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At UN Big Media Target Press with Fake Twitter Account Alleging Terror Finance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 31 -- At the UN, big media have created an anonymous Twitter account to impersonate and target Inner City Press, and the new press freedom group it helped launch last month, the Free UN Coalition for Access.

  So far, the fake Twitter account has accused Inner City Press of being funded by terrorists and of being "non-media" which should be thrown out of the UN. See analysis of 12 tweets, below.

  This counterfeit account has followed many countries' Missions to the UN -- apparently to make them view Inner City Press in a different light, or to get automatic follow-backs.

  Those "following" the anonymous Twitter account include Reuters reporter and bureau chief Louis Charbonneau, who in 2012 filed a stealth complaint with the UN against Inner City Press, and expressed support for Voice of America's June 20, 2012 request to the UN to"review" Inner City Press' accreditation

  As reflected by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, not only Reuters but also Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse supported the campaign of Margaret Besheer of Voice of America to get Inner City Press removed from the UN.

  The documents show that this was due to Inner City Press' reporting on SriLanka and conflicts of interest (covered in The Guardian in the UK), and of France's domination of the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations through Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head DPKO, see rough-cut YouTube video here.

 On January 29, Witcher and Besheer were heard by a FUNCA member talking about the campaign.

  The new President of UNCA, Pamela Falk of CBS, has done nothing to stop the campaign. Rather, UNCA "leaders" have torn down flyers posted by FUNCA raising questions about UN accreditation rules and journalists' due process rights.

  This UNCA group is the one that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon meets with ostensibly to learn the views of the press corps.

  Given these new lows, can Ban continue this practice? Can this UN enforced and enabled monopoly continue? The UN was asked by the New York Civil Liberties Union, in the light of VOA's complaint against Inner City Press, to explain its due process rules for journalists.

  No public answer has ever been given; FUNCA asked the UN official who got the complaint, Stephane Dujarric, and he even refused to disclose what he told the NYCLU: that is, any UN rules of due process for accrediting the journalists who cover the UN.

  Sometimes it's hard to keep track: does UN Media Accreditation and Department of Public Information work for UNCA's Executive Board -- that is, for Reuters, AFP et al. -- or does UNCA work for the UN's Herve Ladsous and even Ban Ki-moon? That's why they call it the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  But it seems clear, this time they gone too far.

Analysis of Some of the Tweets from the Fraudulent Account

1) Their first tweets were on Saturday, January 26, when early in the day Inner City Press published a story about the Democratic Republic of Congo noting the use of anonymous quotes from UN officials by Reuters, AFP and BBC.

5:56 PM - 26 Jan 13

It's not fair! Reliable accurate media got invited to UN briefing on DR #Congo & I didn't. #WTF & #whynotme. Gonna #FUNCA them up big time!!

2) After a series of other tweets, on the morning of Tuesday January 29 they showed their true colors, coming to the defense of Herve Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping (just as AFP's Witcher did in September 2011) and accusing ICP and FUNCA of hating the French:

10:52 AM - 29 Jan 13

I only rant about drones when French are behind em. If Assad or Kim Jong-un uses em, that's ok. #FUNCA agrees! #Ladsous2013 #ihatefrench

3) By the afternoon of January 29, they got into the spurious allegation that Inner City Press is funded by the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, an issue attempted to be raised in the UNCA Executive Committee in mid 2012 after ICP wrote about UNCA screening a Sri Lankan government denial of war crimes after UNCA's them president had rented one of his apartments to Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the UN.

  Here's their first "Tiger" tweet; the reference to Canada comes from an allegation in Sri Lanka hate media:

1:32 PM - 29 Jan 13

Put a Tiger in your account, bank in Canada!

4) If it were necessary, the list of possible tweeters shrank later on Tuesday, January 29. At 3 pm the Security Council began meeting; Inner City Press and three other FUNCA members sat at a table in front of the Council, not visible from any television camera, and spoke. At 3:46 pm, this tweet:

3:46 PM - 29 Jan 13

#FUNCA members hold emergency meeting at table outside UNSC. Only non-media join in. We vote to ban #outrageous French brie. #Ladsous2013

This, and of course the content of the various tweets, proves the accreditation to the UN of these UNCA tweeter(s).

5) At midnight they tweeted against a 6 minute video Inner City Press put on YouTube on January 27 about the UN mission in the Congo's lack of action on lacks by the Congolese army in Minova and the stonewalling of head UN Peacekeeper Ladsous:

12:08 AM - 30 Jan 13

#FUNCA's four members unanimously agree to submit #Ladsous2013 video for #Oscars best documentary. #Hollywood here we come!! #outrageous

This use of the hashtag title of the movie and campaign is an attempt to undermine it, with the effect of protecting Ladsous -- just as Witcher asked UNCA to do in September 2011 - click here for video of Reuters' Charbonneau and VOA's Besheer also going into hallway with Ladsous on November 27, 2012 for private spoonfed briefing.

6) Past midnight, they returned to insinuations about Tamil Tiger funding in Canada:

12:47 AM - 30 Jan 13

My favorite Canadian breakfast: Tony the Tiger's Frosted Flakes. Yumm! #outrageous #Ladsous2013

7) Midday on January 30, they returned to the defense of Ladsous and his refusal to answer questions:

12:59 PM - 30 Jan 13

#FUNCA's 4 members find it #outrageous that #Ladsous2013 won't answer questions from a 'brilliant' non-media activist who's out to get him!

8) These UNCA tweeter(s) return again and again to the demand, which Inner City Press made in 2011 and 2012, that exclusive stories like the seizure of cocaine in the UN mail room, the naming of US official Jeffrey Feltman to a UN post, and the removal of an individual from the UN's Al Qaeda sanctions list, should be credited.

 These demands were made to AFP, Bloomberg, VOA, the Wall Street Journal, BBC, but especially Reuters and Charbonneau, who chafed and said he has a policy of not crediting Inner City Press. A sample tweet:

1:07 PM - 30 Jan 13

Inner Shiddy Press Exclusive must credit or #FUNCA will get you!! - Today is Wednesday, Security Council wags tell the Press. #scooplet

9) Back on January 25, Inner City Press somewhat emphatically told a UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit staffer that it was wrong to demand that FUNCA take down its flyers when UNCA is allowed a glassed-in bulletin board. Inner City Press later that day apologized for being heated, as did the staffer.  (The staffer nontheless fed the information higher up in DPI, we're informed).

  But on January 29 the staffer was told by AFP's Witcher and VOA's Besheer, "we will protect you." On January 30 at 1:53 pm, this tweet went out:

1:53 PM - 30 Jan 13

personal attacks on UNCA and Malu admin staff are #outrageous. Whoever is behind them should be outed

10) Less than an hour later, they alleged that Inner City Press takes money from UN Missions, which is not true but is ironic given the admitted funding, including by countries and an Italian oil company ENI, of UNCA and its affiliate the Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalism, click here for that:

2:37 PM - 30 Jan 13

UN missions that donate $ to our "charity" are grrrrrrreat! We at #FUNCA have no problem when strings are attached ;) #hoodwink #outrageous

11) At 4 pm the British roots of at least one of these UNCA tweeters was revealed by the use of the word "lift"

4:02 PM - 30 Jan 13

Counterfeit #FUNCA poster by 1st flr lift partly torn down. #outrageous It should have been torn down completely! All 4 FUNCsters #enraged

12) Past 5 pm on January 30, they returned to the allegation about the (Tamil) Tigers

5:25 PM - 30 Jan 13

Non-media activist lobbyist charity - 1 staff xx dollars from a tiger economy. Sorry for the xx, its a state secret

  Again, sometimes it's hard to keep track: does UN Media Accreditation and Department of Public Information work for UNCA's Executive Board -- that is, for Reuters, AFP et al. -- or does UNCA work for the UN's taciturn head of Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous and even Ban Ki-moon?That's why they call it the UN's Censorship Alliance. Watch this site.

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