On Minova Rapes, UN's HerveLadsous Launders Self-Exoneration Through Reuters Lapdog

By Matthew Russell Lee, UN/Media Critique

UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- This is how it's done at the UN: the media that openly push for answers are stonewalled, those that sit and wait are used as pass-throughs for non-critical stories. So it happened on April 11 with Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, and Kieran Dwyer the spokesman for Herve Ladsous.

Charbonneau has written a story which entirely ignores Ladsous' stonewalling, much less UN Peacekeeping's inaction during the mass rape spree where it has its largest presence.

Ladsous on camera refused questions about the 126 rapes in Minova on November 27. He took Charbonneau, Tim Witcher of AFP and Margaret Besheer of Voice of America into the hallway for a private briefing -- none wrote about the rapes. Video here.

On December 7, Ladsous again refused Press questions on the rapes. On December 18, he went so far as to direct his spokesman to seize the UN Television microphone to try to avoid Inner City Press' questions on the rapes. Video here.

Flash forward to April 11: at the day's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked why Ladsous waived his supposed April 1 deadline to act on the rapes. Transcript here.

  Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Eduardo Del Buey said he would check and get back. But he didn't.

  So Inner City Press contact the office of Zainab Bangura, Ban's expert on sexual violence and conflict. Mattias Sundholm of that Office, copying Jerome Bernard, responded that “I understand that DPKO has promised to come back to you regarding Minova, so I will refer you to them.”

  Inner City Press replied that Ladsous and his DPKO refuse to answer Press question, preferring to dole the answers out to friendlier media.

  Sundholm answered, “I am fairly certain that you will hear back from DPKO by tomorrow.”

  Inner City Press wrote a story, predicting half in jest it thought that Ladsous might hand the answer to Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, who on March 8 filed a UN Security complaint leading with the mis-statement that on that day outside the Security Council Inner City Press started shouting and “abusing” Ladsous, and that Ladsous did not respond.

That was a lie. Inner City Press asked which battalions Ladsous had given his ultimatum to, and Ladsous responded that he was going to the Council to talk about Syria.

  In any event, it is disgusting that AFP has sunk so low as to file a complaint with UN Security leading off with how another more investigative media asked a question about these rapes of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.

  But first out of the box -- but surely not the only once -- is Alpha Lapdog Louis Charbonneau, who as noted went so far as to threaten that if the UN did not throw Inner City Press out, for articles particularly media critique that it published, he would have no choice but to ask about transferring out of the UN to another beat at Reuters.

Lou "He's Still Here" Charbonneau, courtesy UNTV

  This threat obviously implicates Reuters and the role it has come to play for the UN, like UN Peacekeeping, and some Permanent Missions like those of the UK and France. 

   But did Charbonneau tell his boss about the threat and do they stand behind it? They have been urged to inquire into their UN bureau's anti-Press moves, in their own names and as anonymous trolls. (This has continued.)

Those asked include, so far, Stephen J. Adler, Editor in Chief, Paul Ingrassia, Deputy Editor in Chief, Walden Siew, Top News Editor, Greg McCune, “Ethics,” and one other. But despite the issues raised, twice now, this mega corporation will not respond or more importantly reform.

   The problem, we say and have every right to say, with “articles” like Charbonneau's is they let the UN off the hook -- for doing nothing during the rapes, for stonewalling for months afterward. They ensure that this will happen again and again. They are... part of the problem. Watch this site.

On Minova Rapes, Ladsous Refuses to Name Battalions After 4 Months, 1 Question

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 28 -- Even while the UN says that UN Peacekeeping under Herve Ladsous has belatedly set a second “final” deadline for action on the 126 rapes in November in Minova by two battalions of the Congolese Army, Thursday Ladsous flatly refused to answer Press questions on camera.

   Inner City Press asked Ladsous to name the two battalions or to explain why not -- that is, why this silence and cover-up does not further impunity.

   Ladsous looked around, finally finding his favorite and longtime lapdog, Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, who dutifully asked a get-away question. In order not to hinder any other journalist's work, Inner City Press waited while another French journalist also asked Ladsous a question, in French.

   Then Inner City Press asked more directly, why did Ladous wait four months (so far) on the 126 rapes? What does this say about Ban Ki-moon's supposed Human Rights Due Diligence policy?

   Ladsous did not answer, walked away from the microphone. This week the UN has refused to answer a simple Press question about the training for UN peacekeeping missions of more than 800 troops from 23 countries -- in Nepal, from where the UN brought cholera to Haiti. What safeguards are in place?

   Ladsous won't answer that one either. There remains, it seems, only one question for Ladsous. Watch this site.

Footnote: by contrast, Inner City Press' DRC questions were taken by France's Gerard Araud and the DRC foreign minister, who would not name any action on Minova to be taken before Monday. So what is wrong with Ladsous? Like we said, one question.

On Sri Lanka, Press Was Put at Risk by UNCA, Al Jazeera, AFP & Saudi Press Agency, Happy to See UN Raid: Now CYA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNdisclosed Location, March 20 -- Nine months after scribes in the UN Correspondents Association went afterInner City Press for its reporting on Sri Lanka, subjecting it to death threats from extremist supporters of the Rajapaksa government, now several of them have belatedly taken an interest in the war crimes they did not cover in 2009. 

  Close observers call it guilt or more precisely, C.Y.A -- Cover Your Arse.

  Al Jazeera's Marcelle Hopkins, for example, was shown pro government media stories in June 2012 saying that the UNCA proceeding she pushed forward could put Inner City Press out of the UN and in jail -- an extremist called to wish jail rape on Inner City Press.

Al Jazeera's Hopkins response was to say she was “offended” that Inner City Press would blame the UNCA proceeding -- cited in the Sri Lanka media accounts -- for the threats. Audio here.

 It was a bogus response then, and is a bogus response now. Ironically, Hopkins had purported to offer praise for Inner City Press' reporting on Sri Lanka - but then would obviously have been happy to see it stop.th

On March 18, Hopkins walked right on by as the UN raided Inner City Press' office and conducted a non-consensual search of its papers.

  But, hey, Hopkins is tweeting about the Sri Lanka resolution at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. 

  So is Denis Fitzgerald of the Saudi Press agency, in 2012 just a judge of Inner City Press, now as if as a reward an UNCA Executive Committee member. Despite being told of the dangers of raising spurious claims of funding by the Tamil Tigers, Fitzgerald did just that in 2012, demanding for example, "who funds you?" Audio here.

  Now, he too is tweeting about Sri Lanka, and claiming to have no role in what the UNCA Executive Committee he sits on does. UNCA President Pamela Falk on March 18 took photographs of the UN's raid on Inner City Press' office. Any explanation?

  Tim Witcher, now as then an UNCA Executive Committee member, does not tweet about Sri Lanka. He hardly tweets at all - the last, in early March, was to try to promote the equally spoonfed story of Michelle Nichols of Reuters based on a briefing by Witcher's main source Herve Ladsous, answering a question Inner City Press had put to Ladsous and Ban Ki-moon.

After UNCA's Witcher cut into Inner City Press' conversation with another journalist on March 8 to hiss “lies and distortion” and Inner City Press replied, “lapdog,” Witcher and Reuters' correspondent filed intentionally false complaints with UN Security, to provide fodder to the UN to throw Inner City Press out. This is UNCA.

   On March 20 Witcher re-emerged, again with a French focus: Central African Republic and the need to blame Assad for chemical weapons use in Syria, even if by rebels. This is UNCA: cynical, blind and unresponsive. Watch this site.

At UN, AFP Is Pass-Through for US, No Mention of Ban Ki-moon's Travel Costs

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 18 – When Agence France Presse writes up the US' critique of UN business class air travel, it does not mention the UN's refusal to disclose how much Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has spent on travel, even when this was requested by the UN Staff Union before they voted “no confidence” in Ban.

   Then again, lapdog AFP never reformed on that “no confidence” vote either.

   Nor did they seek out any non-Western source for their pass-through article, which is little more than extended quotations of US Ambassador Joe Torsella. 

  At the end, AFP asserts with a single blind quote that Western countries agree with Torsella's campaign if not the style. Really?

   Until now, we've covered the use of AFP's Tim Witcher as a pass-through for Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping. 

  But now it seems AFP and Witcher are branching out: they will serve as pass-throughs and lapdogs for other Western countries, at least in the Permanent Five members of the Security Council.

   Will this make more potent Witcher's hypocrital complaint against Inner City Press, for after Witcher on March 8 cut into a conversation to hiss “lies and distortion” Inner City Press having said “lapdog”? Or at least shield Witcher from the repercussions that should accrue for filing a pre-textual complaint?

   Witcher remains a “leader” of the UN Correspondents Association, increasingly known as the UN's Censorship Alliance, and asked UNCA to act against Inner City Press for a report it published about Ladsous.

  Later, documents obtained from Voice of America under the Freedom of Information Act show, AFP supported VOA's push to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. 

  Now this complaint about free speech, the refusal to disclose the complaint -- and the slavish channeling of Torsella. This is part of why the UN does not, and for now cannot, reform itself.

Update: after publication of this media critique on the morning on March 18, Inner City Press asked again at the day's noon briefing for Ban's 2012 travel costs. Then in the afternoon, the UN raid Inner City Press's office, apres-raid video here. So what do Torsella and the US Mission think of the UN searching Press offices without consent?

UN Again Demands Press Response to Reuters & AFP Complaint It Will Not Disclose, No Rules

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 -- The UN's lack of rules, and of respect for free speech and freedom of the press are becoming ever more clear. 

  From Monday to Friday, Inner City Press has awaited a copy of a complaint filed with UN Security by Agence France Presse's Tim Witcher and Reuters' Michelle Nichols about a verbal disagreement which they initiated.

  No copy of the complaint has been provided, despite a renewed and formal request at 9 am on March 15 to the head of the Department of Public Information, as well as the chief of its Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit.

  Nevertheless at 4 pm on March 15 UN Security's Lenworth James sought out Inner City Press again, asking for a written response to a complaint he again refused to show to Inner City Press. We're not going to show it to you, he said. You will never get the complaint.

   How can this be? He added that Witcher's general claim is “harassment.” Since Inner City Press has not spoken to Witcher in months, unless a single reply “lapdog” could be considered harassment (it can't), then the reference is to articles Inner City Press has published.

  This lawlessness clearly can have, and appears intended to have, a chilling effect on reporting, on freedom of the press, with which DPI is supposed to be concerned (and not undermine.)

    That is why at 9 am on March 15, the request for a copy of the complaint, as well as for rules of due process and concerning false or pretextual complaints filed in bad faith, were formalized in a seven point letter sent to the head of DPI and the chief of its MALU. The other points, still unresponded to, will be the subject of forthcoming reporting.

  The letter also requests belated DPI response to Inner City Press' February 27 rebuttal of a defense of the UN Correspondents Association, a/k/a the UN's Censorship Alliance, by UN official Stephane Dujarric.

  Dujarric took issue with Inner City Press' reporting an on the record February 22 meeting, convened by DPI, with UNCA President Pamela Falk of CBS and Louis Charbonneau of Reuters. 

 Inner City Press said, "you are on the record," and Falk said, "he's going to write this up." But Dujarric claims it shouldn't have been. Can you say, censorship? Or attempt to chill free speech?

 Since February 27, Dujarric has provided no explanation. This helps create the lawless, free press-chilling and Kafka-esque atmosphere in which Witcher of AFP, on UNCA's Executive Committee, saw no downside to filing a frivolous complaint based on an entirely verbal exchange which he began, saying “lies and distortions.” Inner City Press replied, Lapdog.

   But DPI, seven hours after FUNCA's letter request rapid response, did not reply in any way. The head of DPI was occupied at a flower ceremony sponsored by the Japanese mission, another FUNCA member observed.

   That was in the afternoon before UN Security's Lenworth James -- he has yet to provide even a business card to Inner City Press, much less a written summary of the complaint he has twice demanded a written response to. 

   That UN Security would accept and process, and now twice demand a response from Inner City Press, to a supposed complaint that is entirely about freedom of the press and free speech is telling. 

  The UN has no rule of law -- witness in the much bigger picture its terse dismissal of Haiti cholera claims -- and little respect for freedom of the press. “They don't even want to do their jobs,” another FUNCA member said. Watch this site.

AFP's Witcher, Who Complains to UN of Being Called a Lapdog, Swore at ICP, Audio Here

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 12 -- Agence France Presse scribe Tim Witcher, who has now filed a frivolous UN Security complaint against Inner City Press for calling him a lapdog -- not even a curse word -- has in the past told Inner City Press “you just write any old bullsh*t.” Audio here, at Minute 0:35.

   If Witcher thought it was fine to swear at Inner City Press, what is the basis of his UN Security complaint, no copy of which has yet been provided despite Inner City Press' request?

   So what does the UN do with a not only frivolous, but clearly pre-textual complaint? As shown, Witcher despite having STARTED a UN Correspondents Association proceeding to censure Inner City Press, insisted that he had not been the drafter, because if it had been up to him, “you would have been kicked out.” Audio of that, here.

Witcher wanted Inner City Press kicked out, and how attempts to conflate a verbal disagreement which he began by hissing “lies and distortion” which drew the reply “lapdog” into a UN Security incident.

   But it is an incident that has nothing to do with security. It is an attempt at censorship, for reporting that as the audio reflects, Witcher does not like.

Witcher of AFP, March 8, 2013, Ladsous not shown, thanks UN Multimedia

   Is writing critically about Agence France Presse and its UN bureau's demonstrable closeness with the French Mission and with Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, a UN Security incident?

   What are the rules? Should UN Security accept and process, and keep confidential, frivolous complaints of one media against another, about entirely free speech and freedom of the press issues?

   Where is Ban Ki-moon's Department of Public Information in all this? The same DPI which invited Inner City Press to a session on February 22 at which UNCA President Pamela Falk of CBS was allowed to scream at Inner City Press “mugger” and “you call yourself a journalist”? 

  DPI said nothing about that. But now UNCA “leader” Witcher has filed a UN Security complaint about being called a lapdog, after he threw the first verbal insult, hissing “lies and distortion”?

   After, as shown on this tape, he told Inner City Press “you just write any old bullsh*t”? That's just what this is. Watch this site.

AFP Closeness With UN Shown by Revolving Door to Getting Paid, Context

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 11 -- Agence France Presse, which has filed a complaint against Inner City Press of which no copy has yet been provided, is close not only with Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, but with the UN more widely.

   UN Security on Monday afternoon informed Inner City Press that Tim Witcher of AFP and a correspondent of Reuters have tried to convert a verbal disagreement about their use by the UN into a complaint to which Inner City Press is supposed to respond -- without seeing a copy.

   Inner City Press has requested a copy, and any and all applicable UN rules (these have in the past been denied, even to the New York Civil Liberties Union, click here for that.)

  For now, here is the more context, which UN Security should have checked, or still should check, before processing a frivolous and pretextual complaint from Tim Witcher or AFP.

  Back in September 2011, when Witcher asked the UN Correspondents Association to censure Inner City Press for a story it wrote about Ladsous, Inner City Press asked Witcher about what conflict of interest rules might exist at AFP or the UN applicable to a person who covered the UN for AFP then working for the UN.

  Click here for audio, for the context of Witcher's still unseen March 2013 complaint.

Witcher first said he didn't know who was referred to, then insisted that despite a UN Staff badge the person did not work for the UN but rather... Human Rights Watch. Audio here.

The Reuters bureau chief, Louis Charbonneau, said there would be no conflict of interest working for the UN, it would be up to AFP.

  Later in June 2012, as shown by documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act, AFP and Reuters supported Voice of America's request to Stephane Dujarric of the UN to “review” the accreditation of Inner City Press, based entirely on things published and said by Inner City Press.

  Now Witcher of AFP and Charbonneau's Reuters charge have tried to convert free speech -- the word “lapdog,” which is not even a swear word -- into a complaint to UN Security.

  This is one reason AFP, at least at the UN, is becoming known to stand for Anti Free Press, just as during Witcher's and Charbonneau's tenure, now along with Pamela Falk of CBS, UNCA is functioning as the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  Falk at an on the record February 22 meeting including Dujarric told Inner City Press that to write to these these media companies to ask about their policies "might be a crime." Censorship Alliance indeed.

  Inner City Press is requesting a copy of the complaint, and of due process rules the UN should have, which have also been formally requested by the New York Civil Liberties Union and now by the new Free UN Coalition for Access. Watch this site.