In Jordan, IPI Debates Who Is a Journalist As Corporate Media Lashes Out, Spoon-Fed at UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 -- They gathered in Jordan in the shadow of the Syrian conflict and asked themselves, Who is a journalist?

  It was an opening session of the International Press Institute's "World Congress," and a range of attitudes, from self-serving to open, were on display, if only by twitter. (Tellingly, the event was not live-streamed, but hundreds of tweets from inside the Versailles-like hall conveyed the debate.)

  Corporate for-profit media is in hard times, and so it is important to them to circle the wagons and protect what's left of their monopoly, such the way lawyers and even doctors do, in the developed world.

  But others on the panel took a broader view. Laura Weffer Cifuentes from Venezuela focused on passion, calling journalism a "way of life." John Yearwood said simply that anyone involved in the mass distribution of news is a journalist. 

  What is mass, for example on Twitter? Five thousand followers? Or like some "professional" journalists, less than a thousand?

  Does typing up information spoon-fed by a public figure make you a journalist? At the UN, which Inner City Press covers in detail, does being a pass through from the views or even "scoops" of particular powerful countries' embassies make you a journalist?

  What is clear to Inner City Press is that big corporate mediacannot be the ones to decide who is a journalist. At the UN they have tried it, between Reuters and Agence France Presse and Voice of America - and at least for now it hasfailed. 

  But they continue to try, lobbying UN media accreditation official Stephane Dujarric (himself formerly of corporate media) to deny UN media space to the investigative Press.

  The moderator or main panelist was Jim Clancy from CNN. He recently spoke at the UN, where corporate media have tried to get others thrown out. It was raised to such paragons as the Committee to Protect Journalists, who did nothing. They are funded by the corporate media which tried to eject others. Something must be done.

  From the audience in Amman, a representative of the Ford Foundation (a "partner" of the endeavor) posited that it is the public who decides who is a journalist. But the professionals among them resisted, referring to education or membership in a union. Style over substance, form over function.

  There are acts of journalism, some less opinionated that others. To live tweet a Security Council debate is one thing. To find fresh information is another. To retype spoon-fed propaganda? We're not saying they don't have a place. But they can't define it. Watch this site.

Staged Leak of UN Somali Sanctions Report Echoes Bogus Shabab in Lebanon Claim of 2006

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unleak1som031110.html

WASHINGTON, March 11, updated -- A Somali firm fired back Thursday night at the staged leak of a UN sanctions report to the New York Times and then other media. Deeqa Construction and its principal Abdulkadir Nur issued a two page denial, via a public relations firm after first having hired a Washington law firm. Click here to view.

Noteworthy in the coverage in the New York Times and then wire services of the report by the UN Somalia Sanctions Committee was the failure to mention that this same committee (and newspaper) reported in 2006 that many Somalis had been trained in South Lebanon alongside Hezbollah. This report gave rise to denials and derision and has never been substantiated. But this week's leak was taken at face value.

The report was shown in a coordinated, almost choreographed process of leaking, although in more than one city, in which reporters were shown but not given a copy of the report, allowed to record themselves reading the document but not taking notes on it. This is not investigative journalism, it is being a ventriloquist. Although some at least held out to see the whole report, and not only the portions, doled out in Naibori, which support the US' cut of aid to WFP.

Inner City Press is rarely an apologist or defender for UN agencies like the World Food Program. In fact, Inner City Press is inclined to believe that WFP and UNICEF would allow diversion of aid, just as up to 25% of aid after Cyclone Nargis was allowed to be stolen by the Than Shwe military regime in Myanmar, with the UN covering it up.

But these reports of diversion in Somalia, with the aura of the Al Shabab Islamist insurgency, have resulted in the cutting of aid by the U.S. and reportedly the UK, and increased starvation of Somali civilians. At a UN stakeout on camera, Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice for specifics, but none were provided. Click here for that story.

Earlier this week, Inner City Press timely submitted this question to the UK's David Miliband, again without promised response. Click here that (non) story. Not all leaks are created equal. Scooter Libby feeding the New York Times' Judith Miller lies about Iraq was not investigative journalism, but the manipulation of elite media by those in power. And this? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unleak1som031110.html