UNITED
NATIONS, March
25 -- A week
after the UN
raided Inner
City Press'
office,
searched
papers and
took photos,
the mystery
only grew.
Three
photos appeared
on BuzzFeed on
Friday, March
22. Who
took them?
A new
evasive
non-answer
arrived from
the UN at 7 pm
on Monday.
Inner
City Press,
which was not
notified at
any time by
the UN of the
search, was
called by
another member
of the Free UN
Coalition for
Access and ran
from the
Security
Council
stakeout to
its office.
There
were at least
five people
from the UN in
and around the
office, and
Pamela Falk of
CBS and the UN
Correspondents
Association
taking
photographs.
But
on March 23
Pam Falk using
her
CBSNews.com
e-mail sent a
legal threat
to Inner City
Press for even
questioning if
she was the
source of the
photographs in
BuzzFeed.
Falk
did not,
however,
explain why
she was taking
photos.
Nor has CBS
News
yet answered
if the legal
threat is from
them, and
complies with
their policies
and basis
principles of
freedom of the
press.
Nor
at Monday's
noon briefing
would
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
provide any
answer, beyond
twice saying
that
the UN's
Stephane
Dujarric had
replied.
But all that
he wrote, on
March 22, was:
“regarding the
photos on
BuzzFeed. They
were not
shared by the
UN with the
author and I
can't very
well ask her
where
she got them.”
So
Inner City
Press,
including on
behalf of
FUNCA, wrote
to the top of
the Department
of Public
Information,
not Dujarric:
The
answers to
date are not
satisfactory.
Inner City
Press and the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
were and are
not telling
the UN to ask
the
BuzzFeed
author who the
anonymous
“Concerned UN
Reporter”
email /
UNCA-defending
quote giver
is.
Rather,
it
is for the UN,
DPI, to
determine
which UN
personnel it
had in
Inner City
Press' office
on March 18,
which of them
took
photographs,
and with whom
they shared
these
photographs.
Beyond
and not as a
replacement
for that, this
is a request
for a reform
to
be put into
the Media
Access
Guidelines and
implemented
forthwith:
"Even
if the UN
determines
that it must
enter an
accredited
correspondent's
office under
what it deemed
to be an
emergency, the
UN must
immediately
notify the
correspondent
and allow them
access to
witness
the entry and
what is done
inside.
"Even
if for some
reason the UN
determines to
take
photographs
inside the
journalist's
office, it is
prohibited for
the UN to
share the
photographs
with UN
personnel
without a
strictly
interpreted
“need
to know,” and
it is strictly
prohibited for
the UN to
share the
photographs
with any
non-UN
person."
This
entire
incident,
combined with
the still
unresolved
false charge
in
the February
27 letter and
complaints,
only about
speech, still
never
shown to me
highlight the
need to start
implementing,
and no simply
sit on, the
proposed
reformed and
safeguards
submitted to
you by
FUNCA on
February 10,
particularly
due process
(and now
privacy
protection)
rules for UN
correspondents.
The
response to
these specific
requests came
three hours
later... from
Dujarric. He
wrote:
From:
Stephane
Dujarric [at]
un
[dot] org
Subject: Fw:
Request
that DPI
determine
&
disclose...
rules. Thanks
Date: Mon,
Mar 25, 2013
at 6:43 PM
To: funca [at]
funca [dot]
info
Cc:
matthew.lee
[at]
innercitypress
[dot] com
As
previously
mentioned, we
did not share
any pictures
of your office
with BuzzFeed.
I personally
looked at our
pictures and
those posted
on BuzzFeed
and it's clear
that they are
not the same
photographs
.Again, we
recognize that
you should
have been
called before
entering
your part of
the shared
office.
A
belated
apology is not
a safeguard,
it does not
make up for
the UN's
lack of rules.
In the case
for example of
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous'
outrageous
refusal to
answer,
and handing of
answers to
favored
scribes who
didn't even
ask the
question, the
lack of rules
simply
guarantees
that it
happens again.
But
in term of the
mystery: does
Dujarric's
“we” and “our”
mean
the UN as a
whole or
simply the
Department of
Public
Information?
If
it means the
UN as a whole,
it seems only
one other
person took
photos - and
they have made
a legal threat
trying to not
even be
mentioned.
If
Dujarric is
only answering
for DPI, it is
disingenuous.
Department of
Safety and
Security, for
example, was
only there
because called
and
let in by DPI.
Those are the
photographs
which the UN
must account
for. Watch
this site.
, 
