AFP's Tim Witcher Complained to UN of How Inner City Press Questioned French Ladsous Outside Syria Meeting

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 29 -- How does the UN work? Today we re-examine how media like Agence France-Presse, doing the bidding of "their" country and the officials they foist on the UN, try to get other journalists thrown out of the UN by filing complaints they seek to keep secret.

   Based on a US Freedom of Information Act request, the fact that AFP sought to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN has been exposed, in a document published online here. But there's more to it.

  On March 8, 2013 Tim Witcher of AFP wrote to the UN Department of Safety and Security complaining how Inner City Press asked a question of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping. Witcher wrote to UN DSS:

"At the UN Security Council media stakeout area on Friday, March 8, 2013, I was stood [sic] with other news agency, television and newspaper journalists waiting, as per normal practice, for officials to arrive for a meeting on Syria. Mr Lee started shouting at and abusing under secretary general Ladsous as he came down the stairs for the meeting. Mr Ladsous did not respond... Mr. Lee has a longstanding campaign of harassment against AFP, Reuters and other UN media in his written blog."

   It is noteworthy not only that AFP's Witcher thought to complain to UN Security about a written blog, but also that it was Witcher, and not Ladsous, who filed this complaint. 

  In fact, all Inner City Press did was ask Ladsous a question about a UN cover-up, and repeated it when Ladsous refused to offer any answer, as even his predecessors Alain Le Roy and Jean-Marie Guehenno would routinely do.

(Inner City Press asked Guehenno about the kidnapping of peacekeepers from Nepal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guehenno replied with what the kidnapper, still free, was asking for. Le Roy answered on the obvious question of whether UN Peacekeeping, ceded to France for more than a decade, was being used to advance French colonial foreign policy in Cote d'Ivoire.)

  The meeting that day was about Syria. Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping, as first exposed by Inner City Press, had pulled the plug on the UN mission there, as while the head of the mission there Robert Mood did not know about it. Ladsous never explained his role; AFP's Witcher on this and other topics never published but sought to keep the investigative Press away from Ladsous, to the point of trying to get it thrown out of the UN.

AFP's Tim Witcher at UN; his March 8, 2013 complaint not then shown

  Even though or because AFP's Witcher didn't publish obvious but critical stories -- for recent example Witcher allowed the UN's envoy on cholera in Haiti to say that legal wrangling should be dispensed with in order to focus on the cholera that UN Peacekeeping brought to to island, without asking why the UN refused legal papers and if the case it is dodging has cost it any more -- he joined a small group of similar reporters in seeking to get private, spoon-fed (or lapdog) briefings.

  As luck would have it, one of these was captured on video, regarding Ladsous. After Ladsous, in a sense encouraged and "empowered" by coverage like that of AFP's Witcher, openly refused to answer Press questions about over 100 rapes in Minova in the the DRC by Congolese Army units UN Peacekeeping support, Ladsous summoned Witcher into the hallway, behind a glass door, for an "all French" briefing which included at least two other non-French reporters. 

  The other reporters are Margaret Besheer of Voice of America and Lou Charbonneau of Reuters; click here to view the video which Charbonneau has yet to get Google to block from its search mis-using while citing Reuters the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (This too is how the UN works.)

  The letter Witcher gave to the UN Department of Safety and Security cited another Reuters reporter who works under Charbonneau. 

  On March 8, 2013, after both ran stories based on a UN Peacekeeping spoonfed briefing spinning the very Minova rapes that Ladsous had repeatedly refused to answer public Press questions about -- click here for compilation video,here for UK coverage -- this Reuters reporter is the one who said to Inner City Press, after Ladsous again refused to answer, that some correspondents work behind the scenes and have sources. The response was and is: lapdog. This is how the UN works.

  If AFP's Witcher writing, even this manipulatively, to the UN was a one-off event it would be one thing. But in fact Witcher tried to use bureaucracy to defend Ladsous and the French Mission to the UN from Ladsous' first day. 

 Inner City Press had reported that another Frenchman, Jerome Bonnafont, had been told he would replace Le Roy atop UN Peacekeeping; Inner City Press even exclusively published a congratulation card addressed to Bonnafont at the UN by French politician Jean-Marie Bockel. But due to Bonnafont's bragging, the UN told France to send another successor, and got Ladsous, previously twice rejected in favor of Guehenno then Le Roy.

  The morning that Ladsous was announced, Inner City Press learned through sources that French Mission spokesman Stephane Crouzat had told a number of French journalists that Bonnafont was the guy. Inner City Press included this in the story, as indicative of how last-minute the switch to Ladsous had been.

  Witcher claimed that he had been the source of the information -- he wasn't -- and invoked the bureaucracy of the United Nations Correspondents Association against Inner City Press. Inner City Press said, and says, this benefited and protected not only Ladsous but also the French Mission and Crouzat. 

  Notably, Crouzat threatened Inner City Press that its publication of leaked documents was a "hostile act," whilerefusing to provide any comment on the documents. This too is how the UN works, still. And it is why the new Free UN Coalition for Access has been founded: to defend the right of free press and independent investigative journalism in the UN system.

  The old UNCA, now under Pamela Falk of CBS, cannot be counted on to defend free press, quite the contrary. As simply one example, when a journalist was thrown out of the UN for a single error (bringing a rubber prop gun from an independent film in as equipment by mistake) not only did UNCA not defend the journalist -- Reuters' Charbonneau wrote a story mocking the journalist's media and the country it comes from.

  Witcher's next step is away not only from the UN but also from non-sports reporting: he will cover "le sport" for AFP in Paris. Will he become as defensive of French sports figures as he did of Ladsous and the French mission? Will he tell other journalists how to ask questions of these French figures? Watch this site.

   

UN Celebrates Censorship and Itself, Stories on Nepotism, Sri Lanka & Corruption Ordered Down, Champagne Glasses Raised

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 4 -- How does censorship work at the UN? 

 Yesterday Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson about Ban's son in law Siddharth Chatterjee being named country representative to Kenya of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund.

  The spokesperson did not answer that, instead telling Inner City Press, "I think you know how to reach UNFPA." Video here, from Minute 6:30. The questions Inner City Press has submitted are below. 

  When Inner City Press reported on complaints of nepotism in the hiring of Ban's son in law Chatterjee, and another publication picked up and credited Inner City Press' reporting, Chatterjee contacted that publication and demanded that its story be taken off the Internet, which happened.

  Chatterjee asked the publication's reporter to tell Inner City Press to also remove from the Internet its story. Inner City Press refused.

  This is too widespread in the UN system. After Inner City Press reported as context for the screening in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium of a Sri Lanka government film denying it committed war crimes that the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association had previously rented a Manhattan apartment to Sri Lanka's Ambassador, other threats began.

  Inner City Press was told to take its report off the Internet. Instead, Inner City Press offered to publish any response; none was ever provided. Instead, the Executive Committee of the UN Correspondents Association, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance, began a kangaroo court proceeding seeking to expel Inner City Press.

  In the midst of this, in a meeting of the UNCA Executive Committee (to which Inner City Press had been elected, before now having quit the organization and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access to actually advocate for rather than undermine freedom of the press), Inner City Press was quizzed about its sources. As it always does and will do, Inner City Press refused to disclose its sources.

When the UNCA proceeding against Inner City Press was reported in Sri Lanka (and supposedly internal UNCA documents from it were immediately leaked to the UN byUNCA's first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, click here for that), death threats began to arrive from extremist supporters of Sri Lanka's Rajapaksa government. The UNCA Executive Committee's response was that this was not its problem.

  This all culminated in UNCA Executive Committee members from Voice of America and Reuters urging the UN to throw Inner City Press out of the UN. 

   Since VOA is a US government agency, Inner City Press continuing its reporting has been able to use the US Freedom of Information Act to obtain hundreds of pages of documents, including VOA's request that Inner City Press' accreditation be "reviewed," and its statement that UNCA spoke with the UN about throwing Inner City Press out of the UN and that Reuters' Charbonneau and Agence France Presse's Tim Witcher supported its request.

So this is the UN's Censorship Alliance, UNCA. In 2013, UNCA "leaders" responded to the formation of the new Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info by creating multiple imposter Twitter accounts of FUNCA, then of Inner City Press itself, as exposed by MediaBistro.

  That outside exposure slowed it, temporarily; nothing had been done by current and apparently future UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS, who was directly told on the recordabout the UNCA trolling ultimately attributable to her under command responsibility. Audio here and here; here for the statement "the fundamental problem is your website" from the Reuters first vice president of the UN Censorship Alliance. 

  They continued with their trolling campaign as recently as November 27, the day before Thanksgiving.

  And today in the clubhouse the UN gives to what has become its Censorship Alliance, Ban Ki-moon is the invited guest to raise a glass of champagne for an UNCA photo competition in which UN Photo is being given one of the prizes.

2d update: We note that photographer Cia Pak organized the competition, using the UNCA space because it's there [or, because the UN gives UNCA that space, rather than calling it for example the "UN Journalists' Club" and letting other use it.] Pak says he sent out the invitation to apply worldwide, for any UN related photographs. He indicates that in future years the volunteer judges will not vote on photos by those whom they supervise. Vaya con Dios. 

  FUNCA has previously noted that just as journalists in the US White House complain when in-house administration photographers are given exclusive access banning the independent press, the UN too should stop this. But UNCA is giving this award. 

  What's next, when the UN Censorship Alliance again invites Ban later this month and charges guests $250 a plate -- an award to UN News Centre or Ban's speech writers, from the UN's Censorship Alliance? Falk is running unopposed to continue this, along with a Reuters replacement, other censors, indicters and kangaroo court "judges." There have been no reforms at all this the above described. This is how censorship at the UN works.

  Here are the questions Inner City Press has put to the two top spokespeople at UNFPA:

This is a request for UNFPA to confirm or deny that Siddhartha Chatterjee has been selected "as the new head of the United Nations Population Fund in Kenya."

If so, please confirm or deny that the government of Kenya has "delayed accept[ing] the appointment" and describe how that acceptance process works, what has happened so far and where it stands.

Also, please describe in detail the recruitment and selection process for the position and how the son in law of the UN Secretary General was selected, and please comment on those who see the potential for nepotism or favoritism.

Watch this site.

   

UNable To Be On Record, Reuters' Mean Girl Charbonneau & AFP's Twitchy Tim Troll MediaBistro, Scribes on Syria

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 12 -- While the daytime at the UN on Thursday concerned France's Agence France Presse- and Reuters-enabled attempt to hijack and spin the forthcoming Sellstrom report on chemical weapons on Syria, the named trolls continued their anonymous work under assumed names.

  On September 9, Reuters' Louis "Mean Girl" Charbonneau and AFP's "Twitchy" Tim Witcher were exposed for having tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and for passive-aggressive shenanigans since. 

  Rather than respond on the record, they poured in comments under false names, as they did in March. But for what?

  Both are tools of France on the issue of Rwanda and the DRC. And so they pitch to MediaBistro the idea that because MONUSCO -- pre Kobler, mind you -- decided to denounce an Inner City Press story since proved even the Group of Experts report (of which Inner City Press exclusively published the full text, as credited by the BBC), this helps their anonymous cause. It is laughable.

  Tim Witcher of AFP is a scribe who filed a complaint with UN Security leading with the way Inner City Press asked a question to Frenchman Herve Ladsous. According to documents obtained from Voice of America's Broadcasting Board of Governors, his AFP office fully supported trying to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. VOA letter here, document on AFP here.

Tim Witcher at UN: ready to complain for Ladsous?

Louis Charbonnneau is a troll who spied for the UN, handing them an internal UN Correspondents Association documentthree minutes after promising not to do so. Story here, audio here, document here.

Lou "Mean Girl" Charbonneau handing what to Ban?

  Neither was seen at the evening's UN scene at the Norwegian consul general's -- rather, only UNCA 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS was there, leaving even before Geir Pedersen spoke. 

  Falk has time to ask inane questions she never writes about, but not to clean up UNCA trolling house. It's sad, really. Big media that can't even speak in its own name, merely pass throughs for the French and UK government? And, in the case of Charbonneau of Reuters, spying for the UN? Watch this site.

   

After Reuters & AFP Exposed as UN Trolls in MediaBistro, Anonymous Fightback, Crying About Office Space

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 11 -- Two days after UN insiders Louis Charbonneau of Reuters and Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse were called out as anonymous trolls in MediaBistro, they still had no response, at least in their own names.

Rather, a series of anonymous commenters weighed in, trying to convince the MediaBistro author that at least one of their two imposter @InnerCityPress accounts had always been labeled "Satire" and "Not."

  Neither is true, as the reporter himself soon realized. Still rather than actually responding and explaining for example why Charbonneau gave an internal document of the UN Correspondents Association to UN accreditation official Stephane Dujarric three minutes after promising not to (story here, audio here, document here), they just continued to troll. But they left finger prints.

  For example one of the names adopted for these comments is "David Spring" -- the same one used in March to argue that Inner City Press once "made" another journalist cry. This is exactly an argument (and person) used by Charbonneau, then parroted by ventriloquist David Spring.

Lou "Mean Girl" Charbonneau, the handing goes both ways?

  Since this troll's head is again raised, it must again be pointed out: an Italian reporter at the UN took so much offense to Inner City Press quoting another correspondent about the unfairness of so many Italian media getting offices, and all near each other as “Italian row,” that she cried.

  Inner City Press apologized but seriously, the UN's unfairness in giving out office space has had to be raised in 2013 as well. Three separate affiliates of the US State Department, including Voice of America, each have separate offices, while other countries' wire services were asked to share space.

  Now in September 2013 it remains the fact that Russia's ITAR TASS is confined to a windowless photocopy room, while others have their own offices facing the river, from which to troll and write inaccurate stories. Who's crying now? Watch this site.

   

Serving French, Reuters' Lou "Mean Girl" Charbonneau Silent On His Spying for UN - and Others?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 11 -- It's a dynamic that often comes through the UN: after a year of sneak attacks for which no one took credit, the anonymous attacker steps forward to present himself as the victim.

  So it is with the UN Correspondents Association's Executive Committee under 2013 president Pamela Falk of CBS and seemingly permanent first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, known for spoon-fed Western pass-through.

  But does Charbonneau serve his masters by being, as one UN analyst not in the press corps put it, such a Mean Girl?

  Both Charbonneau and Falk were informed, at latest on February 22, of obviously and openly UNCA linked anonymous social media accounts which sought to trash Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access -- not for any attribution, of course.

  But they did nothing. Charbonneau at that on the record meeting told Inner City Press, the fundamental problem is your website. Audio here. But InnerCityPress.com is on the record. The UNCA trolls are not.

The UNCA-linked accounts proliferated. One was noticed by a pro UN analyst who asked, "why are they tweeting like a 'mean girl'? No pic, either. Weird." But it continued.

  Last week, right after InnerCityPress.com published an on the record article noting that for US Ambassador Samantha Power's stakeout the three questioners selected were all UNCA Executive Committee members who had sponsored the faux "UN briefing" in late July by Saudi sponsored Syria rebel leader Ahmad al Jarba, the UNCA (Executive Committee) trolls went lower still.

  They started one then two counterfeit Twitter accounts with Inner City Press' name only slightly varied, and started following every single follower of @FUNCA_info then@InnerCityPress.

  Inner City Press wrote about it, but it continued. MediaBistro's FishBowlNY wanted to write about it, and did, after seeing the documents showing Voice of America saying Reuters under Charbonneau and AFP under Tim Witchersupported VOA's attempt to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. There are yet more damning documents; the Freedom of Information Act process at VOA's Broadcast Board of Governors continues.

  The response? An anonymous comment to MediaBistro purported to speak for all UN journalists (as UNCA always purports to do), calling Inner City Press "pro Syria, pro Rwanda, anti French."

  This last, "anti-French," is very telling.

  Then, the belated addition to the smaller of the two accounts of the word "satire" and "(Not)." The other, pitched at diplomats, does not contain these words.

And then... yet more anonymous tweeting, continuing. Or as the pro UN analyst called it, "Mean Girl" tweeting. And who is responsible? Louis "Mean Girl" Charbonneau?

  Charbonneau did, as documented, SPY for the UN, giving UN accreditation official Stephane Dujarric an anti-Press internal UNCA document three minutes after promising he would not. Story here, audio here, document here. 

  UNbelievably,or oh-so-UN, neither Dujarric or his DPI, nor Charbonneau, Reuters or Falk's UNCA have ever explained this. So "Mean Girls" is the least of it. Pass-through for war continues. Watch this site.

   

On Syria, US Mission to the UN Gives Questions to Censors, Spies & Trolls, CBS' Pamela Falk, Reuters' Louis Charbonneau

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 5 -- When US Ambassador Samantha Power took three questions after denouncing the UN Security Council and not mentioning the UN's forthcoming report on chemical weapons in Syria, the first was given as if automatically to Pamela Falk of CBS News, as 2013 president of the UN Correspondents Association. 

  The third and last went to Falk's first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters.

  Maybe the US Mission didn't know (or maybe they did), but Charbonneau not only has tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, he has essentially spied for the UN, giving an internal anti-Press UNCA document to the UN's chief accreditation official Stephane Dujarric three minutes after promising not to. Story here, audio here,document here.

  Now on September 5, 2013 Charbonnneau is linked to yet more anonymous social media trolling of Inner City Press and the alternative media-defense organization it co-founded, the Free UN Coalition for Access. 

  The documented "spying for the UN" is the most serious: it goes beyond getting too close to those you are supposed to cover.

Charbonneau glad-hands Ban Ki-moon: handing documents? (c) Luiz Rampelotto

  It has been a tradition at the UN to "give" UNCA the first question in sit-down briefings where there is a special guest. But it is a tradition that should be abandoned, now that UNCA has shown itself not only willing to try to get critical journalists thrown out of the UN, but has descended into anonymous social media trolling, including trying to get journalists targeted by extremists with death threats.

  UNCA did this to Inner City Press regarding Sri Lanka; when Inner City Press fought back, UNCA Executive Committee members from Voice of America (subject to the Freedom of Information Act, the source of these documents), Reuters and Agence France Presse among others tried to get the UN to throw Inner City Press out.

  Charbonneau leaked UNCA documents to Dujarric; VOA wrote in asking for a "review" of Inner City Press' accreditation. Tim Witcher of AFP later filed a spurious complaint with UN Security leading with how Inner City Press asked a question of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, a complaint coordinated with Michele Nichols of Reuters who works under Charbonneau.

  Both Nichols and Charbonneau echo Reuters corporate output on Twitter. For a time Charbonneau was named a Foreign Policy Twitterati, but then he was no longer on thatlist of two. He still lists himself as one. This is Reuters -- compensation is based on (often false or stolen) exclusives.

  Both Falk and Charbonneau were told to stop UNCA's anonymous social media trolling, and to instead say anything they wanted ON THE RECORD. But they didn't. They are trolls.

When UNCA demanded the first question of Bolivia's president Evo Morales and Inner City Press wrote about it, the Department of Public Information convened UNCA and FUNCA for a meeting. UNCA's Pam Falk knew it was on the record; she said, he's going to write about it. Audio here.

  And Inner City Press did. DPI let Dujarric do its response - more threats to Inner City Press, for daring to report on an on the record meeting. Here is audio from the meeting, first reflecting that Falk knew it was on the record.

Falk at UN: Demands first question, has nothing to ask: responsible for trolling

   DPI has continued to partner with UNCA, well aware of the ongoing social media trolling. In fact, DPI let UNCA write portions of its Media Access Guidelines and now seeks to enforce a Ban on signs by threatening to suspend or withdraw Inner City Press' accreditation for hanging a sign of FUNCA on the door of its shared office, while UNCA has five signs.

  Perhaps the US Mission doesn't know or doesn't care, how this relates to free speech and freedom of the press. But it is important to note that under Falk and Charbonneau, UNCA held a faux "UN briefing" with Saudi-supported Syrian rebel boss Jarba, publicized only to those who paid money. So what about the US Mission choosing these questioners? Watch this site.