Pious Talk on Press Freedom Rings Hollow, Risen & Rosen, No FOIA at UN Says Free UN Coalition for Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 2 --  The pious statements have begun, from Obama to the United Nations, for the first International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. But has the UN really supported journalists under fire from extremist and government forces in places like Sri Lanka? 

  And isn't the US pursuing cases against journalists like James Risen and James Rosen for pursuing information?

  The day will be celebrated on November 3 at the UN, where media access has been in decline. The UN's head of Peacekeeping refuses to answer Press questions and most recently blocked a press a camera from filming at the authorized General Assembly stakeout area, Vine here.

 Overall the UN's lack of accountability, from bringing cholera to Haitito using as “peacekeepers” armies under investigation for war crimes like those of the DR Congo and Sri Lanka, is enabled by the lack of even a basic Freedom of Information Act covering the UN.

Inner City Press, which has litigated FOIA cases all the way to the US Supreme Court and submitted FOI request to dozens of countries, haslong pushed for a UN Freedom of Information Act.

   As reported on September 15 by the Columbia Journalism Review, “Inner City Press... reported that Burnham’s successor, Alicia Barcena, said it would be in place by the end of 2007. But the General Assembly never agreed on the scheme, and it was quietly shelved. “There were differing views among Member States about what constituted openness,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, in an email.”

  (Inner City Press asked Dujarric about the quote at the September 15, 2014, noon briefing, video here and embedded below.)

  What leadership -- citing “differing views,” the UN Secretariat gave up before it even began. CJR also quotes a rights group which won't disclose what issues it raises to Ban, and correspondents happy to get leaks and text from their Western sources. This same organization, beyond its Executive Committee trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, withheld its Q&A with Ban Ki-moon even from its own members, here. 

  This scam group, became under recent leadership the UN's Censorship Alliance, is sure to join in pious talk on November 3. 

  In order to pursue more access to information -- and the protection of the rights of investigative journalists against such insider approaches -- Inner City Press co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access.

  FUNCA says it is absurd for the UN Secretariat to blame member states for its own refusal to be transparent with its own financial information. Furthermore, how can Ban's UN make claims about “we the peoples” while blaming unnamed governments for banning accountability to the peoples?

  CJR concluded, as we will for now, with this: “Inner City Press continues to advocate for a systematic freedom of information policy, but admits that there is little binding pressure journalists can put on the UN legally. 'Ultimately you end up making a moral argument, which is that more so than most governments, the UN is always pontificating about good governance and transparency,' he said. 'That’s what I find so ironic.'”

Ironic is a diplomatic way to put it. Watch this site -- and this (FUNCA) one.

   

UN Blames Its Lack of a Freedom of Information Act on Unnamed Member States, Free UN Coalition for Access Presses

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 15 -- The UN's lack of accountability, from bringing cholera to Haiti to using as“peacekeepers” armies under investigation for war crimes like those of the DR Congo and Sri Lanka, is enabled by the lack of even a basic Freedom of Information Act covering the UN.

Inner City Press, which has litigated FOIA cases all the way to the US Supreme Court and submitted FOI request to dozens of countries, has long pushed for a UN Freedom of Information Act.

   As reported on September 15 by the Columbia Journalism Review, “Inner City Press... reported that Burnham’s successor, Alicia Barcena, said it would be in place by the end of 2007. But the General Assembly never agreed on the scheme, and it was quietly shelved. “There were differing views among Member States about what constituted openness,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, in an email.”

  What leadership -- citing “differing views,” the UN Secretariat gave up before it even began. CJR also quotes arights group which won't disclose what issues it raises to Ban, and correspondents happy to get leaks and text from their Western sources. This same organization, beyond its Executive Committee trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, withheld its Q&A with Ban Ki-moon even from its own members, here. 

  In order to pursue more access to information -- and the protection of the rights of investigative journalists against such insider approaches -- Inner City Press co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access.

  FUNCA says it is absurd for the UN Secretariat to blame member states for its own refusal to be transparent with its own financial information. Furthermore, how can Ban's UN make claims about “we the peoples” while blaming unnamed governments for banning accountability to the peoples?

  CJR concluded, as we will for now, with this: “Inner City Press continues to advocate for a systematic freedom of information policy, but admits that there is little binding pressure journalists can put on the UN legally. 'Ultimately you end up making a moral argument, which is that more so than most governments, the UN is always pontificating about good governance and transparency,' he said. 'That’s what I find so ironic.'”

Ironic is a diplomatic way to put it. Watch this site -- and this (FUNCA) one.

   

Ignoring Protests at UN, Wire Services Circle Wagons, Reuters and CBS Falk Promote Selves, Call Critics Right Wing

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 4 -- When people are being slaughtered, not in Syria but Sri Lanka, or when hundreds of UN staff are protesting Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who said little during the latter bloodbath on the beach, how do the Western wire services at the UN spend their time?

On May 1, 2013 while a UN staff protest filled the traffic circle right outside their offices, Inner City Press video here, the scribes of Reuters, Agence France Presse, Bloombergand Voice of America did not cover it.

  It was the bureau chiefs of these Western wires who through the UN Correspondents Association have tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, saying only they can say what journalism is.

  But on and around May 1, while Inner City Press covered not only the UN staff protest but also asked US Ambassador Susan Rice exclusively about an attack in Sudan, broke astory about the sale of an internship in the UN, and published Swiss proposals on the revisions to Qatar's draft resolution on Syria, this is what these wires were doing:

Margaret Besheer of Voice of America was tweeting about royals again, this time in Holland.

Louis Charbonneau was re-tweeting Reuters stories from all over, including on cannibalism.

UNCA President Pam Falk of CBS was promoting her appearances on a pro-UN show, Global Connections, in which she falsely claimed that UNCA is a trade association representing all correspondents of the UN, and for "World Press Freedom Day," click here for a (counter) video.

Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse was not tweet: not because he was breaking any stories, but because he is too low tech. (He has, however, filed a false complaint with UN Security in defense of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.)

This was in the correspondents' name. But their troll alter egos were going lower. They have created anonymous social media accounts of various types, and on May 1 they continued anti Press moves. 

  For example, apparently angry at the inclusion of Inner City Press in the Colombia Journalism Review, they characterized the author of that piece, Armin Rosen (now at the Atlantic) as a "right wing journalist." Really?

 It has been suggested that the roots of these drab wire correspondents trolling is their very facelessness. But look at what they did, for example on May 1. That's why their faceless and/or angry.

  On April 30, one of their anonymous accounts called Inner City Press pro-Assad for covering a presentation by a Russian journalist who'd been in Syria for eight months; on May 1, they joked that Inner City Press was starting an Arabic service.

Criticism is fine. But when large corporate media is so cowardly as to attack smaller investigative competitors anonymously, and falsely allege funding by terrorists in such a way as to trigger death threats, it is too much. And it must and will continue to be responded to, exposed.

  So, still sticking to May Day, Inner City Press raised this UNCA and Reuters trolling to, who else, Reuters' social media editor Anthony De Rosa, here. And what was the response? Nothing. Just as editor Stephen J. Adler has done nothing. These corporations have let their UN bureaux run amuck. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.