Backstory
to U.N. Me
Shows
Content-Based
Restrictions,
as MALU
Bans ICP
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 4 -- Art
may be long,
but
independent
film is
slower.
It was three
and a half
years ago that
Inner City
Press wrote
about
the U.N. Me
documentary,
focusing on
the UN's witch
hunt to find
out
how the
director Ami
Horowitz got
into the
building and
filmed scenes
in the old
Security
Council. Click
here for
Inner City
Press'
November
21, 2008 story.
Since
then, and
before last
Friday's
release of the
film, Inner
City Press
continued
delving into
it and found
that the UN's
Media
Accreditation
and
Liaison Unit,
charged with
deciding on a
content
neutral basis
on
requests for
access and
accreditation,
do not in fact
act or think
that way.
Regarding
U.N. Me,
MALU's chief
wrote that the
lessons
learned
included
"don't
grant
accreditation
to production
companies who
are doing
documentaries
on speculation
until they
have a letter
from a
broadcaster or
film
distributor...
This way we
can better
check the
focus of their
production
[and have] a
better
opportunity to
check
them out if we
have any
suspicions
about their
motivation."
Is
it really the
UN
Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit's job to
condition
access and
accreditation
on a
journalist's
"motivation"
and the
"focus" of
their work?
Already
under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon this
type of
content based
restriction
is being
accepted, even
at the level
of Under
Secretary
General. Last
week Ban's top
Peacekeeper
Herve Ladsous
on camera
after Inner
City
Press asked
questions
about cholera
in Haiti and
he and Ban
taking
advice from
alleged war
criminal Sri
Lanka general
Shavendra
Silva,
told Inner
City Press,
"Well, Mister,
I will start
answering
your questions
when you stop
insulting me
and making
malicious and
insulting
insinuations."
The video, at
Minute 28:10,
is online
at
http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/05/daily-press-briefing-and-guests-herve-ladsous-and-anthony-banbury-on-the-occasion-of-the-international-day-of-un-peacekeepers-2.html
Then
on June 4,
after three
times last
week telling
Inner City
Press its
request for
re-accreditation
to cover the
UN would be
granted, on
Monday MALU
reversed
course and
declined to
process the
renewal
request.
This
comes after a
June 3 article
in the Sri
Lanka
government
aligned
newspaper
Sunday
Observer that
"the United
Nations
Correspondents’
Association
(UNCA) has
initiated an
inquiry
against Inner
City Press
correspondent
Matthew
Russell Lee...
The sources
said if the
allegations
against Lee
are proven,
the UN
headquarters
will be made
out of bounds
for him."
While
there are a
number of
collegial UN
staffers in
MALU, the Unit
had already
this
year banned
Inner City
Press from
covering
whether
meetings of
the
UN's Senior
Advisory Group
on
Peacekeeping
Operations
continued to
include the
participation
of Sri Lankan
general and
alleged war
criminal
Shavendra
Silva.
Inner
City Press
based and
bases its
request for
reconsideration
in part on
this:
I
am writing now
to renew my
accreditation
to cover the
United
Nations... I
have become
concerned that
the current UN
allows
expulsion
threats to
media in order
to censor
critical
coverage. So I
am formally
requesting
that, today,
my
accreditation
be extended --
for at least
one year, but
I am in
context
requesting a
longer
extension.
To
explain this
longer-than-one-year
request,
consider for
example
that...
Ladsous on
camera said he
would refuse
to answer my
questions
about the UN
role in
cholera in
Haiti, and Sri
Lankan alleged
war
criminal
Shavendra
Silva now
advising Ban
Ki-moon,
because of my
reporting.
In
this context,
it is
imperative
that you and
the UN
immediately
provide a
renewed
accreditation
for much more
than one year.
That
remains the
request. Watch
this site.
, 
