UN Silent on DRC Pardon Request as Moland Dies in Jail, Somaliland News from FUNCA Member in Hargeisa

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 19 -- Not only will this UN never say it's sorry, for example for bringing cholera to Haiti, it won't comment on others' requests for pardon either.

  Inner City Press has twice asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office about Congolese legislator Muhindo Nzangi, who was arrested then quickly sentenced to three years in jail for insulting President Joseph Kabila on a Kivu radio station. The most recent answer, on August 15, was that Ban never comments on judgments by independent courts.

  If true - it seems not to be - perhaps Ban should reconsider, as least as to the DRC. While many prisoners die in Congolese jails, Western wire services have covered the death in custody of Norwegian Tjostolv Moland, at 32 years old, after unsuccessfully asking Kabila for a pardon.

  Since under Ban and Herve Ladsous the UN is now committed to trying to "neutralize" any opposition group which Kabila doesn't like, international publicity about deaths in Kabila's jail might be a problem. But Ban is going to South Korea, and Ladsous has been missing for a while.

Some good news, for once: from Somaliland, Free UN Coalition for Access member Mohamoud Walaaleye tells us that the ban then threats against Hubaal newspaper have been removed. We have a copy of the pardon but are not yet sure if it's also an apology. But in any event, it's more than this UN does. Watch this site.

   

In Somaliland, 2 Journalists Out on Bail, FUNCA Protester Says, UN's Anti-Press Partners in DRC, Lakes State, UNHQ: Censorship

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 4 -- Yesterday we reported on the jailing of two journalists in Somaliland, and on Hargeisa-based member of the Free UN Coalition for AccessMohamoud Walaaleye turning from his journalistic activities to the imprisonment until it ended.

  Today, Independence Day in New York and the rest of the United States, we can report that after the protesting, Hubaal newspaper's manager Mohamed Ahmed Jama Aloley and editor Hassan Hussein Kefkef have been released on bail.

  Mohamoud Walaaleye tells us that Minister of Interior Ali Mohamed Waran'ade and the protesting journalists held long meetings after which, while they appeal, the Hubaal editor and reporter have been released. The appeal will begin to be heard next week.

  Meanwhile, what is the UN's position on freedom of the press? In South Sudan, Good News Radio has been ordered off the air for criticizing the government. But try as we might, FUNCA finds no effective push-back by UN envoy Hilde Johnson. As noted, she is too close to the authorities, a growing problem with this UN.

  In the Democratic Republic of Congo, too, the UN is so close with the government and army of Joseph Kabila that it is stonewalling on questions by Inner City Press and@FUNCA_info about its support of the Congolese Army units named in the Group of Experts the full text of which Inner City Press exclusively put online.

  Meanwhile at the request of Kabila's government, Cameroon has banned Thierry Michel's film, "L'affaire Chebeya, un crime d'Etat?” (“A Crime of State?”) about the murdered journalist. These are the UN's partners, like UNCA which tried in 2012 to get the investigative press thrown out of the UN; its first vice president passed internal “UNCA only” documents immediately to UN officials, here.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access has been founded to counter all that. Not only has the UN fought it, it has tried to even outlaw the name and sign of FUNCA. But UNCA has two signs and more, much more.

  At the July 3 noon briefing with Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, before opposing the restriction against questions about Africa (only Afghanistan), Inner City Press thanked Eliasson “on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access.” UN video here, from Minute 19:44.

But when the UN put out its transcript, the name of FUNCA was cut out:

“Q: I want to thank you for doing this briefing so soon after you got back, and also I hope that we will have some questions on more general UN items, after, it should be... There is DRC, Haiti and other things going on.”

By contrast, the UN (mis) transcription left in the name of the old UNCA, as recited by its 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBSNews.com:

“Q: Mr. Deputy Secretary-General, welcome on behalf of the UN Correspondents’ Association, welcome back and thank you for the briefing.”

  Who in the UN decided what to cut out of what purports to be a transcript? What is the basis of the deletions? If they cut this, do they cut or change whole questions? Answers? We have asked, twice. Watch this site.

  

As Somaliland Journalists Jailed, Fight Back by FUNCA Member, UN Censorship Alliance Contrasted

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 3 -- With the UN less and less willing to answer questions, whether about which Congolese Army units it works with or even which Syria villages Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was referring to in a July 2 statement, there's been talk of a media strike at the UN.

  Some have proposed not going to the UN noon briefing, not asking questions, even not writing stories. But that might be just what the UN has in mind. And many large media have already reduced their UN presence and coverage substantially.

  The view of Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access is that in New York and places like it, the better response is simply to report more, to ask more questions and report on the (non) answers, to talk with more sources and dig deeper.

  But we realize that in some other places the possibilities and dynamics are different. 

  For example in Somaliland, on which Inner City Press has been reporting for months, Free UN Coalition for Accessmember Mohamoud Walaaleye has protested the Hargeisa Regional Court's sentencing to prison of Hubaal newspaper's manager Mohamed Ahmed Jama Aloley for one year and editor Hassan Hussein Kefkef, for two years.

  This was on charges of “propagating false information,” reporting on smuggling by diplomats and the capacities of elected officials, and came after an attack on the newspaper's office by authorities and a suspension of publication.

  Mohamoud Walaaleye, who asks questions not only in Hargeisa but to UN officials, tells us that the “Somaliland media association, (SOLJA) is incapacitated to reach a common stand condemning this action. For that, I, Mohamoud Walaaleye, reached a decision of withholding all my journalism activities till the discharged of the jail sentences of my colleagues at Hubaal newspaper.”

  Now that, and to a lesser degree this, is what solidarity is all about. By contrast, UN headquarters' chosen partner UNCA tried in 2012 to get the investigative press thrown out of the UN; its first vice president, Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, passed internal “UNCA only” documents immediately to UN officials, here.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access has been founded to counter all that. Not only has the UN fought it, it has tried to even outlaw the name and sign of FUNCA. But UNCA has two signs and more, much more. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.