UNITED
NATIONS, July
5 -- Of the US
surveillance
exposed by
whistleblower
Edward
Snowden, UN
High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights Navi
Pillay
said
“surveillance
regimes
adopted by
some states
without
adequate
safeguards
are...
counterproductive."
But
UN Secretary
General has
been quoted,
in a meeting
with members
of
parliament in
Iceland, as
saying that
"the Snowden
case is
something I
consider to be
misuse” and
that the
opening up of
digital
communications
should not be
"misused in
such a way as
Snowden
did.”
In
the UN on July
5, Inner City
Press asked
Ban's
Associate
Spokesperson
Farhan Haq to
explain Ban's
comments. If
the UN system
views
surveillance
without
safeguards as
negative, how
could its
exposure
be, as Ban
said, a
“misuse”?
Haq
twice refused
to even
confirm that
is what Ban
said,
insisting it
was
said in a
“private”
meeting. Video
here, from
Minute 6:49.
It was
a meeting with
multiple
elected
officials of a
state which
speaks much
about
transparency.
Can Ban gag
those he met
with? According
to the
Guardian,
the quote
is in notes
taken by two
attendees and
confirmed by a
third.
But
this is Ban's
UN -- he similarly
stepped back
from things
said on
Capitol Hill;
UN system whistleblowers
complain of
retaliation
and a
lack of
protections.
While
Haq went on to
read out
statements on
freedom of
speech, in
Ban's UN just
this early
summer, Inner
City
Press has
been
threatened
with
suspension or
withdrawal of
accreditation
for
hanging a
single sign on
its door
for the Free
UN
Coalition for
Access,
which
advocates on
just these
issues.
Accreditation
officials have
demanded
“urgent”
explanation of
tweets,
and have tried
to tell Inner
City Press how to
cover Ban
and
his
head of
peacekeeping,
Herve Ladsous.
It
is in this
context that
Inner City
Press believes
the Iceland
parliamentarians.
The ball would
seem to be in
Ban's court to
explain
what he meant
that
information
should not be
"misused in
such a
way as Snowden
did.” Really?
Watch this
site.
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