After UN Eviction of News Agency of Nigeria, UN Tells the Free UN Coalition for Access NAN Can Return, Issues Remain

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 5 -- The UN, which since its founding has assigned office space to media to cover it, threw out the News Agency of Nigeria. Its name was simply cut off the door to what had been its office space. Photo here, by FUNCA member Luiz Rampelotto.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access opposed and opposes the move, particularly since other privileged media have been allowed to leave their assigned offices empty and unused for long periods - the rationale used by the UN.

  Inner City Press on behalf of FUNCA asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it at the June 4 noon briefing, video here, and embedded below. 

  FUNCA also put the question to the UN in writing. Now, the UN has responded to FUNCA that "if a new correspondent is accredited to the UN, the Agency will have a space in the building."  

  A flier FUNCA posted was torn down, by the UN says it didn't remove it. So who did? The UN's Censorship Alliance? They said nothing about NAN's eviction, instead concerned with demanding first questions they do not report upon, and celebrating the large space the UN gives them as actual media are thrown out.

  From the June 4 UN's transcript:

Inner City Press: it seems that in the Central African Republic, where there is a UN Mission, there has been a ban on SMS or text messages directed at seeming a non-violent organization of a protest, so does the UN have any comment or reaction to that? And also, this is in-house, but I wanted to ask if you can explain the loss by the news agency of Nigeria of its office and workspace at the UN given that it’s a major country, they’re on the Security Council. Was there sort of notice given? What’s the process? What’s the reasoning?

Spokesman Dujarric: I don’t know. The process for offices and accreditation is clear, it’s on the website. And you know, you can ask MALU [Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit]. I’m happy to ask for you.

Inner City Press: I know there’s been previous request of sort of due process. Do you believe that that’s been provided in this case?

Spokesman Dujarric: I don’t know the specifics of this case but I have full trust in MALU that due process is followed.

Inner City Press: [UN says “inaudible,” but what was asked was “double standards?”]

Spokesman Dujarric: What is your question Matthew?

Inner City Press: Okay, I guess my question is that it seems that without --

Spokesman Dujarric: No, I think I’ve answered the Nigeria question. If you have another one, I’m happy to…

Inner City Press: The CAR question. Do you have any comment on…

Spokesman Dujarric: No, I’ll check with the Mission. I’ll see if they have said anything on this.

   Nine hours later, despite Dujarric's statement that he was happy to "ask MALU" -- which he previously supervised -- no explanation had received. So FUNCA submitted the question to MALU / DPI - and the response above was received.

  Since the old UN Correspondents Association board, rather than defend media, have shown a willingness to try to get other media thrown out, FUNCA soon after its founding asked the UN to at least be more transparent in its decisions that impact media, including not only accreditation but loss of work space.

  The New York Civil Liberties Union asked the UN to publicly implement due process rights for the journalists which cover it -- but the UN has yet to do so. 

  FUNCA continues to push for this, and for example for the UN to belatedly take some action on French Ambassador Gerard Araud, in the middle of a UN press conference in the UN Press Briefing Room, telling a correspondent, “You are not a journalist, you are an agent.” 

  But the UN would not convey, even in its typically wan fashion, the stated position that correspondents should be treated with respect to Araud or the French Mission to the UN. And UNCA, the UN's Censorship Alliance, "dragged its feet," according to the correspondent to whom Araud said, "You are not a journalist, you are an agent."

  Nigeria is a member of the Security Council; its Permanent RepresentativeJoy Ogwu held ten question and answer stakeouts during her presidency of the Security Council in April. (South Korea held only three stakeouts during its May presidency, by contrast.) So why is the News Agency of Nigeria having its UN work space taken away?

News Agency of Nigeria cut off UN office sign, photo by FUNCA's Luiz Rampelotto of Europa Newswire

  Here is a flier the Free UN Coalition for Access put out, soon after its founding, about double standards (it referred to a previous configuration of offices, over the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library)

FUNCA Asks a Question: Double Standards Much?

The New York Times has an office inside of UN Headquarters. But its door has been closed, without opening, for months. A thick pile of fliers, months old, clogs the doorway. There’s dust everywhere.

But the UN is doing nothing, because it won’t apply its rules equally to all.

In fact, reporters who want to cover the UN are being denied access to UN Headquarters – on the grounds that there’s just not enough space to go around. And Big Media gets handed big offices that some of them never even use.

The UN’s media guidelines say that reporters need to come in the UNHQ three times a week in order to keep their office space. It’s a catch-22: if you don’t have an office, you also can’t get the right kind of press pass that lets you move freely in and out of Headquarters.

And plenty of small newspapers have lost their desks because they couldn’t keep up with the attendance requirement. But of course, these standards aren’t applied across the board: the New York Times hasn’t even opened the door to their space since October.

What kinds of conditions are these? Is it any wonder that we see less and less reporting on international affairs, or that newspapers increasingly rely on wire services for their news? What other options are open to small media?

UN correspondents have launched the Free United Nations Coalition for Access, a group dedicated to guaranteeing equal access for all reporters looking to cover the UN.

We formed FUNCA after a small group of big media – the UN reporters fromReuters, AFP, and Voice of America — banded together to try and dis-accredit Inner City Press, an independent news site that produces tough, watchdog reporting on the UN.

Then the head of the UN’s Peacekeeping Department, Herve Ladsous, announced that he was no longer taking questions from Inner City Press – a policy which he has bizarrely, blithely kept going for months. This means he hasn’t had to answer questions about, say, the UN’s role in allowing rapes in the Congo, or working with the rapists, or in bringing cholera to Haiti. Far from putting pressure on him, most of the UN press corps has sat by silently and let Mr. Ladsous turn a deaf ear to all the tough questions.

FUNCA wants to fill the press freedom vacuum. Right now, we’re advocating along other things for the rights of freelancers who have been denied UN credentials (even as other freelancers have credentials and big offices). We’re pushing more UN officials to give on the record briefings to the press corps. And we now work with journalists around the world, from Somaliland to Colombia to Burundi - and Nigeria.

   Note that despite a commitment that while UNCA maintains a glassed in bulletin board in front of the large office the UN gives it -- while News Agency of Nigeria is thrown out -- FUNCA can post fliers on a separate board, not glassed in, recently these have been torn down, including one about the need for the UN to take action after French Ambassador Araud told a correspondent, “You are not a journalist, your are an agent.” 

  We are inquiring into these flier tear-down, just another form of censorship at the UN. Watch this site.

   

After UN Evicts News Agency of Nigeria, Free UN Coalition for Access Demands Explanation, UNCA Silent: UN's Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 4 -- The UN, which since its founding has assigned office space to media to cover it, has thrown the News Agency of Nigeria out. Its name was simply cut off the door to what had been its office space. Photo here, by FUNCA member Luiz Rampelotto.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access opposes the move, particularly since other privileged media have been allowed to leave their assigned offices empty and unused for long periods - the rationale used by the UN.

  Inner City Press on behalf of FUNCA asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it at the June 4 noon briefing, video here, and embedded below. From the UN's transcript:

Inner City Press: it seems that in the Central African Republic, where there is a UN Mission, there has been a ban on SMS or text messages directed at seeming a non-violent organization of a protest, so does the UN have any comment or reaction to that? And also, this is in-house, but I wanted to ask if you can explain the loss by the news agency of Nigeria of its office and workspace at the UN given that it’s a major country, they’re on the Security Council. Was there sort of notice given? What’s the process? What’s the reasoning?

Spokesman Dujarric: I don’t know. The process for offices and accreditation is clear, it’s on the website. And you know, you can ask MALU [Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit]. I’m happy to ask for you.

Inner City Press: I know there’s been previous request of sort of due process. Do you believe that that’s been provided in this case?

Spokesman Dujarric: I don’t know the specifics of this case but I have full trust in MALU that due process is followed.

Inner City Press: [UN says “inaudible,” but what was asked was “double standards?”]

Spokesman Dujarric: What is your question Matthew?

Inner City Press: Okay, I guess my question is that it seems that without --

Spokesman Dujarric: No, I think I’ve answered the Nigeria question. If you have another one, I’m happy to…

Inner City Press: The CAR question. Do you have any comment on…

Spokesman Dujarric: No, I’ll check with the Mission. I’ll see if they have said anything on this.

   Nine hours later, despite Dujarric's statement that he was happy to "ask MALU" -- which he previously supervised -- no explanation was received. So FUNCA has submitted the question to MALU / DPI.

  Since the old UN Correspondents Association board, rather than defend media, have shown a willingness to try to get other media thrown out, FUNCA soon after its founding asked the UN to at least be more transparent in its decisions that impact media, including not only accreditation but loss of work space.

  The New York Civil Liberties Union asked the UN to publicly implement due process rights for the journalists which cover it -- but the UN has yet to do so. 

  FUNCA continues to push for this, and for example for the UN to belatedly take some action on French Ambassador Gerard Araud, in the middle of a UN press conference in the UN Press Briefing Room, telling a correspondent, “You are not a journalist, you are an agent.” 

  But the UN would not convey, even in its typically wan fashion, the stated position that correspondents should be treated with respect to Araud or the French Mission to the UN. And UNCA, the UN's Censorship Alliance, "dragged its feet," according to the correspondent to whom Araud said, "You are not a journalist, you are an agent."

  Nigeria is a member of the Security Council; its Permanent RepresentativeJoy Ogwu held ten question and answer stakeouts during her presidency of the Security Council in April. (South Korea held only three stakeouts during its May presidency, by contrast.) So why is the News Agency of Nigeria having its UN work space taken away?

News Agency of Nigeria cut off UN office sign, photo by FUNCA's Luiz Rampelotto of Europa Newswire

  Here is a flier the Free UN Coalition for Access put out, soon after its founding, about double standards (it referred to a previous configuration of offices, over the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library)

FUNCA Asks a Question: Double Standards Much?

The New York Times has an office inside of UN Headquarters. But its door has been closed, without opening, for months. A thick pile of fliers, months old, clogs the doorway. There’s dust everywhere.

But the UN is doing nothing, because it won’t apply its rules equally to all.

In fact, reporters who want to cover the UN are being denied access to UN Headquarters – on the grounds that there’s just not enough space to go around. And Big Media gets handed big offices that some of them never even use.

The UN’s media guidelines say that reporters need to come in the UNHQ three times a week in order to keep their office space. It’s a catch-22: if you don’t have an office, you also can’t get the right kind of press pass that lets you move freely in and out of Headquarters.

And plenty of small newspapers have lost their desks because they couldn’t keep up with the attendance requirement. But of course, these standards aren’t applied across the board: the New York Times hasn’t even opened the door to their space since October.

What kinds of conditions are these? Is it any wonder that we see less and less reporting on international affairs, or that newspapers increasingly rely on wire services for their news? What other options are open to small media?

UN correspondents have launched the Free United Nations Coalition for Access, a group dedicated to guaranteeing equal access for all reporters looking to cover the UN.

We formed FUNCA after a small group of big media – the UN reporters fromReuters, AFP, and Voice of America — banded together to try and dis-accredit Inner City Press, an independent news site that produces tough, watchdog reporting on the UN.

Then the head of the UN’s Peacekeeping Department, Herve Ladsous, announced that he was no longer taking questions from Inner City Press – a policy which he has bizarrely, blithely kept going for months. This means he hasn’t had to answer questions about, say, the UN’s role in allowing rapes in the Congo, or working with the rapists, or in bringing cholera to Haiti. Far from putting pressure on him, most of the UN press corps has sat by silently and let Mr. Ladsous turn a deaf ear to all the tough questions.

FUNCA wants to fill the press freedom vacuum. Right now, we’re advocating along other things for the rights of freelancers who have been denied UN credentials (even as other freelancers have credentials and big offices). We’re pushing more UN officials to give on the record briefings to the press corps. And we now work with journalists around the world, from Somaliland to Colombia to Burundi - and Nigeria.

   Note that despite a commitment that while UNCA maintains a glassed in bulletin board in front of the large office the UN gives it -- while News Agency of Nigeria is thrown out -- FUNCA can post fliers on a separate board, not glassed in, recently these have been torn down, including one about the need for the UN to take action after French Ambassador Araud told a correspondent, “You are not a journalist, your are an agent.” 

  We are inquiring into these flier tear-down, just another form of censorship at the UN. 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.

   

Pro-UN Posters Allowed But Dissent To Be Torn Down, Banning Free Speech as Trend: Photos

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 18 -- The UN's lack of respect for free speech is not a static fact: it is becoming worse.

  Earlier this year, just after the formation of the Free UN Coalition for Access was announced on fliers that the UN and members of its UN Censorship Alliance or UNCA repeatedly tore down, the UN e-mailed out a compromise.

  Isabelle Broyer of the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit wrote on January 28, 2013, "As a follow-up to last week information about flyers, members of the press have several ways to communicate with their colleagues, if they would like to share information... paste it onto your own office door."

  But now the same Isabelle Broyer is ordering the removal even of a simple Free UN Coalition Access sign from Inner City Press' office door -- while saying that two UNCA signs can remain up.

  Click here to view the Free UN Coalition for Access sign on Inner City Press' office door, photo by FUNCA member Luiz Rampelotto:

Click here to view the UNCA signs, in front of a large space custom-built and given free to the United Nations Correspondents Association for private events they don't even inform non-UNCA members of. 

  Meanwhile, an UNCA executive committee member given a private office next to Inner City Press' shared office has pro-UN propaganda festooned on his door. Photo here. 

  That is not coming down. The UN targets specific messages, and seeks to ban one dissenting group while propping up another.

  This is true not only of signs. Broyer's supervisor Stephane Dujarric, formerly the spokesperson for the UN Development Program's Helen Clark and before that Kofi Annan, has not only tried to tell Inner City Press how to cover Ban Ki-moon.

   This year, he asked that Inner City Press call him "urgently" about a single tweet which mentioned World War Two, the UN's founding event.

  (It was the victors or not losers in World War Two which got Permanent seats and veto power on the UN Security Council, which France converted under Kofi Annan into ownership of the top job in UN Peacekeeping, now held byHerve Ladsous, mentioned in the tweet, the fourth Frenchman in a row to run DPKO.)

  Meanwhile when an UNCA Executive Committee member tweets for example that Syria's Assad is like Hitler, no call from Dujarric. Likewise that he should end like Gaddafi. 

  Dujarric is only endeavoring to micro-manage some correspondents. He likes UNCA and its (Gulf and Western) leadership; he tries to ban the new Free UN Coalition for Access for them, and for others in the UN. We will have more on this. Watch this site.

In Lawless UN, CBS Pamela Falk's Trolls Akin to Racist EMT Supporters, But UNaccountable through UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- In the past week, an Emergency Medical Technician in New York City Timothy Dluhos was exposed for racist tweets. In response, using anonymous Twitter accounts, his supporters have “trolled” the New York Post reporter who wrote the story.

  By week's end, the New York Police Department issued guidelines about its personnel's use of social media, whether in their own name or anonymously.

  But in another corner of Manhattan not subject to any laws or rules, the UN raid Inner City Press' office on March 18. It allowed the president of the UN Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS, to take photographs. Neither she nor the UN has explained why.

  On March 22 photographs of Inner City Press' office and bookshelf appeared on BuzzFeed, sent in by an anonymous e-mail account “Concerned UN Reporter.” This same commented anonymously on the resulting story, as did what are obviously other UNCA “leaders.”

  The UN has refused to disclose who its Department of Public Information let into Inner City Press' office on March 18 without its knowledge or consent. 

  Pamela Falk from her CBSNews.com e-mail address has issued a legal threat to Inner City Press to not even ask why she took photographs, or UNCA's and her role in passing raid photographs to BuzzFeed.

  This followed Falk screaming at Inner City Press in front of DPI on February 22, saying that to even contact UNCA leaders' big media employers to ask about their policies “might constitute a crime.” Really? What crime?

  The UNCA leaders are now using at least six anonymoussocial media accounts to try to undermine Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access. This trolling is not acted on by UNCA president Pamela Falk -- hereinafter, Queen of the Trolls.

The big media employers of the trollers apparently have no rules, or don't enforce them. This is what happens in a lawless corner of New York -- for now. And it's getting worse. Watch this site.

Footnote: Over on BuzzFeed, the UNCA “leaders” continueanonymous posts (compared yesterday to statements from Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency and Bloomberg's UN reporter. 

  The Brazilian co-founder of the Free UN Coalition for Access Luiz Rampelotto, on the record as his media Europa Newswire and with his photograph, continued his manifesto: “even UNCA have more credability then you if you keep using a fake name to discredit someone! Put up or buzz off! I know! I know! The minute you put your real name, you will be representing your 'Big Media' company and they will fire you.” Watch this site.

After UN Raid, CBS Pam Falk's Anonymous Trolls of UNCA Contrast With Brazilian's On-Record FUNCA Manifesto

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 29 -- While the UN raided Inner City Press' office on March 18, without notice or consent, it allowed Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of the UN Correspondents Association, to take photographs.

  In 2012 this UNCA tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN for stories it published about the fourth French chief of UN Peacekeeping in a row, Herve Ladsous, and about war crimes in Sri Lanka.

  In 2013 under Falk, UNCA has gotten worse, for examplepassing photographs of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf to BuzzFeed though an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail address.

  The UNCA leaders then followed up with anonymous comments under that and other monikers, including “Chocorama,” “UNmediadefend” and “Mundo111,” previously used to send an UNCA letter to the Guardian UK. Click here.

  Yes, Inner City Press has been critical of the UNCA leaders, particularly since the 2012 expulsion attempt. But its critique are on the record, in its name.

  We have previously shown the connection between Mundo111 in 2012 and the 2013 defense of Voice of America in a comment on BuzzFeed.

  But who are the elusive or ashamed UNmediadefend, the exotic Chocorama, the ubiquitous Concerned UN Reporter?

  Chocorama's repeated focus is on how Inner City Press is funded. This question was raised in the UNCA Executive Committee by Denis Fitzgerald, then a “judge” and now, perhaps as a reward, an Executive Committee member at large. Audio here.

  It was and is a strange fixation for Fitzgerald, who while employed by the Saudi Press Agency spend time tweeting and faux blogging about soccer, Ireland and sucking up to the UN how ever possible. 

  While operating as a hatchman in 2012 he said his acts shouldn't be linked to his employer, the Saudi Press Agency. What was that about transparency and (oil) funding?

  Concerned UN Reporter uses a unique phrase, calling Inner City Press a “cyber bully.”

  In the UNCA Executive Committee in 2012, it was Bloomberg News' UN reporter Flavia Krause Jackson who introduced that term. 

  It seemed strange, that publishing on the record a story about how Ladsous got the UN Peacekeeping job, then following up with Agence France Presse tried to get the story condemned or taken down, could be considered “cyber bullying.” But there it is.

  It is understood that Bloomberg News, unlike AFP or Reuters, instructed its UN reporter to stand down from prosecuting and voting against the Press. But Bloomberg has no rules on related anonymous trolling?

  UNmediadefend, in defense of UNCA, insists on its stated 200 members -- out of more than 2000 reporters accredited each year by the UN. Of the listed 200, many have long left the UN, some are retired. But UNmediadefend doesn't care -- and why not, it is anonymous.

  By contrast, Brazilian photographer Luiz Rampelotto of Europa Newswire who co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access commented on BuzzFeed, with name and picture, on the record. That is one of the difference between FUNCA and UNCA, now known as the UN Cowards' Association. There are others.

  A point here is that Falk and the rest have been on notice of anonymous UNCA social media accounts for some time, and have done nothing (except use them).

  A “David Spring” -- NOT his real name -- commented to BuzzFeed that Inner City Press made a reporter cry. This was a topic raised and used in 2012 by Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, then as now the first vice president of UNCA.

  To explain, 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 given 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. Who's crying now? Watch this site.