By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 31 -- At the UN, big media have created an anonymous Twitter account to impersonate and target Inner City Press, and the new press freedom group it helped launch last month, the Free UN Coalition for Access.
So far, the fake Twitter account has accused Inner City Press of being funded by terrorists and of being "non-media" which should be thrown out of the UN. See analysis of 12 tweets, here.
This counterfeit account has followed many countries' Missions to the UN -- apparently to make them view Inner City Press in a different light, or to get automatic follow-backs.
Those "following" the anonymous Twitter account include Reuters reporter and bureau chief Louis Charbonneau, who in 2012 filed a stealth complaint with the UN against Inner City Press, and expressed support for Voice of America's June 20, 2012 request to the UN to"review" Inner City Press' accreditation
As reflected by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, not only Reuters but also Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse supported the campaign of Margaret Besheer of Voice of America to get Inner City Press removed from the UN.
The documents show that this was due to Inner City Press' reporting on Sri Lanka and conflicts of interest (covered in The Guardian in the UK), and of France's domination of the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations through Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head DPKO, see rough-cut YouTube video here.
On January 29, Witcher and Besheer were heard by a FUNCA member talking about the campaign.
The new President of UNCA, Pamela Falk of CBS, has done nothing to stop the campaign. Rather, UNCA "leaders" have torn down flyers posted by FUNCA raising questions about UN accreditation rules and journalists' due process rights.
This UNCA group is the one that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon meets with ostensibly to learn the views of the press corps.
Given these new lows, can Ban continue this practice? Can this UN enforced and enabled monopoly continue? The UN was asked by the New York Civil Liberties Union, in the light of VOA's complaint against Inner City Press, to explain its due process rules for journalists.
No public answer has ever been given; FUNCA asked the UN official who got the complaint, Stephane Dujarric, and he even refused to disclose what he told the NYCLU: that is, any UN rules of due process for accrediting the journalists who cover the UN.
Sometimes it's hard to keep track: does UN Media Accreditation and Department of Public Information work for UNCA's Executive Board -- that is, for Reuters, AFP et al. -- or does UNCA work for the UN's Herve Ladsous and even Ban Ki-moon? That's why they call it the UN's Censorship Alliance.
But it seems clear, this time they gone too far.
For an analysis of 12 of the fake Twitter account's 100 tweets, click here. Watch this site.