Amid #SocialUN, Ban Ki-moon Silent on #FreeZone9Bloggers, Panelists Answer FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- When the UN held a “Social Media Summit” on January 30, it concluded with a panel about trends, from mobile to analytics to video and Facebook's acquisition of Snapchat. 

  But what about the UN defending or at least speaking up for freedom of expression on the Internet?

  Earlier on January 30, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric why Ban while in Ethiopia for the African Union summit had not raised the terrorism charges brought against the Zone 9 Bloggers.Video here.

   Dujarric said Ban has spoken elsewhere about freedom of expression in Africa, and that the (other) contents of his AU speech were interesting. 

   So Inner City Press went to the #SocialUN final panel and asked, does the UN do enough to speak up for freedom in social media? One of the panelists had just finished praising high tech in Qatar. What about arrests for insulting the leader? What about Nabeel Rajab in Bahrain?

  Panelist Hayes Brown of BuzzFeed, who advised and practices Be a Person on Twitter, including baking and (good) jokes, said it is hard for the UN, since it has member states that pay its bills. He said he agreed about bloggers in Ethiopia but wasn't sure what the UN could do, beyond speaking up.

  Well, as to the Zone 9 Bloggers, the UN has yet to speak up. That would be a start.

  Panelist Liz Borod Wight, who moderator Sree Sreenivasan marveled is paid to do Instagram for the BBC, cites those who tweeted #JeSuisCharlie and said those who have freedom of expression should use it.

  Panelist Adam Glenn from CUNY Journalism School said, hoping not to offend the hosts the UN, that the UN should ensure that all of its staff have training and can tweet.

  Inner City Press and FUNCA note, for example, that a UN staffer in South Sudan abruptly stopped tweeting after she tweeted this: "#breaking Lou Nuer youth are mobilising in big numbers leaving #Akobo town empty heading towards Dengjok #Southsudan."

   As Inner City Press reported at the time, after Mathilde Kaalund-Jørgensen raised this alarm, the tweet and her Twitter account profile both disappeared. So much for Rights Up Front.

  At the end of the panel a UN staffer took the floor to acknowledge that UN staff cannot tweet what they think. But can't Ban Ki-moon say what he thinks? Or doesn't he think it? We'll have more on this.

    

Free UN Coalition for Access Asks UN of Bahrain Jailing Nabeel Rajab for Tweet, Ban Ki-moon's Spokesman Cites Free Expression

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 20 -- Amid attacks on journalists and freedom of expression in countries all over the world, the United Nations under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is no sanctuary, nor champion, the Free UN Coalition for Access has found. 

  Beyond stealth attempts to get the Press thrown out of the UN, there is often little but platitudes about attacks elsewhere.  FUNCA is Pressing the issue.

  On January 20, Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Bahrain sentencing Nabeel Rajab to six months in jail for a single tweet. Video here.

  Spokesman Dujarric said he expected a statement on that later in the day -- three hours later there was none -- then cited the right of expression, generally. 

 The day before on January 19, Inner City Press on behalf of FUNCA asked Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq about Turkey having ordered Twitter, Google and Facebook to remove content by BirGun about alleged Erdogan government support to Al Qaeda affiliates in Syria, and threatening to ban Twitter entirely for not taking down the BirGun feed.

   Haq replied vaguely about the right to circulate information but said he would not speculate about the future of Twitter in Turkey.  Video here. 

  It is not speculation: earlier this year Turkey banned both Twitter and YouTube. The Erdogan government has made the same (mis) use of copyright claims to censor leaked material as Reuters at the UN, here.

   

At UN Roed-Larsen No Comment on Bahrain, Rajab & Kawaja, Even Shab'a Farms

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 8 -- After a closed door briefing to the Security Council about Lebanon, heavy on Syria, part time UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said he would answer questions from the Press.

  But when Inner City Press asked Roed-Larsen about Bahrain, which he has visited accompanied by his UN paid staffer, and that Kingdom's arrest of Abdulhadi Al Kawaja and now Nabeel Rajab, Roed-Larsen refused to comment.

  This seemed strange, since Roed-Larsen had just quoted himself about the winds of change in the entire region, and what he called the "death of dance." 

  Even directly on Lebanon, Roed-Larsen insisted that the Security Council is no longer seize of the matter of Shab'a Farms and would not explain paragraph 16 of his own Resolution 1559 report, about restrictions on the freedom of movement of the UNIFIL peacekeepers. 

 

   What kind of UN official is this, who won't elaborate on restrictions on the UN's own operating arm, and has nothing to say about the arrest by a monarchy of human rights advocates and bloggers?

  Roed-Larsen, like a few other "UN" officials like Alexander Downer on Cyprus and Tony Blair on the Quartet, does not work full time for the UN. 

  While this situation cries out -- like the hot wind that Roed-Larsen referred to and channeled -- for public financial disclosure of the type that Ban Ki-moon claims to have implement, no such disclosure is available for Roed-Larsen.

  Roed-Larsen made a point of calling Ban Ki-moon, who permits all this, a "principled man." (He also uses his position of moderator at the International Peace Institute, which he heads, to make pronouncements about what "the whole international community" believes.) Refusing to comment on the Bahraini monarchy's treatment of political prisoners, Roed-Larsen told Inner City Press to put this question to Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson. 

   While Roed-Larsen refused to answer these questions, other sources say that in the meeting, it was again proposed to have a single report, under Resolution 1701, Roed-Larsen said no, he wants to keep coming to the Security Council on his own every six months. 

 Among other things, this increasingly indefensible and wasteful role is what allows Roed-Larsen to take UN paid staff to Bahrain, have it be reported as a celebratory trip by a UN official, and then refuse to comment on it or make disclosures. Watch this site.