By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 15 -- With UK prime minister David Cameron at the UN and promoted to "do a stakeout" -- that is, take question, presumably not pre-ordinated and pre-screened -- a flock of UN correspondents left the scheduled Syria vote in the UN General Assembly and went to Cameron's stakeout.
But once there, there was a scam. Cameron came out, read a statement and then said, I understand there is a question from UN Reuters.
Understand how? From whom?
Inner City Press asked the UK Mission to the UN how this came about, and now understands it was not them but "Number 10's press people."
So did Cameron also understand what the question was going to be?
Once called on, Reuters' Louis Charbonneau of Reuters asked a softball question about Syria, but only after branding it, saying, "On behalf of the UN Correspondents Association" -- an organization which spent most of its meetings in 2012 trying to get smaller investigative Press thrown out of the UN.
In fact, Charbonneau himself first filed a stealth complaint with the UN against Inner City Press, then Reuters supported Voice of America's formal request to get Inner City Press'accreditation "reviewed," according to documents obtained from VOA under the Freedom of Information Act. Click here for that.
Charbonneau of Reuters and UNCA, shaking with Ban Ki-moon (c) Luiz RRampelotto
Later when asked at an on the record meeting to explain his and UNCA's role, Charbonneau refused, and told Inner City Press "the fundamental problem is your web site." Click here for audio.
At a minimum, the new Free UN Coalition for Access would say that the organizers of a stakeout at the UN -- in this case, "Number 10's press people" -- should tell correspondents in advance that they have already chosen who can ask questions. Otherwise, the independent media is being used as extras, as in a film.
But second, what did Number 10 consider before handing this question to Reuters' UN bureau chief? We'll have more on this.
Footnote: As Inner City Press told the UK Mission, it would have asked Cameron about going to Sri Lanka for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, given its "accountability" record and Cameron's statements on accountability in Syria.
UNCA, it should be noted, has used anonymous social media accounts, active even on May 15 during all this, to falsely accuse Inner City Press of being funded by terrorists, triggering death threats. These are not only Ban's UN, but now Number 10's, partners?
