Press Protection Pieties at UN Belied by Bids to Throw Out Inner City Press and by UNCA and Reuters Spying

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- There will be a lot of talk about the protection of journalists at the UN today, and Inner City Press will cover it from all sides, including from the perspective of how things actually work at the UN.

  In 2012 the representatives of Reuters, Agence France Presse, Voice of America and others, using the UN Correspondents Association which they control, repeatedly tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN.

  Voice of America wrote to the UN on June 20, 2012, asking that the accreditation of Inner City Press be “reviewed.” Click here for that document. 

  In documents Inner City Press obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act since VOA is a US government organ, VOA said it had the support of Reuters, Agence France Presse and UNCA itself.

  (FOIA requests have been filed concerning the anonymous social media campaign begun within the Executive Committee of UNCA which is still active this week.)

   Agence France Presse's Tim Witcher, after first complaining within the UNCA Executive Committee about a story Inner City Press published about Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping, this year went further.

    Witcher filed a complaint with UN Security leading with how Inner City Press asked a question to Ladsous about the lack of accountability for the 135 rapes in Minova by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army.

  Part of this pattern of attempts to discourage or prohibit investigative reporting in the UN) by its UN Censorship Alliance was a demand that Inner City Press remove from the internet its reporting about Sri Lanka military figures using UNCA exclusive “right” to hold briefings inside the UN to deny detailed charges of war crimes committed in 2009, and facts relevant to why this took place.

  Sri Lanka is a country where journalist who question the government are threatened with death, and after the UNCA Executive Committee's proceeding and leaks, the death threats reached the Press in New York. But the UNCA Executive Committee, even informed, kept right on going. Protection of journalists?

  UNCA leadership's self-serving and unaccountable use of the the three room on the third floor that the UN gives it continues under UNCA's 2013 president Pamela Falk.

   Falk took photographs of a March 18, 2013 non-consensual raid on Inner City Press' office and, when asked why she took photographs, issued a legal threat to “cease and desist” reporting on it, through her CBSNews.com e-mail address. Protection of journalists, indeed.

   Reuters' Louis Charbonneau, then as now the first vice president of UNCA and power behind the dubious thrown, filed stealth complaints and worse.

  Charbonneau immediately gave to the UN's top accreditation official an internal document that he and the other Executive Committee members had promised three minutes before would remain only inside UNCA. Click here for document, here for story.  

   Click here for audio of the UNCA Executive Committee meeting where Charbonneau said the document would remain only within UNCA -- three minutes before he sent it to the UN's top accreditation official with the notation, "you didn't get this from me."

   As such, Reuters' Charbonneau and the UNCA Executive Committee came to function in essence as spies or informants for the UN, which was given (and retained for later use) documents explicitly labeled as internal to UNCA. Some are not surprised that the flow, then, works that other way as well.

  As to UNCA, once it is definitely shown that their supposedly internal documents were immediately handed to the UN's top accreditation official, something had to happen. Even the UN goes through the motions in the face of such revelations. But not UNCA.

   There is much more to say, but the point for now is this: some of the talk about protection of journalists held at the UN today and others days is shot full of hypocrisy.

   Add to this that the anonymous social media campaign begun within the Executive Committee of UNCA -- now known due to its anonymous trolling nature as the UN Cowardice Association -- is active still this week.

   This stands in contrast to the on-the-record work of Inner City Press, and the Free UN Coalition for Access which it co-founded in order to actually protect journalists from these and other attacks -- click here for example for FUNCA members' work in Somaliland, a place where the UN and Security Council are not protecting journalists, far from it.

   And the UN Secretariat's recent response? To threaten to “suspend or withdraw” the accreditation of Inner City Press for merely hanging the sign of the Free UN Coalition for Access on door of room S-303, one story up from the Security Council. Just is just one story. Watch this site.

   

UN Official Ordering Censorship of FUNCA Sign Led March Raid, Shared Photos Which Leaked to BuzzFeed

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 -- That Ban Ki-moon's United Nations has no respect for the privacy guaranteed in the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution was made clear on March 18, 2013, when his Department of Public Information (DPI) conducted a non-consensual raid on the office of Inner City Press, rifled through papers and took photographs including of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf.

(What DPI did with the photographs it took will be addressed, after three months review and restraint, below in this article.)

  Now DPI in June DPI is making clear it has no respect for free speech or free association -- principles protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. 

  DPI is trying to ban even a sign for the new Free UN Coalition for Access. The person ordering the FUNCA sign down is the same one who led the March 18, and shared photos of it.

  In a rule DPI agreed to with its UN Correspondents Association, the UN now says:

"Signs posted on doors are limited to entry restrictions – for example, 'do not disturb' or 'on air.' DPI will provide a name-plate for each accredited media organization."

  But, tellingly, the UN proposes to allow two big signs by its favored UNCA -- now known as the UN Censorship Alliance, which also colludes in restricting smaller media's access to the Security Council and in 2012 devoted most of its meetings to trying to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.

  DPI on Friday June 14 wrote, "the posting of notices policy does apply to the FUNCA sign... I am afraid you will have to take the sign down." The e-mail came from Broyer but she'd said she would check above her. 

  This presumably was with Stephane Dujarric, a DPI official who not only received but in essence encouraged Big Media requests to kick Inner City Press out, including to a non-UN email address he maintains for such "extra-curricular" activity. (There is a movie title that comes to mind, but Inner City Press has been asked not to use it.)

  When the obvious discrepancy with UNCA's two signs was pointed out to the head of DPI on June 14, he said Okay, I will talk to them on Monday. 

  But on Monday morning as Inner City Press tried to cover the Security Council meeting on Children and Armed Conflict, now without a media table which existed for years before UNCA agreed to rules banning it, DPI's Isabelle Broyer insisted, "We are trying to apply the posting of signs policy to all... UNCA has its sign outside the space that has been assigned to that organization."

  Why the UN gives a big space for private meetings by a group that tries to get other media thrown out of the UN is a question that needs answering. But by 5 pm on June 17, other DPI staff were outside Inner City Press' door asking, "are they allowed to hang anything on their door?"

  And Broyer wrote again: "I would like to ask you again to removed the FUNCA sign on your door. As discussed with you before, we only allow signs containing the name of the company which is assigned to that room. You can have Inner City Press on your door, if you want."

   Oh, thank you. How can the UN so openly favor one group over another, and try to ban even the signs of the newer group, even from a media's office door?

   Broyer, as it happens, was on-site at the March 18, 2013 raid. She took photographs, and later that day emailed them to a number of non-DPI parties, as well as to Dujarric. These are EXACTLY the photographs that were then leaked to BuzzFeed on March 21, right after that publication contacted Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky to inquiry about the raid.

  We will have more, much more, on all of this. Watch this site.

Media Worktable at UNSC Seized by "Lady from DPI" of UN, Partner UNCA Silent, Banning the Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 3 -- If at the UN a journalist sets up a small work table by the Security Council, where one has existed for years, what happens? 

  On Monday morning the UN's Department of Public Information seized the press work table. 

  Then at the day's UN noon briefing when Inner City Press asked by what authority, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson Martin Nesirky replied by again and again referring to "extensive discussions" with his deputy, and with DPI's Stephane Dujarric.

  But neither stated when the proposed rule, immediately opposed on May 21 by the new Free UN Coalition for Access, would go into effect:

"f. The Security Council stakeout area, including the Turkish Lounge, is not to be used as a permanent workspace for the media. When the Council is not in session, correspondents should minimize the amount of time in the area, unless interviewing or conversing with a U.N. delegate or official."

  From May 21 right into the weekend of the move, Inner City Press and FUNCA worked to get the rules suspended or modified, asking about it at six -- now seven -- noon briefings and speaking with the Department of Public Information on May 31, and even on Saturday, June 1.

  None of this stopped DPI from seizing the small table on which work was attempted on June 3. Inner City Press was told that "a lady from DPI" took it. 

   While no one from DPI has contacted Inner City Press about returning the table, or has responded to a status request e-mailed before 11 am on Monday, we note that one "lady from DPI" led a non-consensual raid on Inner City Press' last office on March 18, 2013.

After that, photographs of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf were leaked to BuzzFeed immediately after that publication contacted Ban's spokesperson to ask about the raid.

  Nor did DPI's long time partner UNCA do or say anything about the seizing of the table. One UNCA board member proposed to send FUNCA a draft, but hasn't. UNCA president for 2103 Pamela Falk of CBS, took photographs of the March 18 raid, then issued a legal threat against questioning why she took the photos, has said she hadn't seen the draft of the Media Access Guidelines.

  But on June 3 the rules were apparently in effect -- under what else would DPI have seized a media worktable? And where is the incoming president of the Security Council on this? Watch this site.

Kissinger at the UN: Story of a Photo Not Taken, Wheelchair Sans Mr. K

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- It was inside the UN, but there was no sign on the door. In Conference Room E of the Temporary North Lawn Building, Inner City Press was told, Henry Kissinger was speaking.

  Having covered, in the time of Occupy Wall Street, a mock award ceremony for Henry Kissinger held in front of a midtown Manhattan hotel (video here), Inner City Press had a sense there could be news: Kissinger in the UN! Again!

And so Inner City Press set up shop at a Cafe Austria table in front of Conference Room E. The electronic blue sign which usually announced what's taking place in a UN meeting room -- the Law of the Sea, even sometimes, "Questions about Information" -- was blank.

There was a paper sign on the door itself, DPI-NGO, but that event (which Inner City Press also covered, in the context of an internship with an NGO inside the UN being auctioned off for $26,000) was over.

A UN Security medical officer arrived, to unfold and man a wheelchair, along with two bodyguards. Two of the three looked skeptically at Inner City Press. But it is an open area.

After several false alarms, the moment came. Henry Kissinger came out of Conference Room E. But he said, even before he was out, "no pictures of me in a wheelchair."

Well.

  There have been other sightings by Inner City Press in the UN this year: Judith Miller of Iraq and New York Times fame, here in the time of Syria and chemical weapons, on April Fool's Day no less. 

  Beyonce, for whom photographers were ordered to turn over their memory cards and have them erased. (Meanwhile, the UN took photos while raiding Inner City Press' office on March 18, then shared them and had them leaked on March 21 once the UN was asked about the raid.)

There are many orders in the UN, usually by the UN or its allies, on what to publish. This one, we will respect. What remains is a picture of the wheelchair sans Kissinger, here. Watch this site.

As US Celebrates Senior Advisory Group, Deployment Exceptions, CoE Reservations, Shavendra Silva in the Mix?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- Not only US Ambassador for Management Joe Torsella, but also Permanent Representative Susan Rice, issued positive comments Monday about the UN Budget Committee resolution on the report of the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

  Ambassador Rice's statement said the adopted SAG recommendations "extend the typical troop rotation period from six to twelve months -- saving millions and allowing troops on the ground to gain valuable expertise."

  During the negotiations on the report, it was noted that many Troop Contribution Countries, particularly in Latin America, have constitutions prohibiting deployments for 12 months.

  And in the Budget Committee meeting on Monday, held while the UN Security Council was meeting on Eastern Congo and the death of a UN Peacekeeper in Abyei, it was said that exceptions to 12 month deployments can be issued by Ban Ki-moon.

  So that's what the word "typical" means.

  Going bigger picture, Togo spoke up after adoption to say the UN should pay interest on what it owes to Troop Contributing Countries, due to delays.

  Likewise on the idea that a Troop Contributing Country would lose funding if it deployed with broken Contingent Owned Equipment, Department of Field Support Under Secretary General Ameerah Haq read out a long clarification, for which India's Deputy Permanent Representative Manjeev Singh Puri praised her. 

  (The Group of 77 took a reservation to it, citing with approval Haq's clarification, while Togo called it "unjust.")

This type of specificity did not apply, it seems, to Ambassador Torsella's statement, which thanked "all members of the SAG." Video here, from Minute 25:35

  Did this include Shavendra Silva of Sri Lanka? We'll await clarification before saying more. (This was only the Budget Committee approval - the full General Assembly is still required, perhaps Friday, chairperson Miguel Berger said.)

The larger irony is that while the US Mission here praised the UN process, and has yet to criticize the online auctioning for $26,000 of an internship "in the UN," to benefit the RFK Young Leaders of the RFK Center, in Washington White House spokesman Jay Carney was very quick to disbelieve UN Human Rights Council appointee Carla Del Ponte on strong suspicions of the use of sarin gas by the Syrian opposition, not the government.

  Carney said, "We are highly skeptical of any suggestions that the opposition used chemical weapons. We think it highly likely that Assad regime was responsible but we have to be sure about the facts before we make any decisions about a response."

  But that skepticism is not applied to smaller but more concrete example of seeming corruption involving the UN, or to attack in and by the UN on smaller, investigative press, from raids on offices to anonymous trolling by Western wire services that dominate the UN Correspondents Association, trying to get the investigative press thrown out of the UN. We'll have more on this.

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.

UN Official Dujarric Questions Inner City Press About Tweet Mentioning WW2, Won't Says How Photos of Raid on Press Office Leaked: Censorship?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 18, updated -- One month after the UN raided Inner City Press' office, rifled through papers and took photographs, leaked three days later to BuzzFeed.com, UN Department of Public Information official Stephane Dujarric asked Inner City Press to call him, urgently.

  Would Dujarric finally answer how photographs taken while DPI was inside and in control of Inner City Press' office were leaked, just after BuzzFeed contacted Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky to ask about the raid?

  No. The urgent matter about which Dujarric asked to be called, even as Inner City Press waited to cover the forthcoming UN Security Council press elements on Syria, was a single tweet from earlier in the day.

  Alongside dozens of tweets about the day's Security Council meeting on Syria, about the UN and cholera in Haiti,Western Sahara and the Rwanda genocide, as well as thebeating in The Bronx of a man from Bangladesh “for” the Boston bombings, and Reuters' pre-released obituary of George Soros, Inner City Press had in 140 characters summarized a UN personnel announcement.

  The announcement, e-mailed to the press at 3:27 pm, began: “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Mr. Stefan Feller of Germany as the new United Nations Police Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.”

  Half an hour later, seeing the announcement during a lull in Security Council negotiations, Inner City Press tweeted: “For #UN Police Adviser under #Ladsous, switch is from #Sweden to #Germany, Mr Feller. #WW2. Can you say, #LADSOUS2013?”

  At 6:20 pm, the UN's Dujarric wrote to Inner City Press and to the Free UN Coalition for Access which it co-founded, “Please call me as soon as you can. I'm in the office. It's rather urgent.”

  Inner City Press stopped working and called -- thinking it might finally be an answer as to how the photos taken during DPI's raid of Inner City Press' office were leaked to BuzzFeed. But no.

  Dujarric demanded to know what Inner City Press meant by “#WW2.” He said it offended millions of people, to mention “World War Two” in connection with a German UN official. And see below.

  He did not mention “#LADSOUS2013,” though he has in other meetings. 

  Herve Ladsous is the head of UN Peacekeeping who, after being asked by Inner City Press for example about his speeches (and now memo) at the UN during the Rwanda genocide in 1994, has refused to answer Inner City Press' questions, for example about 126 rapes at Minovo by the Congolese Army.

  On December 18, 2012, Ladsous directed his spokesman to seize the microphone of UN Television, run by Dujarric, to try to avoid an Inner City Press question about the Minova rapes. Video here.

  When FUNCA complained to Dujarric's supervisor, the response weeks later was the Dujarric has spoken, individually and quietly, to Ladsous' spokesman. Since then, other abuses of journalists' rights at the stakeout have occurred.

  Inner City Press asked Dujarric, who had previously blocked Inner City Press from his own Twitter account, if he “polices” other journalists tweets. He claimed that he does. We can have more on this.

  FUNCA and Inner City Press believe it is inappropriate for the UN official in charge of accrediting journalists to be able to enter the UN to simultaneously critique what they write. Dujarric has tried it in the past. But this time, it seems ever more pre-textual.

  When Inner City Press asked him again to explain how the photographs taken while DPI was in control of Inner City Press' office were leaked to BuzzFeed, through an e-mail addressed called “Concerned UN Reporter,” Dujarric accused Inner City Press of trying to change the topic.

  But Inner City Press has been asking this question, without satisfaction, since late March. It is clear: DPI is responsible, the photographs were taken while it was in control of the office.

  DPI will not say who it let in -- the president of the UN Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS, was seen taking photographs, but has issued a legal threat against Inner City Press even questioning it -- nor with whom it shared the photographs its staff took.

  We can state: we know that DPI staff shared photographs taken inside Inner City Press' office with other Dujarric-accreditated correspondents. That was inappropriate, and now it is time to answer.

  Or to censor? Watch this site.

Update: Dujarric subsequently sent this:

From: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 6:57 PM
Subject: Your recent tweet
To: matthew.lee [at] innercitypress.com

Dear Matthew, 

You have the right to publish or post what ever you want but I must take issue with your recent posting on Twitter. 

Your  tweet this afternoon (see screen shot below)  regarding the appointment of Stefan Feller of Germany as the new UN police advisor is beyond the pale.

For #UN Police Adviser under #Ladsous, switch is from #Sweden to #Germany, Mr Feller.#WW2. Can you say, #LADSOUS2013?

— InnerCityPress (@innercitypress) April 18, 2013

Putting a World War II hashtag next the name of someone just because he is German is plainly deeply offensive. I would hope that in the future you pause before you tweet. 

I would appreciate it if you could post my email in full on Inner City Press.   

best 

Steph 
  
_____________________________ 
Stephane Dujarric (Mr.)
Director
News & Media Division | Department of Public Information
United Nations Headquarters |  Room: S-1056 
New York, NY, 10017

As UN Withholds Reports From Public, Challenge to Archaic Practice by FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- Why would the UN withhold from the public digital copies of its own reports while printing out hard copies for the correspondents it accredits, giving them a head start to write the story, and to spin it?

To whom is the UN's allegiance? To whom is the UN's duty?

Frequently Inner City Press is contacted by readers asking for copies of UN reports they've seen summarized on a wire service. They say they have gone to the UN's web site but can't find the report. Why not?

For some time, the UN has put paper copies of its forthcoming reports in a shelving unit or rack in the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General, which is referred to as “The Gray Lady.”

  First hearing this, Inner City Press thought the New York Times was being referred to. But no: it's a piece of furniture.

  A large part of the work of the wire services which cover the UN is to walk to the Spokesperson's Office, grab copies of the reports in the Gray Lady and go and summarize them... often ideologically.

  This sequencing may have made sense in the past, before the UN had a web site and put its documents online for all the world. Then, the reports may legitimately have been ready only for in-house journalists for a period of time.

  But now, all documents are prepared on computers. It actually takes more work to print them out and put them out for journalists than to put them online in the UN's document system. So why is it still done this way?

  In a sense, it is a way to “buy” journalists -- many readers think these scribes have worked to get a “scoop,” and rely on the wires' analysis of the reports. Correspondents serviced in this way are less likely to be critical of the UN, or at least of the Secretary General whose Spokesperson does them this favor.

  But now, this “favor” comes at the expense of the wider public. The report could have been made available to everyone, but is affirmatively withheld to make a small group look good.

   The process should cease -- and the Free UN Coalition for Access, which fights to protect free press but also the right of the public to information, has put in just such a request, to the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his Under Secretary General for General Assembly and Conference Management, DGACM.

  FUNCA has NOT made the request to the Department for Public Information, for at least three reasons. One, DPI often says that such matters are not its affair, as it has claimed that the refusal of Ban's Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous to answer Inner City Press questions, or to distribute information fairly, is not a DPI matter.

  Two, the things DPI has been asked by FUNCA have not been acted on or even meaningfully responded to, including at least twelve specific proposed reforms to the UN's Media Access Guidelines and the Accreditation rules -- the main “club” DPI holds over the head of the press.

  Third, it remains the case that DPI conducted a non-consensual raid on Inner City Press' office on March 18, rifled through papers and took photographs including of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf. 

 Then, after Ban's spokesperson was asked by BuzzFeed about the raid, the photographs were immediately leaked to BuzzFeed through an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail account. Inner City Press has asked DPI to identify who it let into its office, what photos were taken and why and precisely how they were leaked to BuzzFeed. These simple questions have not been answered.

FUNCA proceeds. Watch this site.