UNITED
NATIONS, June
25, updated --
There had been
talk of having
the “Geneva
Two” talks on
Syria in June.
But on Tuesday
morning in
Geneva, before
a stakeout
packed with
reporters, UN
and Arab
League Joint
Special
Representative
Lakhdar
Brahimi said,
“I doubt
whether the
conference
will take
place in
July.”
This
was
newsworthy,
but search as
one might from
New York,
Brahimi's
stakeout was
not on the UN
live webcast.
This is the
type of issue
worked on by
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
so @FUNCA_info
put
the question
to the UN in
Geneva and
a UN
spokesperson
there, Jens
Laerke.
The UN
in Geneva replied
to @FUNCA_info
that “this
short press
briefing
wasn't webcast
but we have
published a
transcript: http://ow.ly/mmAL0.”
FUNCA
quickly
thanked the UN
in Geneva and
added, “would
like to know
how / who
decides what's
webcast.”
A
reply came not
from Geneva,
but New
York-based
Stephane
Dujarric, who
has previously
defended the turning
off of the UN
Webcast just
as Syria
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari began
to speak,
and the blacking
out of a
speech by
Palestine's
negotiation
Saib Erekat.
Dujarric
wrote
to FUNCA (and
Inner City
Press) that
“Actually the
Syria Brahimi
presser IS
available the
UN webcast
page.”
Archived
video
was put online
after the
stakeout was
over. (In the
case of
Erekat, the
blacked out
video
eventually
went up; not
so in the case
of Ja'afari.)
@FUNCA_info
replied and
asked
Dujarric, “It
wasn't live on
the page:
point of
webcast. Why
not?”
But as
of
publication,
there has been
no answer.
Search
Dujarric's
feed to see if
it was somehow
answered
there, one
finds banter
with Margaret
Besheer of Voice of
America, which
previously
conversed with
Dujarric
trying to get
Inner City
Press UN
accreditation
“reviewed.”
Yesterday,
faced
with a threat
from
Dujarric's
office to
suspend or
withdraw
Inner City
Press'
accreditation
for merely
hanging a Free UN Coalition
for Access /
FUNCA sign on
its office
door,
Inner City
Press published
a document
showing that
the first vice
president of
the old UNCA,
Reuters' Louis
Charbonneau,
sent Dujarric
an internal
UNCA document
three minutes
after it was
produced.
Here is
the article,
including audio.
Troublingly,
Dujarric
accepted it on
a non-UN email
address steph
[at]
dujarric.com.
Is Dujarric an
UNCA member?
Does UNCA or
at least its
first vice
presidence do
intelligence
work for the
UN? After this
improper
collusion,
what to make
of a DPI-UNCA
rule being
cited to
censor or
expel Inner
City Press for
a mere FUNCA
sign? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
Things
threaten to
get worse,
including on
the webcasting
front, at UN
headquarters
in New York.
The UN gave
the audio
visual
contract to
“TeamPeople,”
which has told
existing
workers they
will be laid
off this
Friday and a
“skeleton
crew” kept
through
August. Does
that mean
Brahimi has
told them
Geneva Two
won't happen
in August,
either?
Update:
after
publication,
Dujarric
replied to
@FUNCA_info
and Inner City
Press, "In as
much as we wud
like to cover
everything
live all the
time, we just
cant.
#patience."
But why has
the audio
visual
contract been
given to a
union buster
who will go to
an even more
skeleton crew?
, 
