UN
Spokesperson
Has No
Response on
Web
Censorship,
Yemen, Bans
Transparency?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 18 --
While many new
media
organizations
conducted
a
blackout
during the day
on January 18
to protest the
Internet
censorship
threatened
by the the
Stop Online
Piracy (SOPA)
and Protect IP
Act (PIPA)
proposals
in the US
Congress in
Washington, in
New York the
UN
Spokeperson's
office also
seemed to be
on strike, or
at least not
responding.
On
the morning of
January 18,
Inner City
Press
submitted
three simple
questions to
three of UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokespeople,
including
a request for
"any Ban, or
secondarily UN
system,
comment on the
Internet
freedom issues
raised by
those today
protesting the
Stop Online
Piracy and
Protect IP Act
proposals in
the US."
This
would have
been the day
to comment -
but Ban's
spokesperson's
office
provided no
comment. Nor
did they
answer a basic
financial
transparency
question
that Inner
City Press has
repeatedly
asked
in-person at
the UN's noon
briefings, of
lead spokesman
Martin
Nesirky:
"As
I've
asked before,
and now
following the
Deputy
Spokesman's
January
16 response
that 'if in
fact a private
plane is ever
used, it is
normally
announced,' I
am asking that
you inform me
by email this
morning what
type of
'private jet'
the Secretary
General used
on this
trip, and who
paid for it.
This is basic
transparency."
No
response, not
even an
attempted
rationale for
not disclosing
the
information
that
Ban's Deputy
Spokesman has
publicly
stated "is
normally
announced."
And
even on one of
Ban's claimed
wins in 2011,
Yemen, the UN
provided no
reaction to
"Yemen’s
foreign
minister, Abu
Bakr al-Qirbi,
saying 'it
would
be "difficult"
to hold the
elections on
Feb. 21 as
planned.'"
One
might think
that Ban's
spokesperson's
office may
have adopted a
policy of not
answering
questions sent
by email, but
only those
posed
in-person.
But that's not
true either:
not only does
Ban's office
not answer
many of the
questions that
are asked at
the noon
briefing --
when it
later answers
question posed
at the
briefing, it
only tells
some
attendees and
not others.
(c) UN Photo
Ban & his
spokesman,
answers, even
responses, on
censorship not
shown
Inner City
Press on
Monday,
January 16
asked one of
Ban's
spokespeople:
"despite
attending
Monday's noon
briefing and
hearing
Eduardo's
statement that
no request had
been received,
I didn't learn
of this new
answer [on
Syria]
until
after 8 pm,
when I
returned from
a Gabon press
conference at
the
Millennium
Hotel. Was the
updated answer
only squawked?
Why wasn't it
emailed out,
at least to
those who
attended the
noon briefing?
I've
asked Martin
(and more
recently
Eduardo)
repeatedly to
email out
answers given
after the noon
briefing --
many
correspondents
don't
stay in their
cubicles;
Monday
afternoon I
was across
First Avenue
conducting an
interview in
DC-1. Can you
explain how
this
information
went out?"
But
Ban's
spokesperson's
office didn't
even answer this
question.
They are
hitting a new
low. Or, at
least today,
have they been
refusing to
work in
protest of
SOPA? Watch
this this
site.
, 
