Inner City Press





In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYTAzerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .



These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis
,



Share |   

Follow on TWITTER

Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron. 

MRL on Patreon

Home -

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

CONTRIBUTE

(FP Twitterati 100, 2013)

ICP on YouTube

More: InnerCityPro

BloggingHeads.tv
Sept 24, 2013

UN: Sri Lanka

VoA: NYCLU

FOIA Finds  

Google, Asked at UN About Censorship, Moved to Censor the Questioner, Sources Say, Blaming UN - Update - Editorial

Support this work by buying this book

Click on cover for secure site orders

also includes "Toxic Credit in the Global Inner City"
 

 

 


Community
Reinvestment

Bank Beat

Freedom of Information
 

How to Contact Us



UN Censorship Echo on World Press Freedom Day, Smale Restricts ICP, State Media Partners

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 30 – The UN's celebration of World Press Freedom Day will ghoulishly feature a UN official who has refused to respond for six months to 5,000 petitions to review her Department's eviction and restriction of investigative Inner City Press, here. It will feature an official of the UN Correspondents Association, now known as the UN Censorship Alliance -- a state media scribe who recently tried to cut off other journalists so she could get more quotes praising her country. Here's the program:

Moderator Alison Smale
Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI)

Opening Remarks
Mr. António Guterres
United Nations Secretary-General (Video Message)

H.E. Mr. Miroslav Lajcák
President of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly

H.E. Mr. Jan Kickert
Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations
Chair of the United Nations General Assembly Committee on Information

Ms. Melissa Kent
CBC Radio-Canada, Second Vice President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA)

Ms. Nicole Stremlau
Lead Researcher, UNESCO Report on World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development; University of Oxford and University of Johannesburg

Opening Remarks
H.E. Mr. François Delattre
Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations

Moderator
Mr. Ramu Damodaran
Deputy Director for Partnerships and Public Engagement
Chief, United Nations Academic Impact, Outreach Division, DPI

Speakers
Ms. Marie Bourreau
Journalist, Correspondent for Le Monde and Radio France Internationale (RFI) at the United Nations in New York

   It is similar ot the hypocrisy of the UN preaching about accountability while refusing to pay a penny to the victims of the cholera it brought to Haiti, and refusing to hold accountable its peacekeepers who rape in South Sudan (or use blue helmets while burning homes in Cameroon. Amid the worsening crackdown by the army of 36-year Cameroon president Paul Biya in the country's Anglophone areas, a video has circulated depicting soldiers burning down homes. Click here for one upload of it. Noted by many residents and activists: blue helmet of the type used by UN peacekeepers. On April 30 Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the video, the day after publishing a story about it, in Google News. Dujarric said he hadn't seen the video but militaries should to use UN equipment or colors, presumably when burning civilians homes down. Video here; from the UN transcript: Inner City Press: a video emerged over the weekend from Cameroon showing or depicting soldiers burning people's homes in the Anglophone areas, and what… what a lot of people focused on is that one of them, at least, is wearing a blue helmet.  I don't think it means the UN is doing it, but I do wonder, what are the rules?  I wanted to ask you, what are the rules if people have served in UN peacekeeping missions… have you seen the video?

Spokesman:  "I haven't seen that particular video, so I can't comment on the particular helmet, whether it was just blue or a UN helmet.  We have seen, in different parts of the world, various security forces and army… we've seen reports of them using equipment that they own, which had been painted white or blue and reused domestically.  It is a responsibility to ensure that no equipment that has UN markings is ever used in any domestic operation.  But, again, I'm not… that's a matter… that's an issue of principle.  I haven't… I can't comment on that specific report." Hours later, still nothing.

  The lack of confidence in the UN in these areas, and on this issue, was inflamed as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in October 2017 stopped by Yaounde on his way from the Central African Republic (where the UN pays Biya's government for peacekeepers who have been charged with sexual abuse). Guterres did not meet with any opposition figures, and accepted a golden statue from Biya.

  Guterres' envoy Francois Lounceny Fall has publicly said that secessionist are extremists, the word used by Biya to justify the scorched earth strategy exemplified by the video. Inner City Press asked UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zaid why his Office hasn't updated the death figures and he claimed it was because the UN has no access.

  Guterres' humanitarian Assistant Secretary General Ursula Mueller visited Cameroon, but not the Anglophone areas. (Inner City Press asked her why, here). Human Rights Watch didn't even include Cameroon in its 2018 “World Report,” and told Inner City Press this is because it does not view it as among the 90 most serious problems in the world.

   Guterres' Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed as in Abuja in her native Nigeria when 47 Cameroonians were illegally sent back by the Buhari government. Buhari will be in Washington on April 30 and a protest of Ambazonians is planned. Earlier in April, Inner City Press asked the US State Department about the refoulement to Cameroon and received a day later a statement. But what will happen on this video, and on the underlying issues? Watch this site.

***

Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.

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 2006-2018 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for