UNCA Leaders Vow Presence at All UN Briefings, Sledgehammers, Social Media

By Matthew Russell Lee

 

UNITED NATIONS, February 16 – In an hour-long meeting Friday that ended in shouting down a person who was lamenting the decline and decay of the UN Correspondents Association, the bankruptcy of UNCA was made plain.

   Not financial bankruptcy -- though no written financial statements were provided, total cash of $237,940 was alluded to, the vast majority of it collected at UNCA's $250 a plate annual dinner. A member asked for a written report; this was referred to “Other Matters” but was never addressed.

   It was said that the 15 members of the Security Council and their spouses are let in for free.  Members were urged to now lobby the Council members about the layout of the Security Council stakeout, an issue on which UNCA apparently fell asleep in 2012 while they focused on trying to expel the investigative Press, first from UNCA then from the UN as a whole.

   A “leader” of that drive, Reuters' Louis Charbonneau, bragged in Friday's meeting that French Ambassador Gerard Araud supports the tearing down of a wall near the so-called Turkish lounge; “we need more countries like that,” Charbonneau said.

   He also said, “we need a few people with sledgehammers - then problem solved.” This is the approach he and UNCA have taken to flyers of the new Free UN Coalition for Access which note his role in filing stealth complaints with the UN, using his Reuters credentials -- the flyers just get torn down.

   Charbonneau's twist is to also suggest to the UN that it charge money for “a new paint job” after the flyers are torn down.

   This passive-aggressive approach was on display Friday when as soon as an UNCA member objected to a financial proposal, Charbonneau immediately called for a vote, like the last President of the General Assembly from Qatar used to it.

   One of those actually witnessed tearing flyers down has been Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, who at Friday's meeting spoke only once, to urge members to send “e-mail and letters” to member states.

  One wonder if the regurgitation of fawning coverage might be part of the plan to get the support of some member states?

    Referring to the Turkish Lounge, Joe Lauria of the Wall Street Journal reminisced about accessing Sergei Lavrov there. More recently, Lauria mocked an alleged victim of sexual harassment: after the person said that their complaint was news, Lauria said sarcastically that he couldn't cover it since he had not made a recording of it.

   On the other hand, Charbonneau said that this fight about the wall “might be a story” in the media; new UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS said that on the wall the help of the Committee to Protect Journalists is being obtained.

   This seems strange, since only this week CPJ's Rob Mahoney declined to answer Inner City Press' question about the UN's accreditation rules barring journalists based on geography and “principles,” calling these “in house” matters.

 

Under Falk, the focus of UNCA seems to be on trying to prop up the organization's credibility, or at least visibility. The first presentation in the meeting, made by Sylviane Zehil of L'Orient le Jour, was that the Executive Committee voted that its members, or an alternative, should ask a question for UNCA “at every noon briefing.”

  This was never done before; when Falk recently thanked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey for coming to the noon briefing, even Del Buey had to laugh.

  Falk said she aims to send “everything” to UNCA members, including floor plans of the Security Council that the UN for some reason didn't just post itself so that all journalists could see, rather than trying to prop up the sagging UNCA.

   But several members have noted that Falk does NOT “sending everything” -- where for example is the transcript or recording of her and 12 opaque UNCA apostles' February 7 session with Ban Ki-moon?

There was talk of revamping UNCA's Constitution,using a lawyer who did the same for UNCA's affiliate the Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalism.

  UNCA has already violated its Constitution three times in the past two months - late on elections, leaving power, and general meeting - but noted Friday the Constitution's failure to address new and social media. The supporter in charge followed the meeting with a sycophantic tweet about how “excellent” it had all been. Compared to what?

   Falk also bragged that UNCA will be more active in social media, saying that Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency will “spearhead” this. Since Falk took over, UNCA “leaders” have set up at least three anonymous social media accounts to try to undermine FUNCA and co-founder Inner City Press, by sending false messages to country's missions to the UN.

  For the record, Fitzgerald wrote in last weekend to say he is “not a part” of fake social media accounts. This was noted, though he has yet to respond to follow up questions sent to him, and he did not appear at UNCA's February 15 meeting.

   Now that Fitzgerald's been said to “spearhead” Team UNCA's social media, his response will become clear. Likewise, there is more to be said about this “annual” meeting, but this is it for now.

  Other than “the wall,” much of the meeting was about how 21 broadcasters -- including Falk's CBS? -- intend to use UNCA as a conduit for money to the UN.

   It was said that “the UN will deal only with UNCA.” That is the problem, increasingly untenable. Watch this site.

In UN, Ban Ki-moon's Censorship Partners UNCA Mock Woman Alleging Sexual Harassment

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 8 – The group UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gave lunch and quotes to on February 7, the Executive Committee of the UN Correspondents Association, is not only engaged in censorship and trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN.

As became more evident on February 8, they are also prepared to mock a woman complaining of sexual harassment, and to make anonymous postings to this effect. This is Ban Ki-moon's UN Censorship Alliance: UNCA.

  On the morning of February 8 an off the record briefing was held at a UN member state's mission. Because it was deemed off the record, Inner City Press which like the UNCA Executive Committee members and some others attended, is not stating which country's mission it was.

  A UN accredited journalist, also on the list and let into the mission, was seated when she was asked into the entrance to speak with a mission representative. She was asked to leave; she asked Inner City Press and another member of the Free UN Coalition to Access to try to mediate.

   This proved impossible. But during the discussion, the UNCA Executive Committee members gawked through the open door, and mocked the woman who was being asked to leave.

   Finally the woman came into the briefing room and asserted, with quaking voice, that she was being asked to leave due to a past case of quid pro quo sexual harassment. “He tried to conquer me,” she said.

   Several UNCA Executive Committee members laughed openly. The Wall Street Journal's part time UN correspondent Joe Lauria joked, “Did anyone get that on tape? How can I cover it if I don't have it on tape?”

   But none of the UNCA Executive Committee members present, including UNCA President Pamela Falk of CBS, covered the woman's complaint. 

  Rather, through a counterfeit social media account they established, they joked that the woman, identifying her as a FUNCA member, "was expelled from [name of country's] briefing" and said that Inner City Press "broke solidarity and stayed."

   The woman in question has now authorized and asked Inner City Press to write about her case. The briefer, in fairness, is one of the most astute UN observers.

   Back inside the UN, Inner City Press for FUNCA asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman a question about Ban's favoring of UNCA despite its record – a question that got cut off and censored from UNTV, click here for that.

  Meanwhile upstairs on UN press(second)  floor material was torn down from the door to Inner City Press' cubible office, and a new flyer was posted: “We will not be conquered!”

Inner City Press cubicle door at UN Feb 8, 2013: Ban Ki-moon not shown

   This is a reference to the woman's sexual harassment claim. This is taking place inside the UN, on the second floor over the Dag Hammarskjold Library, by the group that Ban Ki-moon partners with on media matters.

The tearing down of FUNCA flyers and the counterfeiting has been raised to UN officials, including at least one in attendance at Ban's February 7 session with the UNCA Executive Committee, and "new" UNCA President Pam Falk, have been made aware, but both have continued. 

Ban Ki-moon's UNCA Lunch of the Lost, Feb 7, 2013, credit Evan Schneider, UNPhoto. From left: OSSG's Del Buey; Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency; OSSG's Nesirky; Melissa Kent of CBC; Sylviane Zehil of L'Orient le Jour; Tim Witcher of AFP; Ali Barada of An-Nahar; Ban Ki-moon, Kahraman Halicelik of Turkish Radio & TV; Pamela S. Falk of CBS; Lou Charbonneau of Reuters; Bouchra Benyoussef of Maghreb Arab Press; Yasuomi Sawa of Kyodo News; Masood Haider of Dawn; Unkonwn; Zhenqiu Gu of Xinhua; Stephane Dujarric of UN DPI

  Who are followers of UNCA's counterfeit social media account now mocking a woman alleging sexual harassment?

   These include UNCA first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, as well as his predecessor Evelyn Leopold and his co-worker Michelle Nichols, whose news sense is tweeting on the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Did that anger them, or a reference to Charbonneau's stumpy blazer? Reuters is responsible for them, even their thinly veiled "anonymous" mocking of those alleging sexual harassment.

    Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reflect the adoption of a policy of not responding to any Inner City Press question or complaint on the part ofReuters editors Stephen J. Adler, Walden Siew, and Paul Ingrassia, and the more anonymous editors of Agence France Presse.

  The followers include two reporters of another wire service cited favorably by Ban's spokesman on February 8.

   They include the former UK spokesman Daniel Shepherd and the current spokesman for the French Mission to the UN, Brieuc Pont, as well two French reporters at the UN: Karim Lebhour of RFI and Adele Smith of Le Figaro. Joe Lauria of the WSJ, with his less than 300 followers, after laughing at the woman alleging sexual harassment, has also followed.

   The followers also include Voice of America, whose Margaret Besheer pushed to get Inner City Press expelled from the UN in 2012, saying she had the support of Charbonneau of Reuters and Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse. There are more, and there is more to say. Watch this site.