As
VOA & UNCA
Move to Oust
ICP from UN,
Legal
Notification
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 28 -- The
five Big Media
representatives
on the UN
Correspondents
Association
Executive
Committee who
started a
"Board
of
Examination"
probe of Inner
City Press a
month ago have
claimed
that was not
to oust the
Press from the
UN.
But
on June 20 the
executive
editor of one
of the Five,
Voice of
America, filed
a
complaint with
the UN seeking
just that: a
review of the
status of
Inner City
Press'
accreditation
to the UN,
based entirely
on things
the Press has
written.
Click
here for full
text of VOA
complaint to
the UN.
Eight
days later,
the UNCA
Executive
Committee
& Board of
Examination
have received
a legal letter
notifying them
of violations
of free
speech, free
press and due
process: click
here to view.
Precipitating
this
letter was
word that this
Board of
Examination
would issue
its report,
without even
having
informed Inner
City Press of
the charges
against
it, on Friday,
June 29,
unless Inner
City Press
agreed to
blanket
apologies and
even a
censorship
commitment not
to ever write
about
other media
organizations.
On
June 21 Inner
City Press
told the four
remaining
members of the
Board of
Examination
that this VOA
complaint and
challenge to
its livelihood
made it nearly
impossible to
continue
discussions
with UN
Correspondents
Association
president
Giampaolo
Pioli about
how to
"clarify" the
fact that he
rented his
apartment to
Palitha
Kohona, then a
UN official,
now Sri Lankan
Ambassador to
the UN.
Pioli
in September
2011 granted
Kohona's
request to
screen inside
the UN a Sri
Lankan
government
propaganda
film called
"Lies Agreed
To," which
purports to
rebut a UK
Channel 4
documentary
that was NOT
screened
inside the UN.
On
the podium
were only
Kohona, Pioli,
and alleged
war
criminal Sri
Lankan General
Shavendra
Silva, who
subsequently
became
an adviser to
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon on
peacekeeping
operations.
These
are facts;
the UNCA
Executive
Committee on
June 14 issued
a letter "for
UNCA members
only" which is
now their
response to
the media and
which claims
Inner City
Press never
objected to
the "Lies
Agreed
To" screening.
That
is
false.
Inner
City Press has
shown the
Executive
Committee and
now the Board
of
Examination
that "before
the screening,
Inner City
Press wrote
to Pioli,
Charbonneau,
Voice of
America's
Margaret
Besheer and
others
about 'the
UNCA screening
of the Sri
Lankan
government's
rebuttal to
Channel 4's
"Killing
Fields": -- I
don't remember
any email
asking if that
screening
should happen
in the UN
auditorium,
given
that the
underlying
Channel 4 film
not not shown
in the UN.'"
The
circulation of
an "UNCA
members only"
letter, with
this
falsehood, and
the
failures to
explain or act
on the VOA /
UNCA attempt
throw Inner
City Press out
of the UN,
have come to
the fore.
And
so,
the
legal letter
has been
filed. Watch
this site.
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