| At UN
as P5 UK
Denies FOIA
for Yemen
& Cameroon
Docs, Censors
Alliance Sells
E10 Access
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video,
1st
Person
UNITED NATIONS,
February 15 – In the UN
Security Council there are the
Permanent Five (the US,
France, UK, China and Russia)
and then the Elected, or
Other, Ten. Some do a better
job than others during their
two year (or in the case of
Italy and the Netherlands, one
year) on the Council. Italy
before it left the Council
decided to try to raise its
profile by serving espresso in
the UN-given clubhouse of the
UN Correspondents Association,
a group which by its own
admission is not, and
apparently feels it cannot be,
about press freedom. In fact,
UNCA had the investigative
Press thrown out for pursuing
the story of UNCA's receipt of
funds from convicted UN briber
Ng Lap Seng, who then got a
photo with the Secretary
General at UNCA's fundraiser
at Cipriani. Today to its dues
paying members UNCA is selling
"informal" access to E10
ambassadors. Periscope here.
But for what? Consider the
opacity of the P5, with the UK
as first example: the UK
silence about the plight of
Anglophone residents of the
former British Southern
Cameroons persists even in the
face of a Freedom of
Information Act request from
Inner City Press.
More than five
months ago on 15 August 2017
Inner City Press asked the UK
government for records
concerning Cameroon. After
repeatedly extending the time
to response, now the UK has
denied access to all
responsive records, letter here,
saying that "the release of
information relating to the
UK’s discussion on UN business
could harm our relations and
other member states of the
United Nations (UN)."
Here
on Patreon is the full denial
letter, from which Inner City
Press is preparing an appeal,
on Yemen as well - it has 40
working days.
This is shameful
- the UK is also exiting
transparency.
On February 6 in
front of the UN Security
Council, Inner City Press
asked the United Kingdom's
Deputy Ambassador Jonathan
Allen for the UK's comment on
Nigeria's forced repatriation
of 47 to Cameroon. From the UK
transcript: Inner City Press:
Nigeria did a forced
repatriation of 47 Cameroonian
leaders. The UNHCR said it was
illegal. The US has commented
on it. Does the UK have any
view? Amb Allen: I’m afraid I
wasn’t aware of that before.
I’ll have to get back to you
on the details." Video here.
At day's end, a UK Mission
spokesperson sent Inner City
Press a short comment, here.
As
Inner City
Press pursues
these
questions at
the UN, it
remains restricted
to minders by
the head of
the UN
Department of
Public
Information
Alison Smale,
who it is
noted is
British - and
functionally a
censor. A
retaliator,
too? Smale has
not explained
why Inner City
Press' long
time work
space is
assigned to
no-show,
no-question
Egyptian state
media Akhbar
al Youm.
UN officials are
supposedly international civil
servants, no longer involved
in and commenting on politics
in “their” country. Hours
before Jacob Zuma resigned in
South Africa, Inner City Press
asked the head of UN Women
Phumzile Mlambo about an
interview she gave the day
before, specifically on Zuma
and Thabo Mbeki. Do you take
your international civil
servant hat off? How does it
work? When the UN Department
of Public Information put up
the video of the press
conference, the audio of
Phumzile Mlambo's answer was
cut. UN video without audio here,
at 24:46. After the cut, she
said, “there's no play book
for that.” There is, at the
UN, a play book for
censorship, of the most
ham-handed kind. Inner City
Press, which has similarly
questioned UN Peacekeeping
chief Herve Ladsous serving
France, and Deputy Secretary
General Amina J. Mohammed
referring to Buhari as “my
president,” on these topics -a
and still finds itself
restricted to minders, its
long time work space
purportdly given to a no-show,
no-question Egyptian state
media Akhbar al Youm. But
cutting audio? We'll have more
on this.
***
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