Soft
UN
& Dead
Media Replaced
By NGOs, Elite
Soros Crowd
Told at
River Club
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 26
-- When the UN
has gone soft
and corporate
media is
dying, who or
what will pick
up the slack?
That
was the
question
Monday night
at the River
Club ten
blocks north
of the UN
where the non-governmental
organization
Global Witness
hosted George
Soros,
financiers,
journalists
and tennis
players in an
Art Deco
space beside a
gleaming
turquoise
pool.
One
of Global
Witness' three
founders
Charmian Gooch
told the crowd
how they began
on Cambodia,
then illegal
mining and
now Gaddafi's
Libya
investment
funds.
She said
proudly, we
have no
membership, no
public
relations,
no marketing.
Then an Alex
Soros was
introduced to
speak,
followed by
investigative
journalist Ken
Silverstein.
Silverstein
spoke
of the death
of media, how
the Los
Angeles Times
closed its
investigative
unit and tried
to replace
three
reporters' 900
bylines
a year.
He
now works at
Harper's, and
did a story on
the side for
Global Witness
but at least initially
kept his name
off it, he
told Inner
City Press, in
order to get
into Cambodia.
All
of this took
place close to
the UN, during
the annual
General
Debate, but
the UN
wasn't
mentioned
once.
Soros
looks
heavenward at
GW event by UN
Monday night,
publish what
you pay
Inner
City Press
asked
Silverstein
about
Equatorial
Guinea being
the head of
the African
Union, and
Gabon on
the Security
Council.
Silverstein
said that the
son of
Equatorial
Guinea's long
time ruler
Obiang leaving
the US shows
the power of
the
pen. But to
what end?
Another
journalist
present
cautioned, you
cannot change
the world.
Then what was
this
event about,
with the
senior George
Soros present,
acknowledged
from
the podium?
Tennis players
in whites
wandered
through on
their way
to indoor
courts, the
signs outside
of which told
"Babysitters"
to not enter
without The
Pro.
Footnote:
Among
the attendees
was one Scott
Wallace,
writing about
uncontacted
tribes in
Brazil. Inner
City Press
asked him
about such
tribes
impacted by
the Belo Monte
dam; he said
they exist. He
said Peru
denies the
existence of
such tribe. He
will be in New
York at the
Explorers'
Club in
November. And
we will try to
be there.
* * *
At
UN,
Deby On TNC's
"Hypocrisy, "
400,000
Chadians
"Blocked" in
Libya, "No
Prisoners in
Chad"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 19
-- Chad's
President
Idriss Deby
told Inner
City Press on
Monday that
there remain
400,000
Chadian's
"blocked"
inside Libya.
He
said the vast
majority had
gone to Libya
to work. Some
had been
recruited to
fight but by
both sides, he
insisted,
Gaddafi and
the National
Transitional
Council.
He said that
going forward
the
international
community
should help
reconcile all
Libyans,
"including
those who
worked with
Gaddafi." Video here, 1st part
of interview.
Deby
accused the
leaders of the
"New Libya,"
the National
Transitional
Council, of
hypocrisy as
many of them
previously
worked with
Gaddafi. He
said there
should be
greater
African Union
involvement in
the New Libya,
and chafed at
Inner City
Press'
statement that
South Africa
has led on
that issue,
and on that of
African
migrants.
"There
are other
African
countries on
the Security
Council," he
said, naming
Gabon and then
Nigeria.
Inner
City Press
asked Deby for
his view of
developments
in Sudan. Deby
spoke of
Southern
Kordofan and
"Nil Bleu,"
Blue Nile,
then said that
much remains
to be solved
between North
and South
Sudan.
On
this, Inner
City Press
asked Deby to
respond to reports
that the
publication
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo was
told not to
compare South
Sudan to
Southern Chad:
"In
the
October 14 to
17 edition of
the local
newspaper
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo, the
publishers
included an
article
comparing
southern Sudan
with southern
Chad. The
prime minister
called the
article
'dangerous'
and asked the
HCC to act on
the matter. On
October 19,
the HCC met
with
journalists
and warned
N'Djamena
Bi-Hebdo in
particular and
all media
houses in
general to
"observe
ethics rules"
by not
printing
articles that
risked
inciting
hatred,
violence, or
separatist
sentiment."
Deby
said he didn't
know about the
case. He said
"come to Chad"
to see the
freedom of the
press, and
also said that
"there are no
political
prisons in
Chad." Inner
City Press
began to ask
of one example
-- Ibni
Oumar Mahamat
Saleh --
but Deby
didn't answer
on it.
Deby and the
author, smiles
on Libya,
other answers
not show
The
interview was
over, and
Inner City
Press left the
Plaza Hotel.
Deby will
speak before
the General
Assembly on
Friday, after
meeting with
Ban Ki-moon
the day
before. "Mais
vous savez de
tout,"
Deby said. Not
as much as
we'd like to.
Watch this
site.
, 
