UN's
Defense
of UNCA One
Party Rule
Cites League
of Nations,
Reforms
Withheld
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 4 --
The UN is
trapped in the
past. When
pressed
for even basic
reforms, its
officials fall
back on
history,
saying that
things have
been done a
certain way
for decades
and therefore
must
remain so.
At
a January 17
meeting with
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access, UN
official
Stephane
Dujarric went
so far as to
cite the
League of
Nations as the
reason to
continue with
a one-party
system in
representation
of the media.
It was said
that the
meeting would
be
committed to
writing by the
UN, but more
than two weeks
later this
has
been done only
selectively.
So here's a
bit more.
Dujarric
said,
"it's in
everyone's
interest that
there is one
organization...
we can't deal
with three or
four
federations of
journalists."
So he seeks to
maintain only
one
interlocutor,
as
he put it: the
UN
Correspondents
Association.
But
there are
major and now
irreconcilable
problems with
UNCA as an
interlocutor
and more
fundamentally,
for example
the
drive by
UNCA's
leadership in
2012 to expel
and
dis-accredit
from the
UN the
investigative
Press.
Dujarric
is the one who
received and
processed
the complaint,
by Voice of
America
which said it
had the
support of Reuters
bureau chief
Louis
Charbonneau
and Agence
France Presse's
Tim
Witcher,
both of which
remain on
the UNCA
Executive
Committee in
2013.
Dujarric
never
told Inner
City Press
about the
complaint.
When asked
about due
process again
on January 17,
he said "if
there was a
point that a
person was
de-accredited
because of
complaints,
then they
would have
access to
them."
That
is not due
process. And
UNCA cannot
even if it
pretended now
to care
be the
advocate on
this issue --
it was UNCA
"leaders" who
pushed the
complaints,
and UNCA
"met with the
UN (very
quietly)"
to bring it
about.
Neither
the
15 members of
UNCA's
executive
board in
October 2012,
nor
Dujarric and
his colleagues
on January 17,
2013, would
say who these
UN officials
were.
In defense of
his position
that the UN
prefers to
deal only with
UNCA, Dujarric
said UNCA has
"testified
to UN
committees, and
that UNCA was
designated as
a successor by
the League of
Nations."
It seems
increasingly
the UNCA is
LIKE the
League of
Nations.
Ironically,
at
the January 17
meeting
Dujarric and
more so his
colleagues
including his
boss gave some
seemingly
positive
answers to
some FUNCA
questions, on
photo ops, GA
passes not
through UNCA,
more
information
in the Media
Alert.
But
when Dujarric
belatedly
wrote or
signed an
answer on
February 1,
none
of the
positive
answers were
included.
Asked about
it, he
replied, "I
think a number
of the
questions you
raise were, in
fact, answered
to you in
person during
our meeting
with last
month" -- and
please publish
my letter.
His
goal, it seems
clear, is to
make it appear
that even
those positive
answers his
boss gave to
FUNCA never
occurred, that
UNCA is the
only
game in town.
That is not
the case.
Dujarric
asserted
"bad blood"
between Inner
City Press and
UNCA's
past
president
(click here
for some of
why), and
emphasized the
fact that UNCA
has a new
president,
Pamela Falk.
But as
noted, Falk
has said
nothing about
the 2012
censorship
drive, nor the
2013 tearing
down of flyers
and attempts
to re-assert a
one-party
system. She is
a lawyer, but
doesn't seem
to understand
the principles
of free speech
and equal
treatment. As
some say, the
UN can corrupt
everything.
Meet the new
boss.
Even
Dujarric, when
asked of the
absolute right
to form and
press forward
an alternative
to UNCA said,
"I have no
right to deny
you, even
if I wanted to
deny you."
That's right.
Watch this
site.
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