At
UN, VOA Asks of Inexperience of
Nikki Haley & Jared Kushner,
Censors Going Rogue
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 16 – Voice of America
at the UN, having tried to get
other investigative media
evicted as far back at 2012,
has now gone freelance. How
else to explain VOA
correspondent Margaret Basheer
on February 16 asking Palestine's
Riyad Mansour to criticism new
boss Trump's appointment of
Jared Kushner as Middle East
mediator? Video
here.
Back in
November 2016 just after Trump's
election, the confusion perhaps
still understandable, the same
Basheer asked the United
Kingdom's Ambassador Rycroft
to criticize Trump's
Ambassador Nikki Haley as
inexperienced and unqualified,
here.
Who does
Voice of America work for?
Clearly not the US
Constitution - the same
Basheer and her superiors were
happy in 2012 to try to get
the investigative Press thrown
out of the UN - exposed
by FOIA here - and
pursue it since. But it brings
up the debate about VOA.
Voice of
America has been
run by a
Broadcasting Board
of Governors, and
that may
soon change. The
Washington Post
of December 10
says that's bad
but Inner City
Press based on its
experience sees
things
differently.
When Voice
of America tried
secretly to get
Inner City Press
thrown out of
the United
Nations, a
Freedom of
Information
request to the BBG
revealed
mismanagement and
a near-total lack
of commitment to
freedom of the
press.
After an initial
FOIA response, BBG
took to denying in
full all
subsequent
requests,
including about
its personnel's
involvement in the
2016
ouster and
eviction of
Inner City Press
by Ban Ki-moon's
"public
information" chief
Cristina Gallach in
favor of
Egyptian state
media Akhbar al
Yom, which rarely
even comes to
the UN and never
asks questions.
So to get
rid of the fig
leaf of the BBG -
which didn't
provide any
oversight of
protection for
media freedom -
well may be more
honest. And at
least at the UN,
those pretending
to be independent
will have decision
to make.
For now the
decision will be the
US Senate's: the
change was already
pushed through the
House Foreign Affairs
Committee, under the
leadership of Ed
Royce, in the National
Defense Authorization
Act.
Following the election of
Donald Trump on November 8-9
UN high officials, one of them
told Inner City Press on
November 14, “have been
freaking out. They don't know
how much is going to be cut,
and from where.”
Early on November 23 it
was reported that Trump has
chosen as his Ambassador to
the UN Nikki Haley, the
Governor of South Carolina.
By 10 am in front of the UN
Security Council, UK
Ambassador to the UN Matthew
Rycroft, along with answering
Inner City Press on Myanmar,
was congratulating Governor
Haley and her track record in
South Carolina. Then he was
asked, by US state media Voice
of America's Margaret Basheer,
“Do you have you any concerns
that she has pretty much zero
foreign policy experience?” Video
here.
Rycroft repeated his
congratulations; Inner City
Press which has some
experience with VOA and
its US State Department linked
Broadcasting Board of
Governors including
arbitrarily denied Freedom of
Information Act requests, will
continue to cover how this US
state media changes from its
political positions of the
last four years to those
elected on November 8, 2016.
Watch this site.
***
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in
the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright
2006-2017 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
for
|
,
