By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 14 --
At the UN's
noon briefing
on August 13,
on the eve of
today's long
planned
protests in
Bahrain, Inner
City Press
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
outgoing
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey about
them:
Inner
City
Press: In
Bahrain, there
is going to be
a 14 August
protest that
the Government
is trying to
cut off at the
pass. There
are a lot of
reports of
journalists
and bloggers
and others
being arrested
in advance of
this protest.
I wonder, is
it something
that the UN,
either DPA
[Department of
Political
Affairs] or
anyone is
monitoring and
what can you
say about the
rights of
people to
protest on 14
August in
Bahrain?
Deputy
Spokesperson
Del Buey:
Well, as we’ve
said the
umpteenth
number of
times from
this podium,
the
Secretary-General
believes that
the right of
democratic and
peaceful
protest is a
right that
people have,
and it has to
be… it should
be respected
at all times.
With respect
to whatever
may be
happening on
14 August,
I’ll have to
find out for
you. I don’t
have that
information
with me. [Video
here.]
Apparently
the
UN still
doesn't have
or want to
acknowledge
having the
information,
even as the
Bahraini
government has
rolled out
barbed wire to
cut off
villages like
Budaiya from
the main
roads. Maryam
Alkhawaja uploaded
just such a
photo to
Twitter.
But
when some
people tried
to click and
see it,
Twitter
characterized
it as
"sensitive,"
requiring an
additional
step of
settings-changing
to view.
While
outrageous and
with troubling
resonance,
what is so
"sensitive"
about a
photograph of
rolls of
barbed wire in
a street, with
no people in
it? What is
the process
within Twitter
whereby some
newsworthy
photographs
are flagged as
"sensitive"?
And,
on this day,
where is the
UN? Back in
June 2013, the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
questioned
why the "UN
Public
Administrators'
Network"
blithely held
a conference
in Bahrain
with nary a
word about
human rights.
Here's
Facebook photo
of royals with
UN officials
-- apparently
not sensitive.
The "UN
Information
Center" in
Manama didn't
speak about
rights, rather
tweeting about
Ban Ki-moon
then being in
China. The
new @FUNCA_info
asked
how this could
be.
Part-time UN
official Terje
Roed-Larsen,
good friend of
the royals,
has in the
past gone to
Bahrain and
been described
there as a UN
official. Then
he
characterized
his trip as
"personal" --
another form
of
"sensitive"?
-- even though
he took his
UN-paid
staffer with
him.
Now,
for months,
the UN has
left an Inner
City Press
question about
Road-Larsen's
UN staffing
unanswered.
Too sensitive?
Watch this
site.
, 
