At UN, As Davutoglu Opens Turkish Lounge, Press Squeezed, Attacks by UNCA, UN Cowardice Association

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 17 -- Turkey's foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu came to the UN on Friday night, for the ceremonial opening of what's called the "Turkish Lounge" outside the renovated Security Council. Inner City Press photos here & here.

  He spoke about Turkey's desire to make Istanbul a "UN city," and to have a big UN building. He did not mention that this hyped up Turkish Lounge is taking over a space the press used to have access to, to actually cover the Security Council.

FM Davutoglu, DSG Eliasson, Turkish PM, (c) MRLee

  Inner City Press, which has raised the issue to numerous ambassadors both for itself closely covering the Council and for the new Free UN Coalition for Access, asked UN Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein about the issue back on April 25, video here, and see below.

  At the May 17 reception, Inner City Press raised the issue in detail to the affable Permanent Representative of the UK, Mark Lyall Grant, and to the Deputy Permanent Representative of one of the UK's largest former colonies. Both indicated that a table for the press to work at should not be impossible. But will it happen?

  Meanwhile this month's UN leader of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation told Inner City Press about a meeting earlier in the day about the Rohingya, predicted there would be more action for them. One can only hope.

  A person with close knowledge of the Turkish Mission said it is no longer up to Turkey what happens with their lounge; that the UN Department of Public Information has said it will depend on complaints by Security Council members. But that would be lowest common denominator: the most press unfriendly would win.

  Back on April 25, Adlerstein told Inner City Press, “we offered a series of rooms for gifting,” based on a resolution by the General Assembly.”

  Of the Security Council stakeout Adlerstein continued, “One of the areas we offered,” which he said “used to be a coffee bar... the Turks asked for that area. They furnished it, their architect came in.”

  Inner City Press asked, who decided that the press would not have the same access it had before?

  Adlerstein paused; there was laughter. Inner City Press said, “It's a press conference” -- albeit about the re-opening of the Trusteeship Council Chamber.

  Adlerstein then told Inner City Press, “this was a discussion which is still ongoing. As the building opens, I think that dialogue with the press will evolve.”

  While Inner City Press didn't say it, the UN's dialogue on press access, accreditation and other matters can no longer by limited to the old UN Correspondents' Association.

  UNCA has been ineffectual; worse, it has tried to get the UN to throw out media that the wire services that dominate the UNCA Executive Committee don't like. 

Charbonneau of Reuters & UNCA shakes with Ban: on what? (c) Luiz Rampelotto of FUNCA 

  That was Margaret Besheer of Voice of America, who wrote that Reuters (Louis Charbonneau) and Agence France Presse (Tim Witcher) supported here. Bloomberg did, but then was ordered off (it didn't stick). Pam Falk of CBS came in and defended all this, and worse. On the record audio here, and here, and here.

Pamela Falk of CBS & UNCA, courtesy UNTV

  Those individuals were present Friday night, some of them fresh off anonymous social media attacks on smaller media. That is disgusting, and triggers this footnote and soon more. UNCA has become, at least at the level of the Executive Committee, the UN's Censorship Alliance. 

  Despite DPI knowing full well of UNCA's turn into censorship and anonymous attacks, they are given a large prominent space that others cannot use.  And, with their increasing and unchecked use of anonymity, the UN Cowardice Association. Even on this issue which they claimed to be working on, they cannot be relied on. Watch this site.

As UN Bungles Press Move-Back, No Keys, Wi-Fi or TV, Tells Only Its UN Censorship Alliance, FUNCA Protests

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 --That this UN can't solve problems from Syria to Guinea Bissau is reflected closer to home in the bungled move-back of the UN press corps to the Secretariat building.

It was delayed for months, then set to occur on May 10. But when the day arrived, there were still no keys for the offices being moved back to. 

  (There were also extensive complaints that the largest and most private offices were granted to the Executive Committee members of the UN Correspondents Association, a questionable and questioned grouping with which the UN exclusively and secretly negotiated office assignments.)

  Journalists were told that a new television system called EZTV would replace the old cable system. But as of May 10, when Inner City Press tried the referenced eztv.un.org, it did not work. Nor did the wi-fi in the third floor press area.

  Now on the Sunday before the Monday "move in," the UN has offered apologies not to the entire press corps, but only to UNCA Executive Committee insiders, trying to use them who have been so well served by this secretive planning to molify others.

  By no means all UN correspondents are represented by UNCA, despite recent false statements by UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS, broadcast propaganda-like on UNTV in the UN's lobby, to the contrary.

  Falk's Rasputin-like First Vice President, Louis Charbonneau of Reuters last seen palling around with UN official Stephane Dujarric in the UN lobby, has been move involved in trying to get the Press thrown out of the UN, as recently as March 8 of this year, than with any protection of press rights at the UN. 

  

The Free UN Coalition for Access notes that Reuters grabbed for itself a private office with five spots (for two people) while another wire service got pushed with two other media. Maybe that explains Reuters' increasingly bogus UN coverage.

  So where is the on the record mea culpa to all UN correspondents? Journalists were told to turn in their keys to their former cubicles and move on May 13. But it is not ready, and there are no keys to the new spaces. Investigative journalists have commitments to their sources, and will not leave any records unlocked. 

 (The UN's Department of Public Information conducted a non-consensual raid on March 18 on the cubicle Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access, but both fought back, countered in anonymous leaking and comments by UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance.)

This is UN incompetence, and perhaps more. FUNCA has written to the chief of the UN Department of Public Information requesting his explanation. Watch this site.

Footnote: amid all this, UNCA's Executive Committee has continued and increased its campaign of anonymous social media posts, of which UN's DPI is intimately aware. It has gotten worse and worse in 2013 and we will have more on, and in response, to this.

Silent on Murder of Peacekeepers, UN's Herve Ladsous Resurfaces in Lebanon, Feted by UNCA's L'Orient Le Jour

By Matthew Russell Lee, Media Critique

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 -- After refusing to answer Press questions about the murder of UN peacekeepers he is responsible for in Abyei and the Congo, where in the worldis French Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous?

  From L'Orient Le Jour we learn, in a gushing article, that Ladsous in is Lebanon, inspecting the troops. The article, while dated May 13 (that is, Monday) does not even mention the belated freeing of four UN peacekeepers kidnapped by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, after the intervention of Qatar, said to have great influence with the kidnappers.

  Ladsous routinely refuses to answer Press questions. Video here. After the two recent peacekeeper deaths in Abyei and Congo he did not even do a question and answer stakeout as his predecessor Alain Le Roy invariably did in such situations.

  No mention of that in L'Oriente Le Jour: it's a pure spin article, making Ladsous look artificially good as for example Agence France Presse does.

  And there's a connection: L'Orient Le Jour, like AFP, is represented on and uses the UN Correspondents Association Executive Board.

  In fact, it was L'Orient Le Jour's representative on the UNCA board who, when shown Sri Lanka state media articles saying that UNCA's charges would result in jail time for Inner City Press' reporter, and then threats to said reporter to "float like a brick," said "this has nothing to do with me." Doesn't it?

Footnote: Since the campaign involving UNCA Executive Committee and its officer from L'Orient Le Jour has evolved into ever more frequent use of anonymous social media posts that UNCA's "new" president Pamela Falk of CBS has done nothing about, audio here, and apparently cheers on, it's worth noting the above. That's it for now.

UN Free Press Travesty As UNCA's Falk Spins As Her Trolls Trigger Death Threats, Defend Ladsous

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 2 -- The UN is often in denial, if not stupor. When Kurt Waldheim was Secretary General, many in the UN said nothing. His portrait is still hanging, as if nothing happened.

  As a smaller level, but pertinent on this World Press Freedom Day, the UN on May 2 along with journalists from South Sudan and Mexico put on its panel the head of an organization, the UN Correspondents Association, which it knows spent most of its meetings in 2012 trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN.

  That, of course, is inconsistent with press freedom and the protection of journalist -- in fact, when the UNCA Executive Committee was shown that its kangaroo court proceeding was leading to death threats from Sri Lankan extremists, they didn't care, but rather stepped up the proceedings.

  While at the time the UN repeatedly tried to say it had nothing to do with the proceeding and didn't know what UNCA was doing, it did: Voice of America wrote to the UN's Stephane Dujarric seeking the review of the accreditation of Inner City Press.

Freedom of Information Act requests, ongoing, to VOA have yielded documents showing that VOA said Reuters and Agence France Presse supported the attack on the Press; Bloomberg would have, but its lawyers said to back off. Dujarric set up a channel outside of his UN email address to field complaints.

AFP's Tim Witcher, photo by UNTV

  In 2013, specious complaints against the Press have been filed by AFP's Tim Witcher (on behalf of UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous, whose abuse is Witcher's first complaint) and Reuters' Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau, UNCA's first vice president.

Charbonneau - stealth complaint here - and Ban, (c) Luiz Rampelotto

  UNCA's president for 2013, Pamela Falk of CBS, screamed at Inner City Press in front of Dujarric and others in DPI, made legal threats and took photographs at DPI's March 18 raid on Inner City Press' office. Falk audio here and here and here.

Pam Falk, photos for CBS or UNCA? This photo by UNTV

 So the UN knows all of this -- but put UNCA's Falk on its World Press Freedom Day panel. It was a travesty. As Falk spoke, Inner City Press put online several of the documents it obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

And what was the response? UNCA's troll army, Falk's trolls are they're now known, kept up a stream of anonymous social media posts, making false claims about funding of the type that they know led to death threats in 2012, and calling the posting of US government documents obtained under FOIA, which make them look back, "cyber bullying."

 Criticism is fine; but when big media corporation are so cowardly as to go anonymous this way, this is and will be the response.

  DPI knows these UNCA trolls; Reuters has been shown of its involvement. Yes no one does anything. Joel Simon of CPJ was there; in a brief conversation Inner City Press raised again to him the documents obtained under FOIA. And what?

  Joel Simon heard, on his panel, that UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous won't answer Press questions because he doesn't like how he is covered, including on his role in 1994, as France's Deputy Permanent Representative, during the Rwanda genocide. Is this press freedom? No, this is the UN, and its UN Censorship Alliance. Watch this site.

For Covering Beheadings of Assad Supporters by Syrian Opposition, UNCA Troll Calls Inner City Press Pro-Assad, Anonymously Of Course: UN Cowardice Association

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 1 -- From Reuters, Agence France Presse and Voice of America they went, from the UN to the Russian Mission on 67th Street at 5 pm on Tuesday, to watch a war reporter from Russian state media make an argument about Syria with slides.

  Depicted were beheadings and stories of mass rape -- this time by the armed opposition and not just the government. There was several reports of civilians accused of being pro Assad getting kidnapped, tortured and killed, in one case cut into 18 pieces.

  There was a time for questions; all but Agence France Presse asked something.

Inner City Press asked the reporter, Anastasia Popova, on what basis she said the chemical weapons used at Khan al-Asal were from the opposition. Eyewitnesses, she said. They told her the Free Syrian Army did it. Inner City Press also asked about media bias, a topic which Popova touched on, specifically criticizing Reuters along with Al Jazeera.

Afterward from a Starbucks on Third Avenue on the way toanother event, Inner City Press wrote a quick story, noting that some said Popova's interviewees had been tortured and that UN probers from Paulo Pinheiro directly to chemical weapons investigator Sellstrom by omission had ignored what information Popova gathered in eight months in Syria.

Without including the names of the correspondents, Inner City Press noted -- because it was part of the story -- that "many in the audience were from Western media -- Reuters, Agence France Presse, Voice of America. Their questions were cagey: how did Popova get access to the opposition, since they hate Russia? Didn't she admit that at first the Syrian opposition was peaceful, popular and for democracy? (She didn't)."

Seven hours later, at two in the morning, an anonymous social media account associated with the UN Correspondents Association's Executive Committee opined -- unlike Inner City Press, concealing the author -- on Inner City Press' "excellent pro Assad propaganda, it's good you show your true colors and let us know who your sponsors are."

  We're all for snarky commentary; free speech includes even such a baseless allegation that whoever disagrees with you must be taking money.

  But it is shameful that big media scribes would have so little courage that they would hide their identity as trolls.

  These same have alternately claimed Inner City Press is in the pay of Rwanda, or of a defunct Sri Lanka terrorist group (this UNCA allegation gave rise to death threats - thanks!)

The more recent account is followed by another which calls itself the German Mission to the UN; that Mission has twice declined to state if this follower with its name is, in fact, affiliated with the German government."

  This account has included photographs taken in a room behind the UN Security Council stakeout; it has explicitly defended Reuters when Inner City Press, on the record, critiqued a story.

  Reuters including top editor Stephen J. Adler, its "social media editor" and top columnist have been shown links between Reuters correspondent Michelle Nichols and these anonymous troll social media accounts -- but they have done nothing.

  The UN's Department of Public Information, which convened a February 22 meeting involving Inner City Press, for the Free UN Correspondents Association, and UNCA's president Pamela Falk and first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, heard of the fake social media accounts, one of which recently quoted approvingly a narrow definition of journalism put online by DPI's Stephane Dujarric. But nothing has been done.

It's come to this. Watch this site.

UN Silent as Iraq Suspends TV Licenses, Burundi Cracks Down, As in UNHQ, Raids and Scams

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 -- What has the UN become on press freedom? In Iraq, where the UN has a special political mission, the government has suspended the licenses of ten television channels. Any response by the UN? Not yet.

  If the past is any guide, this UN Secretariat will wait to see what major powers -- read, the US -- has to say about it. But what about Burundi, where the UN also has a mission, and on which major powers are unlikely to say anything?

  Last week the Burundian parliament passed an anti-press law, limiting the subjects that can be covered and the protection of sources. The UN Secretariat said nothing. Today, a journalist Patrick-Paggio Niyonkuru was shot by police.Video here. UN? Anything? Why ask why.

The UN has not responded to Inner City Press' question at the April 24 noon briefing about journalist Blaise Bahisha being arrested in Goma by the Congolese authorities. There was no “if-asked” from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous.

On April 23 in the UN Committee on Information, UNESCO spoke of a UN Plan to protect journalists, which would be much needed. Not enough has been said about the editor in Mali facing charges for reporting on the windfall to coup leader Amadou Sanago. 

  It's unclear what the UN did while a reporter was in danger in Central African Republic recently. And what of Prageeth, disappeared in Sri Lanka? These are only examples.

  As noted on May 2, for World Press Freedom Day, the UN is holding an event. But beyond the contradiction listed above, the event itself has false notes. On the panel is the spokesman for DPKO chief Herve Ladsous, Kieran Dwyer. 

 Not only has Ladsous openly refused to answer Press questions, for example about 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partner -- his spokesman Kieran Dwyer has said, on camera, that Inner City Press questions will not be answered. What respect for freedom of the press? Dwyer and Ladsous did this again on April 25. Video here.

  Also on the panel, seemingly automatically but we'd say inappropriately, is Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of the UN Correspondents Association. Earlier this year, while the UN conducted a non-consensual raid on the Press' office, Falk was ghoulishly taking photographs. Then she issued a legal threat, through her CBSNews.com e-mail account, to “cease and desist” even asking why she was taking photographs. Freedom of the press?

  The UN Department of Public Information conducted the raid; photographs taken while it was in control of Inner City Press' office, including photos of the Press' desk and bookshelf, were shared and leaked to BuzzFeed right after that publication contacted Ban Ki-moon's spokesman to ask about the raid. 

  DPI has been asked by the Free UN Coalition for Access to explain and make full disclosure on this, as a way of moving forward. We continue to wait.

  UNCA, as noted, spent much of 2012 trying to get the Press thrown out of the UN. Just last month, one of its Executive Committee members Tim Witcher filed a false complaint with the UN, leading with the claim that Inner City Press' question to Ladsous on March 8 about the Minova rapes as “abusive.” Also on the May 2 panel is Joel Simon of CPJ - which has a blind spot.

UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters complained as well this year, about the content of Inner City Press' website - to UN Security. To try to use Security forces against a media for its content? This from UNCA's first vice president. Some freedom of the press. Some event.

  Also as we noted, May 2 will have a more reform-minded event. Now it can be said: the “Small Five” on Security Council will rise again, as ACT: Accountability, Coherence and Transparency. We'll have more on this.

UN Protection of Journalists Absent in DRC, S. Sudan, Sri Lanka: Hypocrisy at UN Headquarters on May 2

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 -- The UN says much about protecting journalists, but what does it do? It has a peacekeeping mission in the Congo -- but when journalist Blaise Bahisha was arrested in Goma by the Congolese authorities, the UN's partner, the UN said nothing.

Inner City Press on April 24 asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky about Bahisha's arrest, but there was no response, no “if-asked” from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous.

  While time did not permit at the April 24 noon briefing, Inner City Press had planned to ask about DPKO's silence in South Sudan, where it has a mission, even as Lakes State governor Mabor Achol Kuer says said, “those who are writing negatively about this state government will be crucified like Jesus Christ if we capture them.”

The UN Mission is closely aligned with the South Sudan government; there has been no response to this threat to “crucify” journalists.

  On April 23 in the UN Committee on Information, UNESCO spoke of a UN Plan to protect journalists, which would be much needed.

  It's unclear what the UN did while a reporter was in danger in Central African Republic recently. And what of Prageeth, disappeared in Sri Lanka? These are only examples.

.

Not enough has been said about the editor in Mali facing charges for reporting on the windfall to coup leader Amadou Sanago. 

  And now on May 2, for World Press Freedom Day, the UN is holding an event. But beyond the contradiction listed above, the event itself has false notes. 

  On the panel is the spokesman for DPKO chief Herve Ladsous. Not only has Ladsous openly refused to answer Press questions, for example about 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partner -- his spokesman Kieran Dwyer has said, on camera, that Inner City Press questions will not be answered. What respect for freedom of the press. What a joke.

  Also on the panel, seemingly automatically but we'd say inappropriately, is Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of the UN Correspondents Association. Earlier this year, while the UN conducted a non-consensual raid on the Press' office, Falk was ghoulishly taking photographs. 

  Then Falk issued a legal threat, through her CBSNews.com e-mail account, to “cease and desist” even asking why she was taking photographs. Freedom of the press?

  The UN Department of Public Information conducted the raid; photographs taken while it was in control of Inner City Press' office, including photos of the Press' desk and bookshelf, were shared and leaked to BuzzFeed right after that publication contacted Ban Ki-moon's spokesman to ask about the raid. 

  DPI has been asked again by the Free UN Coalition for Access to explain and make full disclosure on this, as a way of moving forward. We are waiting.

  UNCA, as noted and documented by ongoing Freedom of Information requests, spent much of 2012 trying to get the Press thrown out of the UN. Just last month, one of its Executive Committee members Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse filed a false complaint with the UN, leading with the claim that Inner City Press' question to Ladsous on March 8 about the Minova rapes as “abusive.” Also on the May 2 panel is Joel Simon of CPJ - which has a blind spot.

  UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters complained as well this year, about the content of Inner City Press' website - to UN Security. To try to use Security forces against a media for its content? This from UNCA's first vice president. Some freedom of the press. Some May 2 event. (There's slated to be another, more reform minded event on May 2). We'll have more on this.

At UN, Elusive Ban Silent on Minova Rapes, Lawless Cholera Denial, Consultant on Censorship?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 17 -- When Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held a half hour press conference on Wednesday, his first at the UN since January 22, his answers said little but were also misleading.

  Only one of the eight selected questions even mentioned Africa, 70% of the Security Council's workload. Ban was asked about the Eastern Congo, but not a word about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partners, covered up for four months by his head of Peacekeeping, Herve Ladsous. Nov 27, Dec 7, Dec 18

  In South Sudan, four Russian pilots and now five Indian peacekeepers have been killed, again under the watch of Ladsous. But nothing asked, or said.

  Likewise nothing on Ban's terse and lawless dismissal, since his last press conference, of the legal claims of 5000 people killed by cholera the UN's said to have brought into Haiti. Some rule of law.

  Ban was asked repeatedly about Lakhdar Brahimi, is he or isn't he quitting. As one Permanent Representative in front of the Security Council asked Inner City Press, what does it matter? Ban is irrelevant.

  Recently in connection with the complaints of retaliated-against UN whistleblower James Wasserstrom, it emerged that Ban had not even responded to correspondence from the Government Accountability Program, an expert in the field. But Wednesday Ban said he has commissioned a report from an outside consultant. This is a time-worn way to avoid reform. And so it goes in Ban's UN.

The first question was given to Pamela Falk of CBS for UNCA, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance. Also since Ban's last press conference, his Department of Public Information conducted a non-consensual raid on Inner City Press' office, rifled through papers and took photos.

The photos were leaked to BuzzFeed through an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail address right after BuzzFeed asked Ban's spokesman about the raid.

   During the raid, UNCA's Falk took pictures -- then issued a legal threat to Inner City Press not to ask about it, using her CBSNews.com e-mail. Like we said, UN's Censorship Alliance.

Week After UN Raid of Press Office, Anonymous Cheers from UN Cowardice Association, UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 -- Eight days ago the UN raided Inner City Press' office; the president of the UN Correspondents Association Pamela Falk of CBS News took photographs.

  Now the two are blaming each other for being a party to the anonymous and totally improper transfer to BuzzFeed of photos taken inside the Press office during the raid, photos of the stacks of documents that at least the UN personnel were searching.

  Belatedly on March 25 the UN's Stephane Dujarric admitted to Inner City Press that “we recognize that you should have been called before entering your part of the shared office.”

  Since the desk photograph was taken from the Inner City Press part of the office, without Inner City Press present or even notified, the logical corollary of the admission is the need to disclose which individuals were brought or allowed into that position by the UN, which took photographs, and what they did with them.

  The response of Pam Falk of CBS and UNCA has been to make a legal threat to Inner City Press about even questioning her role. So what of the rest of UNCA, or of the other members of its Executive Committee?

  There is a reason, beyond anonymous social media accountsand comments, that UNCA is now becoming known as the UN Cowardice Association. What kind of media organization says nothing -- cheers and takes pictures actually -- when a journalist's office is raided and searched without notice or consent? This kind:

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

  FUNCA has proposed, or is demanding, these two (additional) changes to the Media Access Guidelines which UNCA agreed to with the UN, and which provide no due process or other protections:

"Even if the UN determines that it must enter an accredited correspondent's office under what it seemed to be an emergency, the UN must immediately notify the correspondent and allow them access to witness the entry and what is done inside.

"Even if for some reason the UN determines to take photographs inside the journalist's office, it is prohibited for the UN to share the photographs with UN personnel without a strictly interpreted 'need to know,' and it is strictly prohibited for the UN to share the photographs with any non-UN person."

  UNCA, at least its Executive Committee, have done nothing. Apparently they like having no rules, or would like to have a rule which would allow them to throw out of the UN anyone they (don't) like. But anonymously, of course! That's why it's the UN Cowardice Association. Watch this site.

Here's from the UN's transcript of its March 25 noon briefing:

Inner City Press: Last Monday, 18 March, the UN entered my office, they said it was full of trash, they didn’t call me — fine. They took photographs, and it is my understanding that they gave the photographs to other journalists here who they know have sought my exclusion and expulsion from the UN, and that these photographs then in turn appeared on the BuzzFeed website on Friday. So I wanted to know very clearly, putting aside for a moment whether when they enter a journalist’s office, they should provide at least notice to the journalist, by what possible right will the UN distribute photographs to non-UN persons?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: I think you have had an answer from Stéphane Dujarric on this.

Inner City Press: He said only that the UN did not provide them to BuzzFeed and Pam Falk of UNCA [United Nations Correspondents Association] has denied that she provided them, although she was allowed to take photographs. So it is clear they are UN photographs. And I know for a fact that DPI [Department of Public Information] showed the photographs to other journalists here. So, the Stéphane answer doesn’t cut it. All it says is that they didn’t give it. So there is a middle man. But the question is, what is the right of UN journalists not to have their own office entered without their consent, photographed and by what reason and for what purpose will the UN give photographs to another person?

Spokesperson Nesirky: Well, as I say, I think — evidently not to your satisfaction — but Stéphane Dujarric has replied, and I don’t have anything further to say on the matter.

Watch this site.