During Sri Lanka Visit by UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Questioning Confirmed, US Ambassador Power on Way

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 18 --  During the Sri Lanka visit of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, on November 11 Inner City Press asked the UN this question:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you a Sri Lanka question, while this grouping is still there.  There’s a UN working group on enforced disappearances that’s visiting Sri Lanka, including northern Sri Lanka.  Maybe this is not true, but the “Colombo Gazette” says that families whose people have been disappeared, who met with UN working group, including the widow of Prageeth [Eknaligoda], the cartoonist, were told, quote, by the UN not to speak to the media about their discussions with the working group.  It says “the UN.”  So it’s…

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:  I don’t…

Inner City Press:  Is there…

Spokesman Dujarric:  You can ask our colleagues in Geneva, who kind of help back up these independent working groups, but it’s not something I can answer from here. 

  No answer ever came in from the UN in Geneva -- too busy giving elite speeches in New York, some said.

On November 18, the Working Group's delegation of Bernard Duhaime, Tae-Ung Baik, and Ariel Dulitzky said, among other things, that "Some of the persons with whom we met have been questioned in relation to our visit. This is absolutely unacceptable in a democratic society."

 Their preliminary observations added, "The highest levels of the Government should take decisive actions to stop such acts and instruct all public officers that these actions will not be tolerated and will be punished accordingly. The Working Group calls on the State to guarantee the safety of those with whom it met, and to protect them against any form of reprisals, threat or intimidation. The success of any measures on truth and justice will depend on how safe the victims and relatives feel. Over the years, the Working Group has transmitted more than 12000 cases to the Government of Sri Lanka, of which 5750 are still outstanding. So now what? Their preliminary observations are here; they will present their report in Geneva in September 2016.

  Meanwhile US Ambassador Samantha Power is headed to Sri Lanka after India, where she arrives on November 23. She will visit Jaffna, "to meet with local government officials and organizations and communities affected by the conflict. There, she will meet with members of the local press corps, including by visiting the headquarters of Uthayan newspaper, which was targeted during the war. Ambassador Power will also participate in the inauguration of a new wing of Osmania College, which suffered significant damage during the conflict, as well as tour the Jaffna Library, where she will announce U.S. support for the local restoration of ancient Tamil manuscripts." Full announcement here.

 Back on October 22 when Bernard Duhaime, the Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about his country visit to Sri Lanka set for next month, and about how the Working Group considers disappearances and worse by ISIS and other “non-state groups.”

    Duhaime said he will be meeting with civil society in Sri Lanka as well as with the government (regarding which he repeatedly emphasized “transition,” and called the timing of his visit “historic.”) He said one of the Working Group's roles is to give certainty to the families of the disappeared. There are certainly many of those, particularly in Northern Sri Lanka.  Inner City Press will have more coverage of the Working Group country visit.

  On ISIS, Duhaime said said the key would be to consider if there is a nexus to any state (there are neighbors one might wish to review) and that it will be reviewed at a conference next February. He politely declined to answer a country- and complaint-specific question Inner City Press posed. Watch this site.

When the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez held a press conference on October 20, Inner City Press asked him for his view of the only partial release of the US Senate's report on CIA torture, about Guantanamo Bay and whether he thought President Barack Obama's visit to a prison might make his long-pending request to visit US prisons move faster. Video here.

   Mendez said there should be more release(s), and accountability. He said he had had to request the US' conditional offers to visit Guantanamo Bay and US prisons, as he would not be allowed to speak with all prisoners. He praise Obama's visit, but still - Mendez can't get in.

On October 16 when the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Benyam Dawit Mezmur held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about US President Barack Obama's decision to continue to provide military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan, despite all four being on the UN's (and US') lists on children and armed conflict. Video here.  

    Benyam Dawit Mezmur said that while the US is the lone holdout on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issue can still be gotten-at under the Optional Protocol. Inner City Press asked about the sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by French and UN peacekeepers.

   Benyam Dawit Mezmur replied that the Committee is asking France about the alleged sexual abuse of children, and will conduct a review in January. We aim to have more on this.

  At the press conference, there were only two correspondents, as there was an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Palestine at the same time. Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Benyam Dawit Mezmur for the briefing but suggested that in the future postponement of briefings, so that more journalists could attend, be considered. UNCA wasn't present at all; nor has it disclosed the extend of funding and connection by indicted David Ng and Frank Lorenzo and their affiliates.

 Also on the UN, when the UN find a staff member using the UN's email system to trafficking in sexual images of minors, a crime, what does it do? On October 16, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about this paragraph from a UN report it had dug up:

“49. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material, including pornographic material involving a minor, and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material though the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.”

  Inner City Press asked, was that all that happened, dismissal? Such that the person could, for example, work in a day care center? Haq said in instances the UN waives immunity.

  Inner City Press asked, how would law enforcement know that the person had used the UN's email system for child porn? Haq said there have been cases in which the UN told local authorities. Inner City Press asked, did it do so in this case? Apparently, the UN will not answer this. For now. Here are other paragraphs:

46. A staff member stored pornographic material, including pornography involving a minor, on the staff member’s United Nations computer, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material through the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.

47. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, and stored on the staff member’s United Nations computer, pornographic material involving a minor and, on other occasions, distributed, through the Organization’s e -mail system, other pornographic material. Disposition: dismissal.

 48. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material involving a minor and, on three other occasions, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and stored pornographic material on the staff member’s United Nations computer. Disposition: dismissal.

 The report is entitled "Practice of the Secretary-General in disciplinary matters and cases of criminal behaviour, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015."

We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

During Sri Lanka Visit by UN Disappearances Group, Inner City Press Asks of UN Gag Orders

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 11 --  Amid the Sri Lanka visit of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Inner City Press on November 11 asked the UN a question, transcript here:

Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you a Sri Lanka question, while this grouping is still there.  There’s a UN working group on enforced disappearances that’s visiting Sri Lanka, including northern Sri Lanka.  Maybe this is not true, but the “Colombo Gazette” says that families whose people have been disappeared, who met with UN working group, including the widow of Prageeth [Eknaligoda], the cartoonist, were told, quote, by the UN not to speak to the media about their discussions with the working group.  It says “the UN.”  So it’s…

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:  I don’t…

Inner City Press:  Is there…

Spokesman Dujarric:  You can ask our colleagues in Geneva, who kind of help back up these independent working groups, but it’s not something I can answer from here. 

We hope to have more on this. On October 22 when Bernard Duhaime, the Vice-Chair of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about his country visit to Sri Lanka set for next month, and about how the Working Group considers disappearances and worse by ISIS and other “non-state groups.”

    Duhaime said he will be meeting with civil society in Sri Lanka as well as with the government (regarding which he repeatedly emphasized “transition,” and called the timing of his visit “historic.”) He said one of the Working Group's roles is to give certainty to the families of the disappeared. There are certainly many of those, particularly in Northern Sri Lanka.  Inner City Press will have more coverage of the Working Group country visit.

  On ISIS, Duhaime said said the key would be to consider if there is a nexus to any state (there are neighbors one might wish to review) and that it will be reviewed at a conference next February. He politely declined to answer a country- and complaint-specific question Inner City Press posed. Watch this site.

When the UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Méndez held a press conference on October 20, Inner City Press asked him for his view of the only partial release of the US Senate's report on CIA torture, about Guantanamo Bay and whether he thought President Barack Obama's visit to a prison might make his long-pending request to visit US prisons move faster. Video here.

   Mendez said there should be more release(s), and accountability. He said he had had to request the US' conditional offers to visit Guantanamo Bay and US prisons, as he would not be allowed to speak with all prisoners. He praise Obama's visit, but still - Mendez can't get in.

On October 16 when the Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Benyam Dawit Mezmur held a press conference at the UN, Inner City Press asked him about US President Barack Obama's decision to continue to provide military aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, and South Sudan, despite all four being on the UN's (and US') lists on children and armed conflict. Video here.  

    Benyam Dawit Mezmur said that while the US is the lone holdout on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the issue can still be gotten-at under the Optional Protocol. Inner City Press asked about the sexual abuse of children in the Central African Republic by French and UN peacekeepers.

   Benyam Dawit Mezmur replied that the Committee is asking France about the alleged sexual abuse of children, and will conduct a review in January. We aim to have more on this.

  At the press conference, there were only two correspondents, as there was an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Palestine at the same time. Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Benyam Dawit Mezmur for the briefing but suggested that in the future postponement of briefings, so that more journalists could attend, be considered. UNCA wasn't present at all; nor has it disclosed the extend of funding and connection by indicted David Ng and Frank Lorenzo and their affiliates.

 Also on the UN, when the UN find a staff member using the UN's email system to trafficking in sexual images of minors, a crime, what does it do? On October 16, Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about this paragraph from a UN report it had dug up:

“49. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material, including pornographic material involving a minor, and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material though the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.”

  Inner City Press asked, was that all that happened, dismissal? Such that the person could, for example, work in a day care center? Haq said in instances the UN waives immunity.

  Inner City Press asked, how would law enforcement know that the person had used the UN's email system for child porn? Haq said there have been cases in which the UN told local authorities. Inner City Press asked, did it do so in this case? Apparently, the UN will not answer this. For now. Here are other paragraphs:

46. A staff member stored pornographic material, including pornography involving a minor, on the staff member’s United Nations computer, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and failed to report that another staff member had sent the staff member inappropriate material through the Organization’s e-mail system. Disposition: dismissal.

47. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, and stored on the staff member’s United Nations computer, pornographic material involving a minor and, on other occasions, distributed, through the Organization’s e -mail system, other pornographic material. Disposition: dismissal.

 48. A staff member sent, through the Organization’s e-mail system, pornographic material involving a minor and, on three other occasions, distributed other pornographic material through the Organization’s e-mail system and stored pornographic material on the staff member’s United Nations computer. Disposition: dismissal.

 The report is entitled "Practice of the Secretary-General in disciplinary matters and cases of criminal behaviour, 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015."

We'll have more on this. Watch this site.

At UN Attacks on Media Event, No Question Taken from Media, UNESCO Panelist Engida & Ethiopia Jailing Journalist Temesgen Desalegn

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 3 -- When the UN held its event for the first International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists a day late on November 3, not a single question from a journalist was taken. 

 Instead, speaking from the podium was for example UNESCO's Deputy Director General Getachew Engida of Ethiopia, a country which just sentenced to three years in jail journalist Temesgen Desalegn.

This journalist's imprisonment, for “provocation,” is hardly low profile; either is that of the Ethopian Zone 9 Bloggers. But the moderator, UNESCO's George Papagiannis, did not raise the issue, even as he purported to read out congratulatory live-tweets about the event.

  (IFEX to its credit did reply to one of @InnerCityPress' tweets questioning the event and how it was run, here. By another, it was suggested that maybe Engida, even with his many UN system posts, is a dissident from Ethiopia. But it does not seem like it: see recent photo here.)

Nor did any of the other panelists raise it: Joel Simon of CPJ, Greece's Ambassador, Columbia University's Agnes Callamard. The lone media panelist, from Al Arabiya, spoke without irony about naming and shaming countries which jail critics for mere tweets: many in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula.

Inner City Press as media, and the new Free UN Coalition for Access, had this question ready:

“about an underpinning to deadly attacks on journalist: the idea that they are parties to a conflict, or can be prosecuted for their reporting on national security. Can the panel, particularly the Deputy Director General of UNESCO, comment on Ethiopia jailing journalist Temesgen Desalegn for three years for “provocation”? Or, to be fair, the prosecutions here in the US of James Rosen, James Risen and Barrett Brown, set to be sentenced on November 24? Of the breaking up of meetings of reporters in Sri Lanka, a country in which journalists have been killed or “disappeared,” as in the case of Prageeth. What is the relation of such prosecutions to the actual killing of journalists?”

But, as noted, the hour and a half long panel took not a single question from a journalist. At the day's UN noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric if Ban while in Ethiopia recently to make it the third largest UN “duty station” had in any way raised the case of journalist Temesgen Desalegn. 

 Apparently not. This is how the UN works, or doesn't.

   

In Sri Lanka, Navi Pillay Notes Attacks on Witnesses and Media, But It's Dubious That UN Takes Seriously

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 31 -- As Navi Pillay wrapped up her visit to Sri Lanka today, she read out a prepared statement, three paragraphs we will focus on here. 

  She acknowledged what Inner City Press and other reported mid-way through her trip, "namely the harassment and intimidation of a number of human rights defenders, at least two priests, journalists, and many ordinary citizens... people in villages and settlements in the Mullaitivu area were visited by police or military officers [and were] subsequently questioned."

  This treatment is not limited to witnesses; it is often focused on journalists. 

  Pillay recounted that "more than 30 journalists are believed to have been killed since 2005, and several more – including the cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda - have disappeared. Many others have fled the country. Newspaper and TV offices have been vandalized or subjected to arson attacks – some, such as the Jaffna-based paper Uthayan, on multiple occasions.. I have called for the right to Information Act to be adopted like many of its neighbors in SAARC."

  The intimidation of the media and of complaining witnesses is major, and will undermine or call into question whatever oral and then written report Pillay issues about the trip. 

  After mentioning this intimidation, surveillance and harassment more than halfway through her statement, Pillay makes this claim: "the United Nations takes the issue of reprisals against people because they have talked to UN officials as an extremely serious matter."

  Not only is this often not true -- the UN cracks down on its own whistleblowers, and not only doesn't provide protection to those in it who are targeted, the UN as time assists in the targeting, ignoring the rights of free speech and free association.

  A UN system whistleblower who exposed UN corruption in North Korea was not only fired, false information about him was leaked by the UN to the New York Times. More recently the UN's Kosovo whistleblower James Wasserstrom, even when he litigated and won a judgment, was not even compensated for his costs, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed.

  As regards Sri Lanka, when Inner City Press covered Ban's May 2009 trip to the island (which turned into a "victory tour" of the North), and published a quote from the chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes from a clearly on the record session, Holmes response was to say "I will never talk to you again" and for his staff to file a complaint with UN media accreditation trying to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.

  This complaining to UN Media Accreditation was used in 2012 by the UN's Censorship Alliance, after Inner City Press reported on the background to UNCA's screening, in the UN, of the Rajapaksa government's film denying war crimes. (Click here for an outside report on that.)

  UNCA Executive Committee members from Voice of America, Reuters and AFP among others participated in the campaign; as since shown, Reuters UN bureau chief Louis Charbonneau handed the chief of UN Media AccreditationStephane Dujarric an anti-Press internal UNCA document,three minutes after promising not to do so. Story here, audio here, document here. Nothing has been done to address this.

  Rather, after Inner City Press quit UNCA and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access, the UN Department of Public Information's response has been to again threaten to suspend or withdraw Inner City Press' accreditation, this time for merely hanging a FUNCA sign on the door of its shared office, while UNCA has five signs and continues functioning as the UN's Cowardice Association, putting other journalists at risk.

  When Pillay's office was contacted about this, their response was simply to note that accreditation was extended (albeit with inappropriate finger-waggling about, among other things, how to cover Ban and his UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.) So does the UN take these things seriously? Not on this evidence.

  Pillay is to report to the Human Rights Council in late September. Also, as first reported by Inner City Press, Ban is to have something to say about the Sri Lanka (UN) lessons learnt report that is finished but is so far being withheld. Watch this site.

   

UN Silent as Iraq Suspends TV Licenses, Burundi Cracks Down, As in UNHQ, Raids and Scams

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 28 -- What has the UN become on press freedom? In Iraq, where the UN has a special political mission, the government has suspended the licenses of ten television channels. Any response by the UN? Not yet.

  If the past is any guide, this UN Secretariat will wait to see what major powers -- read, the US -- has to say about it. But what about Burundi, where the UN also has a mission, and on which major powers are unlikely to say anything?

  Last week the Burundian parliament passed an anti-press law, limiting the subjects that can be covered and the protection of sources. The UN Secretariat said nothing. Today, a journalist Patrick-Paggio Niyonkuru was shot by police.Video here. UN? Anything? Why ask why.

The UN has not responded to Inner City Press' question at the April 24 noon briefing about journalist Blaise Bahisha being arrested in Goma by the Congolese authorities. There was no “if-asked” from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations under Herve Ladsous.

On April 23 in the UN Committee on Information, UNESCO spoke of a UN Plan to protect journalists, which would be much needed. Not enough has been said about the editor in Mali facing charges for reporting on the windfall to coup leader Amadou Sanago. 

  It's unclear what the UN did while a reporter was in danger in Central African Republic recently. And what of Prageeth, disappeared in Sri Lanka? These are only examples.

  As noted on May 2, for World Press Freedom Day, the UN is holding an event. But beyond the contradiction listed above, the event itself has false notes. On the panel is the spokesman for DPKO chief Herve Ladsous, Kieran Dwyer. 

 Not only has Ladsous openly refused to answer Press questions, for example about 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partner -- his spokesman Kieran Dwyer has said, on camera, that Inner City Press questions will not be answered. What respect for freedom of the press? Dwyer and Ladsous did this again on April 25. Video here.

  Also on the panel, seemingly automatically but we'd say inappropriately, is Pamela Falk of CBS, the president of the UN Correspondents Association. Earlier this year, while the UN conducted a non-consensual raid on the Press' office, Falk was ghoulishly taking photographs. Then she issued a legal threat, through her CBSNews.com e-mail account, to “cease and desist” even asking why she was taking photographs. Freedom of the press?

  The UN Department of Public Information conducted the raid; photographs taken while it was in control of Inner City Press' office, including photos of the Press' desk and bookshelf, were shared and leaked to BuzzFeed right after that publication contacted Ban Ki-moon's spokesman to ask about the raid. 

  DPI has been asked by the Free UN Coalition for Access to explain and make full disclosure on this, as a way of moving forward. We continue to wait.

  UNCA, as noted, spent much of 2012 trying to get the Press thrown out of the UN. Just last month, one of its Executive Committee members Tim Witcher filed a false complaint with the UN, leading with the claim that Inner City Press' question to Ladsous on March 8 about the Minova rapes as “abusive.” Also on the May 2 panel is Joel Simon of CPJ - which has a blind spot.

UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters complained as well this year, about the content of Inner City Press' website - to UN Security. To try to use Security forces against a media for its content? This from UNCA's first vice president. Some freedom of the press. Some event.

  Also as we noted, May 2 will have a more reform-minded event. Now it can be said: the “Small Five” on Security Council will rise again, as ACT: Accountability, Coherence and Transparency. We'll have more on this.

As India Tells UN Department of Public Information Not to Spin, How Evaluate DPKO's Herve Ladsous Grabbing Mic of UNTV?

By Matthew Russell Lee, CoI Day 2

UNITED NATIONS, April 23 -- Is the UN Department of Public Information's job to make people think better of the UN, to play Western journalist, or to tell the truth? 

  The issue was raised Tuesday in the UN Committee on Information, by India's Deputy Permanent Representative Manjeev Singh Puri among others.

  Manjeev Singh Puri said the the UN's meeting coverage should not, when a resolution is not adopted in the Security Council, use the word “failed.”

  That of course is the way most Western media reported it, when two resolutions on Syria were vetoed. But shouldn't the UN Secretariat answer to all of its members, not just the Western ones?

  This issue has also arisen in connection with the UN's withholding of its reports from the public, granting largely Western wire services 48 hours to spin the reports before they go online. Inner City Press spoke with more ambassadors on Tuesday, who criticized this practice.

  Most said that the UN should put the reports online as soon as they are finished, to avoid this type of spin, which hurts the UN's credibility. The issue has been raised, including to DPI, and that answers are forthcoming has been promised.

  Tuesday morning among other speakers, Iran complained that some of its TV channels are blocked by other countries. In the afternoon Cuba spoke of illegal broadcasts into its country, interfering with its duly registered stations.

  Russia spoke of the need to continue reporting on World War Two -- ironic in light of a recent “urgent” inquiry by DPI into a single tweet mentioning #WW2 -- and concluded its presentation by speaking in Chinese, in the spirit of multi-lingualism.

  Argentina bragged that Spanish is the Number Two language in which the UN is accessed online. One wondered about the “working language” of French and of its costs, as has The Economist.

  Lebanon's representative cited Tawakuul Karman of Yemen, again ironic given DPI's formal censure of Inner City Press for having signed her into the UN as a guest, and her subsequently daring to speak at the UNTV stakeout as the Security Council considered her country, Yemen.

 For the record, the stakeout rule cited can be respected - but what of DPI adopting other, pro journalist rules like due process in the accreditation and complaint process?

  UNESCO spoke of a UN Plan to protect journalists, which would be much needed. Not enough has been said about the editor in Mali facing charges for reporting on the windfall to coup leader Amadou Sanago. 

  It's unclear what the UN did while a reporter was in danger in Central African Republic recently. And what of Prageeth, disappeared in Sri Lanka? These are only examples.

  DPI's chief, only in place since August, spoke last and addressed questions member states had raised, including some we reported yesterday as not having been substantively answered. 

  On how DPI evaluates itself, reference was made to “results based management” -- polling done by UN Information Centers after their briefings, whether participants' “opinion of the UN improved after attending briefings.”

Should that be the measure? Certain it would be for the public relations department of a corporation. But is the UN different? Might it be DPI's job to simple increase information about the UN and to answer questions?

  Think, for example, of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's and his top lawyer Patricia O'Brien's decision that legal claims the UN inadvertently brought cholera to Haiti was “not receivable.”

  One approach -- actually adopted by the UN -- might be to stop answering questions about the decision, and hope it is simply not written about as much. But doesn't “Public Information,” as opposed to “Public Relations,” connote that answers should be given?

  And isn't there a theory in which addressing problems ultimately is better for an institution than refusing to answer them?

Who in the UN system evaluates the effectiveness of the communications strategy of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous? He refuses to answer including on DPI's UN Television any questions from Inner City Press, for example about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, then later spoon-feeds half-answers to friendlier media.

  How should the effectiveness of this communications strategy be evaluated? This wasn't answered on Tuesday.

  On UNTV, in fairness, while for months it would not stream on the Android platform and so one stopped even checking, Tuesday once prodded and checked, it works. So there's one improvement.

  There remain more than 10 reforms proposed by the Free UN Coalition for Access back in February, and after-arising questions about how photos taking while DPI was in control of Inner City Press' office were shared and then leaked to BuzzFeed, right after that publication contacted Ban's spokesperson about the raid. One hopes and expects that the answers promised include that one.

  Public Information means or should mean answering questions, and in the long run that is the best approach. Watch this site.

CPJ Raised Sri Lanka Case, But “Knows Little” of UN, Its Archaic Rules & Partner in Censorship, UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 14 – When the Committee to Protect Journalists came to the UN Thursday to “launch” its annual report on press freedom Inner City Press asked them, not for the first time, about the UN's own treatment of the full range of journalists, their right to access the UN and to due process if challenged. Video here, from Minute 29:12.

  As example, Inner City Press noted the UN limiting accreditation by geography and to those who abide by the “principles of the Organization,” and total lack of due process rules for journalists on complaints as those filed against Inner City Press in 2012 by Voice of America,Reuters' Louis Charbonneau and the “UN Correspondents Association” for which he spoke on Thursday. Video here, from Minute 12:04.

  Rob Mahoney of CJP, who had begun the press conference by saying “we look to the UN” on these issues, declined to comment on the "internal dynamics of the UN's accreditation process," saying he doesn't know enough about it since he focuses on "international press freedom issues." Video here, from Minute 30:40.

  But aren't unfair rules of the UN worldwide in denying access to journalists "international press freedom issues"? And how can you "look to the UN" to help if you don't first look AT the UN?

  While Charbonneau's UNCA in mid-2012 initiated a process against Inner City Press citing an article it wrote about Sri Lanka (and UNCA, see here), Inner City Press received death threats from supporters of the Rajapaksa government in Sri Lanka.

  Inner City Press asked UNCA to stop or at least suspend its process; this was refused, including by Charbonneau, who told Inner City Press to “go to the NYPD.”

Remembering CPJ's Bob Dietz' focus on Sri Lanka, Inner City Press wrote to him and CPJ's Joel Simon. The response came from CPJ's Americas Research Associate Sara Rafsky:

“Thank you very much for alerting us about your situation. At the moment, the Americas program is swamped with urgent cases... Thus it will most likely be some time before I can look into your case.”

  These was no follow up by CPJ. The New York Civil Liberties a month later, citing the complaint against Inner City Press, asked the UN to state its due process rules, which the UN has yet to do.

   The newly formed Free UN Coalition for Access, on behalf of which Inner City Press thanked Mahoney and his largely silent panel for coming, is pursuing changes to the UN's archaic and exclusionary accreditation rules and Media Access Guidelines.

   UNCA's, and Charbonneau's, response has been to tear down flyers on the topic.

CPJ & Reuters current and former, Feb 14, 2013 (c) MRLee

   On Thursday when Inner City Press asked about developments in Sri Lanka, including the president's brother and defense minister threatening an editor, Mahoney replied that Dietz did not come this year because he was sick, but that CPJ raises the case of cartoonist Prageeth whenever it can.

   Does CPJ think the UN under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon does enough on press freedom, particularly but not only in Sri Lanka?

   The problem here is that groups like CPJ like to use the UN to “launch” their reports. Mahoney joked with two separate Reuters reporters: click here, here and here for three (of many) documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reflecting Reuters and the UN.

Reuter's Charbonneau shakes with Ban: on what? (c) Luiz Rampelloto

  CPJ or at least Mahoney seem to assume that Big Media like Reuters (and Agence France Presse, click here) can do no wrong. But that is not the case. Watch this site.

Footnote: Mahoney to his credit put forth a definition of journalism far broader than the one pushed -- anonymously -- by UNCA "leaders" in a counterfeit social media account they established, which refers repeatedly to "non-media activists" as those who question UNCA's acts, including through the Free UN Coalition for Access. Most recently, they send / copy the counterfeit messages to countries' mission to the UN. CPJ?

As Ban Ki-moon's UN Ignores Press Murders in Sri Lanka, UNCA Stokes Hate Media There, Again

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- The position of freedom of the press and freedom of speech at the UN and its partners is declining daily. 

  Thousands of miles from UN headquarters in Sri Lanka, journalists rallied to protest the killing of reporters Lasantha, Sivaram, Nimalarajan and Sugeedarajan, and the disappearance of Prageeth.

   Inner City Press has repeated asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokespeople about these cases, particularly that of Prageeth, since Ban went to Sri Lanka in May 2009.

  But the UN has said little, and done less.

   Meanwhile Ban's Secretariat continues to "partner" with the UN Correspondents Association, which became known by some as the UN's Censorship Alliance after it sought to expel and dis-accredit Inner City Press for its reporting on UNCA's screening of a Sri Lanka government film denying war crimes.

 Click here for the story from the Sri Lanka Campaign, with among its leaders Edward Mortimer, the chief of communications of Ban's predecessor.

   UNCA "leaders" from Reuters (Louis Charbonneau),Agence France Presse (Tim Witcher) and Voice of America tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN as a whole. 

   UN official Stephane Dujarric thanked VOA's Steve Redisch for his June 20, 2012 request to dis-accredit Inner City Press.

   Only because the attempt was exposed, including by use of the US Freedom of Information Act, was Inner City Press informed of the complaints and arguments against it. The UN provides no due process.

   Since UNCA is no longer in any position to defend the rights of journalists, a new organization has sprung up: the Free UN Coalition for Access. 

   It has petitioned the head of the UN Department of Public Information Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal to allow space for another organization, and his indications have not been unpositive.

  But Stephane Dujarric, in a January 17 meeting and since, has suggested that DPI wants to continue to work, exclusively it seems, with UNCA.

 But here is what UNCA has become: it continued Tuesday defacing and counterfeiting FUNCA flyers which raise substantive issues about journalists' rights at the UN, from due process to the nitty-gritty of non-resident correspondents' right to equal access to information including in the Delegates' Lounge.

   While FUNCA last week asked Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal and Dujarric to either open the glassed in "UNCA" bulletin board for posting by all or to permit a FUNCA board, no answer has been provided.  

   Launsky-Tieffenthal was asked about this, repeatedly, on Tuesday, after earlier it had been posed, not anonymously but without any response, in reply to Dujarric's post of a cartoon of the French President. 

  This can't be bad form: Dujarric tweeted-at Inner City Press in December, defending the UN and Security Council.  At least in those cases, no one was anonymous.

    Now UNCA "leaders" have created counterfeit social media accounts and used them to subcribe to or follow Permanent Missions to the UN and other journalists, hoping for reciprocity.

  Several UN journalists on Tuesday told Inner City Press this disgusts them. But the new president of UNCA, Pamela Falk, has done nothing as the organization had become even worse under her less than one month tenure.

  Falk was present at an exhibit opening about Libya on Tuesday night, chatting with UNCA's (censorship?) partners in DPI, at an event featuring among other Ban's Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson, who is supposedly studying the UN's inaction in Sri Lanka in 2009. 

  What is he doing -- including on press freedom and multiparty democracy issues?

   To come full circle, the UNCA "leaders" in their counterfeit social media account have raised, as was done in an UNCA Executive Committee meeting in 2012, fueling Sri Lanka hate media and death threats, the spurious issue of funding by the Tamil Tigers, which don't even exist anymore.

   It's false -- but that a supposed "journalists organization" would try to link competitors with such a group, and continue for now to be partnered with by Ban Ki-moon's UN, is telling. Watch this site.