Landlocked
South
Sudan &
CAR Discussed
At UN, Then
Taken to
Censors
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May 7
-- When
Nepal's Gyan
Chandra
Acharya, UN
envoy for the
Least
Developed
Countries,
Landlocked
Developing
Countries and
Small Island
Developing
States,
came to take
questions in
the UN's Press
Briefing Room
at noon on May
7, there were
only three
questions, or
questioners.
Inner
City Press
asked him
about two
particular
landlocked
countries in
the
news: South
Sudan and
the Central
African
Republic.
What has the
UN,
with an entire
office devoted
to the
subject, been
able to do
about
Sudan's
charging of
South Sudan to
export its oil
to Port Sudan?
Gyan
Chandra
Acharya gamely
answered,
about the
connection
between lack
of
development
and conflict,
while
acknowledging
that Austria,
host of
the November
conference he
was promoting,
is both
landlocked and
affluent. (He
called it,
"land-linked.")
For
that
conference,
there will be
a preparatory
session this
coming
weekend at the
"Glen Cove
Mansion"
featuring the
Permanent
Representatives
of Austria,
Zambia and
Paraguay, program
here.
Footnotes:
Speaking
of promotion,
UN associate
spokesperson
Vannina
Maestracci
gave the
first question
to UN
Correspondents
Association
2013-14
president
Pamela Falk,
who used it to
pitch a 1 pm
event with
Gyan Chandra
Acharya in the
third-floor
room the UN
gives to UN,
which has become
the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
UNCA board
members in
2012 tried to
get
the
investigative
Press thrown out of
the UN, as
exposed by
Freedom of
Information
Act requests;
in 2014 they
have
refused to act
but rather
dragged their
feet for a
dues-paying
member
to whom French
Ambassador
Gerard Araud
said, "You are
not a
journalist,
you are an
agent."
The
UN tries to
prop up the
group by
giving it a
big room where
it hosts
events: it is
an Alliance.
Whatever Gyan
Chandra
Acharya says
in such
a setting -
Inner City
Press is
boycotting,
with all due
respect to the
co-sponsors -
he could and
should have
said in the
open and free
UN briefing
room, on UN
TV.
Speaking
of
UNTV, after
during the
UN's ironic
World Press
Freedom Day
event
on May 1 an
UNCA members
tweeted that
Falk said "GA
commends
UNCA every
year," UNTV
camera cuts to
@innercitypress
shaking
head in
disbelief, too
funny" -- the
UNTV control
room, multiple
sources, got a
complaint
about their
camera angles.
This is called
attempted
censorship, as
is
this Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
filing with
Google.
Watch this
site.
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