France
Chooses
Scribes for
its Genocide
Joyride, UN
Won't Disclose
List
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 21
-- How can a
country with a
long history
of
colonialism
like France be
allowed to
decide which
correspondents
accompany and
transcribe a
trip through
Africa on a UN
plane?
This
is what has
happened for
the upcoming
Security
Council trip
to the
Democratic
Republic of
the Congo,
Rwanda, Uganda
and Ethiopia
which
Inner City
Press first
reported on
ten days ago.
Inner
City Press has
been told by
multiple
sources that
France was
allowed
to choose
which
journalists
would go; its
request
seventeen
hours ago
for disclosure
of those
journalists
selected for
free travel in
the
UN plane has
not complied
with. But
isn't it
public money?
If
the French
government of
Francois
Hollande and
Laurent Fabius
wants
to run a
propaganda
trip through
Africa, they
should use a
French
government
plane, not the
UN.
In
fact, France
used UN
Peacekeeping,
from Cote
d'Ivoire
through Mali
through the
Great Lakes,
where it
supported
the Hutu
government
which led the
killing of a
million
people in
Rwanda.
Call
this the
Genocide
Joyride, then.
But who has
France chosen
to ride in
the UN plane?
The
fix was in
from the
beginning.
Rather than
tell all
correspondents
at
once about the
opportunity to
accompany the
trip -- Inner
City Press
accompanied
just such a
trip in 2010
-- this time
the notice was
sent
out through
the email of
Pamela Falk
the 2013
president of
the UN
Correspondents
Association
only to those
which pay it
money: less
than ten
percent of the
journalists
covering the
UN General
Assembly.
The
UNCA Executive
Committee
allowed its
member from Agence
France
Presse, Tim
Witcher,
to initiate a
proceeding
against Inner
City
Press for its
reporting on Herve Ladsous, the fourth
Frenchman in a
row to head UN
Peacekeeping.
They
then tried to
get Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN,
including
UNCA first
vice president
Louis
Charbonneau
handing an
internal UNCA
document to
the UN's chief
of
accreditation
Stephane
Dujarric.
(Charbonneau
and
Witcher were
linked last
week in
MediaBistro to
imposter Inner
City Press
social media
accounts, the
culmination of
nine months of
anonymous
trolling link
to UNCA, the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Their
anonymous
comments
complained
Inner City
Press is
"pro-Rwanda" -
explaining the
trip
decisions, and
why Inner City
Press will
write rather
than appeal.)
After
Inner City
Press and the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
(@FUNCA_info)
complained,
the notice of
the trip was
sent out to a
larger group
by the Office
of the
Spokesperson
for Secretary
General
Ban Ki-moon.
But the fix
was in.
After
close
of business on
Friday, after
twice
confirming its
desire to
accompany the
Security Council
trip as it did
in 2010, this
following
arrived:
From:
Jerome
Bernard [at]
un.org
Date: Fri, Sep
20, 2013 at
6:46
PM
Subject: Re:
Security
Council trip
to Africa
To: Matthew
Russell Lee
[at]
InnerCityPress
[dot] com
Cc: Free UN
Coalition
for Access
@FUNCA_info
Hi
Matthew,
I
am sorry but
because of the
very limited
number of
seats in the
UN
plane it won't
be possible
for you to
travel with
the Security
Council for
this trip to
the Great
Lakes Region
of Africa.
I
am sure there
will be other
opportunities
for travel in
the future.
Best
regards,
Jerome
Bernard
Office of the
Spokesperson
for the
Secretary-General
Inner
City Press
less than an
hour later
asked the
Office of the
Spokesperson
for the
Secretary-General
for a list of
those
journalists
who France has
selected. The
list has not
been provided.
Jerome
Bernard, who
will be
accompanying
the trip will
supposedly
tell reporters
who France did
not want on
the trip what
is happening.
Right.
We
will be
reporting on
this Genocide
Joyride. Watch
this site.
, 
