By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 20 --
After the UK detained
David Miranda,
the partner of
journalist
Glenn
Greenwald, for
nine hours
and seized his
computer and
files there
has been
criticism
worldwide.
Inner
City Press on
Tuesday asked
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
if Ban or the
UN have any
comment on the
detention, on
the use of
supposedly
anti-terrorism
legislation to
hinder
journalistic
reporting on
government
surveillance.
"No,"
Nesirky said.
Video
here and
embedded
below.
Previously
Ban
Ki-moon was
quoted by
Icelandic
parliamentarians
who met with
him as saying
that
whistleblower
Edward Snowden
"misused" his
position and
information.
(Ban has said
it was a
private
meeting.)
Still,
the terse "no"
was at odds
even with
another answer
Nesirky gave
Inner City
Press
in the same
noon briefing.
When Inner
City Press
asked about
recent
treatment in
Egypt of
journalists,
Nesirky said
they should be
allowed to
work without
harassment.
The nine hour
detention and
seizing of
laptops is not
harassment?
But as
Inner City
Press
covered
yesterday,
old-style
groups like
the Committee
to Protect
Journalists
urge more
coverage of
Egypt than of
the Miranda
case. Click
here for that.
CPJ has its
own
blindspots,
including at
the UN support
of a UK-linked
wire service
shown to be
engage in
spying FOR the
UN. That's
how the UN
likes to work,
spying where
it can, spoon-feeding
information to
favored scribes
when it can.
On
that, Inner
City Press
also asked
Nesirky on
Tuesday about
a story it was
first to
report, a
whistleblower's
complaint from
Mogadishu to
the head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous.
Inner City
Press wrote
and published
it on June 22,
and asked the
UN at the June
24 noon
briefing.
After
providing no
answer,
Ladsous'
spokesperson
Kieran Dwyer
gave it to
another media.
Now
the whistleblower
has complained
that media
held back
under pressure
from the UN,
and that the
intervening UN
probe was a
scam. Inner
City Press on
Tuesday asked
Nesirky if the
probe is
finished, and
if the subject
David Bax has
been removed
from Mogadishu
or not.
Nesirky said
he would
check. Watch
this site.
, 
