By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 1 --
After the UN
informed
journalists of
the opportunity
to accompany
and cover the
UN Security
Council trip
to the Great
Lakes region
of Africa,
it allowed
colonial
powerhouse
France to
hand-pick
which of those
who applied
would be able
to go.
While
Inner City
Press in the
past went on
UNSC trips to
the Eastern
Congo and
Uganda, this
time the
answer was
"no." UN
Spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
acknowledged
on camera that
it was
France's
decision.
Video
here,
embedded
below.
But
when Inner
City Press asked
which
correspondents
had been
selected by
France to
cover what's
now known as
its Genocide
Joyride,
the
information
was never
provided.
On the
evening
of September
30, Inner
City Press was
informed that
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard
Araud,
responsible
for the
ideological
selection of
accompanying
correspondents,
will not
himself be
going.
And, Inner
City Press was
told as if it
was an excuse,
"only" three
correspondents
would be
going, "and
not AFP,"
allegedly due
to the size of
the UN plane.
Now,
not in
response to
its on the
record
question but
through other
sources, Inner
City Press is
informed of
three
correspondents
selected by
France to go,
"and many more
to be added."
First
among those
going is
Reuters, which
has openly parroted
the line
of the UN
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations and
its Herve
Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head
DPKO. As
noted,
Reuters at the
UN has seen
fit to spy for
the UN or at
least its
accreditation
official,
turning over
an anti-Press
internal UN
Correspondents
Association
document three minutes
after
promising not
to. Story
here, audio here,
document
here.
Surprising
in
terms of the
lack of
seriousness of
its UN
correspondent's
Africa
coverage,
Voice of
America has
been selected
by France to
go. As documented
under the UN
Freedom of
Information
Act, Voice of
America's
Steve Redisch
asked the UN
accreditation
official to
"review"
Inner City
Press'
accrediation;
VOA's
reporter said
that Reuters
supported this
request,
click here
and here
for that.
But in
Washington, VOA's
reporter at
the State
Department
Scott Stearns
in July asked
a planted
anti-Rwanda
question,
the day before
then the day
of John
Kerry's speech
on DRC in the
Security
Council.
Perhaps that
earned US
state media
one of the
only three
spots France
gave out -- in
the UN plane.
Click here
for a video of
the VOA
reporter, and
Reuters,
getting a
hallway
briefing from
France's
Ladsous
after he
refused to
answer Press
questions
about rapes by
the DRC Army
in Minova.
The
third attendee
we don't wish
to quarrel
with, but it
will be seen
that while
intellectual,
it is Western
(now Gulf and
Western funded
and) aligned,
and has on its
advisory board
the second of
France's four
DPKO chiefs in
a row.
So,
this is
balanced
coverage?
Inner City
Press was told
not to worry
about being
banned by the
French, some
"pool
reporting"
will be
provided by
the UN
Spokesperson's
Office staffer
selected to go
on the trip.
And he... used
to work for
Agence France
Presse for 12
years. So AFP
is
represented,
in a way. But
alternative
views have
been banned
from the trip,
France's
Genocide
Joyride. We
will, however,
report. Watch
this site.
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