen a war crimes denial film Pioli granted without consulting other Executive Committee members including Inner City Press.

  In order to tone down the death threats from Sri Lankan extremists triggered by the UNCA proceeding, Inner City Press offered a balanced clarification. 

  But Pioli has demanded, among other things, that Inner City Press "guarantee that [any] future coverage of the UN" not even mention "other UN correspondents" - including, of course, him. This is censorship.

  But even on Sunday, amid questions raised by Inner City Press' world exclusive of the Syria shut down notice to the Security Council by the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, led by the fourth Frenchman in a row Herve Ladsous, Pioli and this five big media entourage continued to try to push forward with their Board of Examination.

   Now the second resignee is proposed to be replaced by an individual who has already expressed a view of the outcome of the case. No jury would include such a person; nor should this UNCA Board of Examination, already a charade and kangaroo court. The individual has been informed of the threats triggered by the Board Pioli's asked him to join as a hanging judge. Now what?

  If it goes forward -- and under the most basic principles of protecting journalists, which UNCA's Constitution claims it does -- then the Examiners should be journalism ethics professors. Let them judge what the problem is: truthful reporting, or a journalist renting his apartment to people he purports to cover. 

  Or, as in the case of Pioli, also making campaign contributions to a politician he writes about for the Poligrafici Editoriale Group and its Quotidiano Nazionale, La Nazione, Il Resto de Carlino, Il Giorno and, yes, Quotidiano.net?

   And we are still waiting for a response to formal question put to Pioli's hand-picked chairman, about conflicts and junkets, beyond his one-line answer that he worked for UPI for fifty years. Watch this site.

Amid ICP Scoops, Big Media UNCA Kangaroo Court Shrinks, Asks Censorship

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 16, update here -- Reporting on any beat like the UN can be competitive. But there have to be bounds: large competitors should be collude to seek to expel and deny access to smaller, scrappier media.

  But at the UN, big media representatives on the UN Correspondents Association Executive Committee -- including from Reuters, Bloomberg, AFP, Voice of America and Al Arabiya -- led by Giampaolo Pioli of Italy's Poligrafici Editoriale Group, have set up a five member Board of Examination to investigate and seek to expel the smaller Inner City Press.

  On the afternoon of June 15, a second of the five members resigned, explicitly because he tried but could not see any mediated solution. On June 14, Pioli used UNCA's e-mail list serve to circulate including quickly to UN diplomats a letter denouncing Inner City Press (without letting it reply), spinning the first resignation. And now?

  Pioli is demanding, after Inner City Press reporting that he rented his apartment to Palitha Kohona and later granted Kohona's request to screen in the UN a war crimes denial film by his Sri Lankan government, that Inner City Press issue a blanket apology and resign.

Most troubling, Pioli's proposed solution involves him dictating what Inner City Press writes and publishes about in the future. Pioli has proposed, orally and now in writing, that Inner City Press "guarantee that [any] future coverage of the UN" not even mention "other UN correspondents" - including, of course, him.

  On June 15, Inner City Press obtained and exclusively published a UN Secretariat memo to the members of the Security Council saying that the UN mission in Syria would "limit mobile activities." 

  Because both have this year been among those making uncredited use of Inner City Press exclusive, Inner City Press sent notice of its scoop, before 11 pm, to the highest levels of Reuters and Bloomberg News.

  Reuters UN correspondent Louis Charbonneau has told Inner City Press that he has not credited Inner City Press for the last year, including in his role in Reuters May 21 re-reporting of Inner City Press' March 28 scoop that Jeffrey Feltman would come to head the UN Department of Political Affairs.

  Bloomberg's UN correspondent Flavia Krause-Jackson has repeatedly said that even if Inner City Press clearly publishes a story first, then asks about it, Bloomberg can use any answer to Inner City Press' question as if it were it own, without credit. 

 (Ironically, Charbonneau and Krause-Jackson, along with AFP's Tim Witcher and Pioli's hand-picked chairman William M. Reilly with obvious conflicts of interest are among the people for whom a blanket apology from Inner City Press is demanded in Pioli's proposal.)

  So Inner City Press noticed Bloomberg's Matthew Winkler, and Reuters Stephen J. Adler plus three, before 11 pm on June 15.

  After Inner City Press at 6 pm on June 16 asked the spokesmen for Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan -- both formerly from Reuters -- to comment on the eight hour old scoop, their response was to have UNSMIS General Robert Mood belatedly issue a statement with the contents of the notice to the Security Council that Inner City Press had already reported and published.

  Both Bloomberg and Reuters reported Mood's statement with no background or credit, as did Voice of America, first by UN correspondent Margaret Besheer then by VOA "blog." We'll have more on this.

   It is UN Correspondent Association president Pioli and his demands amid all this that are causing the most trouble, including now simultaneous admonishments and reneging on renewing Inner City Press' accreditation by Ban Ki-moon's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit.

Forget for a moment Pioli renting his apartment to a person he ostensibly covers objectively, then not recusing himself from and irregularly granting this person's request to screen inside the UN a war crimes denial film.

   Consider, as Inner City Press reported on and documented last weekend, Pioli's public campaign contributions of at least $950 in the last election cycle to a politician whom Pioli is covering this year. http://watchingamerica.com/News/156060/obama-vs-romney-a-challenge-over-taxes/ By any standard, at least in the United States if not at Pioli's Poligrafici Editoriale Group, Quotidiano Nazionale, La Nazione, Il Resto de Carlino and Il Giorno, this is unethical.

   And yet, despite all this, it is Inner City Press that is under fire, for reporting facts, for reporting faster than the wire services, and for example for bringing into the UN a Nobel Peace Prize winner like Yemen's Tawakkol Karman rather than, like Pioli's UNCA, an alleged war criminal like Sri Lanka general Shavendra Silva, now an adviser to Ban Ki-moon. Only at the UN - watch this site.