By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 22 --
Which
meetings,
votes and
issues does
today's UN
promote, and
which does it
not?
On November 21
while the UN
sent many
press handlers
to the
Security
Council
meeting about
Ebola, down in
the UN
basement there
was a vote on
a resolution
on "Combating
glorification
of Nazism,
neo-Nazism and
other
practices that
contribute to
fueling
contemporary
forms of
racism, racial
discrimination,
xenophobia and
related
intolerance."
The resolution
text is here.
A
recorded vote
was called
for, and only
three
countries
voted "No" --
the United
States, Canada
and Ukraine.
Germany,
notably,
abstained. In
the UN
Meetings
Coverage press
release about
November 21
session, the
issue and vote
was given a
single sentence.
Up in front of
the Security
Council
covering the
Ebola meeting,
Inner City
Press tried to
monitor the
Third
Committee on
UN Webcast.
But the
meeting wasn't
listed on the
side panel of
the UN Webcast
screen -- as
if it were not
taking place.
And among
Western wire
services,
which wrote
multiple
stories about
other Third
Committee
votes, it went
unreported.
This is a trend
at the UN.
On
November 19,
Inner City
Press asked at
the day's UN
noon briefing
about a
mis-translation.
The next day,
the office of
the spokesperson
for the
President of
the General
Assembly
replied:
"Dear
Matthew,
Following up
on your
questions at
the press
briefing
yesterday,
here are some
elements.Regarding
the
translation
incident, you
may refer to
an error of
interpretation
of the
statement of
the
Representative
of the Russian
Federation.
The error was
promptly noted
by the
Secretary who
asked the
representative
to repeat his
position."
Back
on October 21,
Ukraine was
scheduled to
speak at the
UN about its
“Committee on
Information,"
but as UN
speeches
usually go
longer than
allowed, its
turn was
postponed
until October
22.
That
didn't stop
the “UN
Radio” Russian
service from
reporting
breathlessly
on the speech
on October 21
as if it had
in fact been
given that
day. As
translated, UN
Radio on
October 21
reported
“The
representative
of Ukraine
accused Russia
of using the
information
strategy of
the Cold War
“One of
the main
prerequisites
of violence in
Ukraine became
a propaganda
information.
This was
stated by the
representative
of the Mission
of Ukraine to
the United
Nations,
speaking at a
meeting of the
Fourth
Committee of
the UN General
Assembly.”
The
UN's Fourth
Committee did
meet on
October 21 -
but Ukraine
didn't speak.
Instead it was
the first
speaker on the
afternoon of
October 22.
Its speech,
delivered in
perfect French
including the
word “rigolo,”
linked Russia
to Joseph
Goebbels.
In
reply, the
Russian
mission's
spokesman
brought up the
recent Human
Rights Watch
report of the
Ukrainian
government
using cluster
bombs in and
against
Donetsk, and
the lack of
clarity on who
called the
snipers shots
in Maidan
Square.
Later
in the Fourth
Committee
meeting,
Bolivia
slammed
“powers” who
use
information
technology to
intervene and
violate
privacy,
bringing to
mind USAID's
“Cuban
Twitter”
and, of
course, the
NSA.
Then
Jordan said it
was first
among Arab
nations to
enact an
Access to
Information
law, in 2007.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
has been pressing
for a Freedom
of Information
Act at the UN,
click here
and
here for that.
FUNCA
covers the
Fourth
Committee,
including on
Decolonization,
and the
Committee on
Information,
where at least
theoretically
the UN's
descent into
censorship
could be
raised and
resolved. The
old UN
Correspondents
Association, a
part of this
trend toward privatization
of
briefings
and even
censorship --
ordering
Press articles
off the
Internet,
getting leaked
copies of
their
complaints to
the UN's MALU
banned from
Google's
search, here
-- was nowhere
to be seen.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
