By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 28 -- There are culture fights at the UN, and there are also language wars. Or at least skirmishes, as took place on April 28 in the Committee on Information. Delegates from Argentina to Cuba and China asked why the UN Webcast archives are not in Spanish or Chinese, Russian or Arabic. At least the question was answered, but the logic is not entirely clear.
Even from the UN's in-house EZTV, which offers CNN and Fox News, BBC and Al Jazaeera, TV 5 Monde and France 24, the Chinese and Russian channels have been removed, Inner City Press hereby reports and the Free UN Coalition for Access dubs "P3 TV" for the three Western permanent members of the UN Security Council.
There are two French channels, and none in Chinese or Russian. Meanwhile as Argentina's delegate pointed out on April 28 in the Committee on Information, it is Spanish and not French that is the second most popular language for those visiting the UN's website. Que pasa?
More insidiously, France's outgoing Permanent Representative to the UN Gerard Araud on April 15 told a UN accredited correspondent (not this one) who asked a critical question, "You are not a journalist, you are an agent."
Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access has asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric to convey to the French mission the UN's stated position, that correspondents should be treated with respect. So far it has not happened.
The attacked correspondent has for days asked the UN Correspondents Association's Executive Committee to take some action -- as, we note, it did with respect to another media, and another Ambassador. But the attacked journalist tells Inner City Press that UNCA is "dragging its feet." Others are not surprised.
Amid all this, the UN will be celebrating World Press Freedom Day with none other than the president of UNCA, which is dragging its feet on defense of journalists inside the UN (after having attacked at least one, then engaged in censorship), and while UNCA does NOTHING on more serious attacks on press freedom in Ethiopia and Burundi. World Press Freedom Day, indeed. We'll be there: watch this site.
Footnote: In fairness, initiatives like DPI's Brown Bag Lunch series with for example UN Security and the UN envoy to Libya were good. But Under Secretaries General like Herve Ladsous still openly refuses particular media's questions, and other USGs rarely if even take questions. Improvements, including a UN Freedom of Information Act and improved UN Media Alert, are needed. Watch this site.
