At
UN,
Sucking Up and
Censoring, CBS
Falk Takes
UNCA Lower,
Uses It
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 10 --
For years the
UN has used
its creaky UN
Correspondents
Association to
do some of its
dirty work: to
request
that some
reporters be
relieved of
their office
space, to try
to
silence
certain
reporters.
In
2012 it hit a
new low, with
UNCA
first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters
leaking
internal UNCA
documents to
the UN's
Stephane
Dujarric
with the goal
of getting
Inner City
Press thrown
out
of the UN.
Click
here for that.
With
that exposed,
including
through Inner
City Press
requests under
the
US Freedom of
Information
Act to Voice
of America
(subject to
FOIA
since it is a
US government
agency), the
UN and its UN
Censorship
Alliance had
to try a new
tack.
And
so instead of
an Italian
journalist,
a seemingly
more active
America was
sought to
accept the
2013
presidency of
UNCA: Pamela
Falk
of CBS News.
Until 2013,
she was
infrequently
at the UN,
often as a
sort of pro-UN
tour guide for
students from
Hunter
College. But
this
was to be the
capstone of
her
UN-covering
career.
But
she did not
reform UNCA,
quite the
opposite.
Under her "leadership,"
UNCA
Executive
Committee
members like
Charbonneau
and Tim
Witcher of
AFP tore down
fliers of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
Falk
tried to
re-assert the
monopoly of
UNCA, for
example directing
a
former Reuters
henchwoman to
demand the
first question
from Bolivia's
Evo Morales in
February. But
Morales said
no, and a
fiasco ensued.
Soon
Dujarric, to
whom
Charbonneau
had leaked,
convened a
meeting
between
UNCA and
FUNCA. Even Falk said
that the
meeting was on
the record.
But when Inner
City Press
reported on
it, Dujarric
sent Inner
City
Press a
threat letter,
trying to kill
FUNCA off as
an
interlocutor.
But
as media
access
continues to
decline, at
the Security
Council
stakeout
where UNCA
pushed for a
rule banning
work space for
reporters,
to theGeneral
Assembly with
the media
confined to
booths with no
tables and
no
interpretation,
FUNCA
continued its
work.
Under
Falk, some on
the UNCA
Executive
Committee and
affiliated
moved into
anonymous
social media
trolling,
against FUNCA
and Inner City
Press.
Dujarric and
those above
him were aware
of this but
either did
nothing, or
nothing
effective --
because it
continued,
even on August
10.
Falk
got intern
"Press"
passes, making
a mockery of
the rule
that only
journalists
were allowed
into the press
briefing room
and
into the
stakeout. She
devoted the
Focus Booth,
which was
supposed to
be for working
journalists to
call UN
peacekeeping
missions into
the
field, to UNCA
intern use.
While
some might say
Falk did this
things to try
to defend or
rehabilitate
UNCA, in the
end Falk
started using
UNCA for her
self, to
promote
inane suck-up
stories about
Western
missions to
the UN and the
chefs
who cook for
them. It's a
sad end, all
around. Watch
this site.
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