UN
Judges of
Press Have
Conflicts of
Money, Scoop
Theft &
Job
Search
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 3 -- When
Inner City
Press was
faced with
expulsions
beginning May
25 by the UN
bureau chiefs
of Reuters,
Bloomberg,
Agence France
Presse, Al
Arabiya and
Voice of
America, none
of these
Big Five media
put themselves
on the "Board
of
Examination"
to conduct the
ouster.
Rather,
they
and their
"Plus One"
Giampaolo
Pioli, a
Manhattan
landlord with
twelve
apartments and
a wan Italian
column
selected as
a front a
series of
lower profile
journalists,
including Ali
Barada
of Lebanon and
Tarik Fathi of
Egypt. As
their chair
they selected
50
year UPI, now
state media,
veteran
William M.
Reilly.
Inner
City Press
objected,
saying that
Reilly was
beholden to
his own
bureau chief
who told Inner
City Press to
"respect
authority."
Inner
City Press
noted that
Barada had
already opined
that Inner
City Press
should resign
from the UN
Correspondents
Association
Executive
Committee to
which it was
elected, and
that Tarek
Fathi was and
is a
personal
friend of one
of the
complainants
against Inner
City Press,
who is trying
to parlay his
old complaint
into a new job
at the UN in
New York, via
the ever
resourceful
Pioli.
But
all of these
objections
were ignored,
and the Big
Five pushed to
have
their flawed
Board's report
made final on
July 3.
Before
analyzing the
dubious
report, it is
worth
reviewing
these three
Examiners.
Inner
City Press
sent Reilly a
series of questions
to which has
yet to
respond: click
here to view.
Ali
Barada, beyond
having already
expressed an
opinion on the
matter he
later
undertook to
judge, even on
July 3 pitched
on Twitter a
story
-- that Syria
chief observer
Robert Mood
will go --
that Inner
City
Press
reported, in
Google News,
Twitter and
elsewhere on
June 29.
Several
tweeters
have noticed
this, which
further calls
into question
Barada's UNCA
role.
Fathi,
after serving
his
job-seeking
friends, has
reportedly
left the
country.
And
so one resorts
to Google, and
finds that for
"William
M. Reilly"
and "United
Nations," the
very first hit
is Inner City
Press' recent
story
about his
non-response.
After 50 years
of
reporting, in
English, this
is all there
is?
For
"Tarek
Fathi" and
"United
Nations,"
the mere
mention
of Fathi's
name in an
anonymously
posted UNCA
letter
responding to
a story about
Inner City
Press is the
fifth highest
hit.
For
"Ali
Barada" and
"United
Nations,"
after previous
collegial Inner
City
Press' crediting
Barada,
now he appears
on the second
page in
his new role.
But isn't this
a conflict?
Watch this
site.
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