By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 4 --
Here is how
the UN works,
or doesn't: on
August 27,
after Inner
City Press in
the days
before had
questioned
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
dubious
approach to
Sri Lanka
and Libya,
and UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous' stonewalling
on Darfur
and elsewhere,
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance
decided to
fight back.
A
troll social
media account
linked to the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
about which
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
had notified
not only UNCA
and its head
Pamela Falk
but also
Reuters, whose
UN bureau
chief tried to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN
then lobbied
Google
(here) to
block his
leaked “for
the record”
complaint from
Google's
search,
revived on
July 27, went
on the
offensive
against Inner
City Press
again --
anonymously,
of course.
The UN
itself was
notified of
this account,
since it
continues to
partner with
UNCA as its UN
Censorship
Alliance,
setting aside
first
questions and
giving it a
large, usually
unused room
even as the UN
evicted
the News
Agency of
Nigeria from
its workspace
at the UN
citing lack of
space.
This same
troll social
media account
has promoted
the current UN
spokesman, to
whom the
Reuters bureau
chief's
complaint to
get Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
was directed.
Now
that same
spokesman
defends Ban
Ki-moon, for
example
adopting
Ladsous'
censorship on
September 3,
not taking
Press
questions on
Ladsous' DPKO
ordering
peacekeepers
to surrender
to the Al Nusra
Front.
His office has
in the past censored
from the UN's
transcripts
even the name
of the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
which Inner
City Press
co-founded
after members
of UNCA's
Executive
Committee
including for
example Voice
of America
(Freedom of
Information
Act obtained
document here),
Agence France
Presse (document
here), Bloomberg
and Reuters,
sought to get
it thrown out.
What's
telling about
these revivals
of UNCA's
trolls social
media campaign
is it is tied
to when the UN
is under
attack. That's
why they call
it the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Now
the big room
the UN gives
them, entirely
closed from
August 1 to
August 19,
while its
glassed in bulletin
board had and
has an
advertisement
by one of its
UNCA members
to buy a used
car for over
$7,000, is
set to be used
for trickery,
with with
purported
press freedom
organization
partnering
with censors
to purportedly
talk about...
press freedom.
We'll have
more on this.
And what of
the UN's
previous
argument
against
FUNCA's
substantive
fliers, that
they had to be
approved by
the UN? Are
UNCA's used
car sales
approved by
Ban Ki-moon?
Are its
anonymous
trolling
social media
accounts?
Watch this
site.
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