At
UN,
AFP Complaint
Still
Withheld,
Scribe
Demanded
Apology for
Reporting on
Ladsous
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
12 -- More
than 24 hours
after Inner
City Press was
informed by UN
Security that
a complaint
about an
entirely
verbal
disagreement
had been filed
by Agence
France
Presse's Tim
Witcher and
a Reuters
correspondent,
no copy of the
presumptively
frivolous
complaint has
been provided.
(In
the interim,
Inner City
Press for
context is
running
another piece
of audio,
in
which Witcher
tried to
connive or
even extort an
apology
for Inner
City Press'
critique of
his and AFP's
closeness with
the French
Mission to the
UN and Herve
Ladsous, the
fourth
Frenchman in a
row to
head UN
Peacekeeping -
click
here for this
audio.)
Nor
has a copy of
the
speech-based
complaint been
provided to
the UN
Department of
Public
Information,
Inner City
Press
understands.
The
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
following up
on the New
York Civil
Liberties
Union's July
5, 2012 still
unfulfilled
request to see
the
UN's due
process rules,
proposed to
DPI on
February 10 a
series of 10
needed
reforms,
including due
process rules
for complaints
such as
this.
Now,
FUNCA has an
additional
proposal: when
one media
organization
tries
to file a
complaint with
UN Security
against
another
competing
media
that is only
about material
that has been
published or
said, under
free speech,
UN Security
should decline
to process the
complaint.
There should
be provisions
for false or
frivolous
complaints
filed in bad
faith. DPI
needs to set
rules to
protect
freedom of the
press and of
speech, but
has not.
But
the UN does
appear to have
a double
standard. In
an on
the record
meeting to
which DPI
invited Inner
City Press and
another FUNCA
member on
February 22,
the president
of the old UN
Correspondents
Association
Pamela Falk of
CBS screamed
at Inner City
Press “mugger”
and “you call
yourself a
journalist!”
This
was more than
anything Inner
City Press
said to
Witcher or the
Reuters
correspondent.
But DPI did
not in anyway
admonish Falk
or
UNCA. If DPI
saw this
behavior,
which it
witnessed, as
OK then Inner
City Press
should have no
problem. Or
will it?
After
the meeting at
which Falk
screamed at
Inner City
Press, after
being
told “you are
on the record”
and replying,
“He's going to
write
this up,”
DPI's Stephane
Dujarric
admonished
only Inner
City Press,
for reporting
on it.
Inner City
Press
immediately
wrote to
request
clarification
or retraction,
but Dujarric
has yet to
respond with
either.
Ironically, at
the February
22 meeting
Dujarric said
there is so
much news to
be reported at
the UN, not
only the
Security
Council but
"how the deals
are done."
On March 12,
while Inner
City Press
questioned the
Ambassadors of
the US,
Sudan
and Russia
about Abyei
and a failed
UNSC press
statement,
this frivolous
complaint hung
in the air,
with no
responses from
DPI.
A
Kafka-esque
atmosphere has
been created.
As
noted, while
Inner City
Press on March
8 did not even
swear at
Witcher, but
only after he
hissed “lies
and
distortion”
called
him a lapdog
while
remaining
seated
throughout,
Witcher has in
the
past cursed at
Inner City
Press, saying
“you just
write any old
bullsh*t” -
click here for
that audio.
Beyond
words, whether
swear words or
not, DPI was
also informed
that the
spokesman for
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous, also
the cause and
subject of the
March 8 verbal
disagreement
with AFP and
Reuters, on
December 18
physically
seized the
UNTV
microphone to
try to prevent
Inner City
Press from
asking a
question. Video here.
DPI's
response to
this filmed
physical act
which DPI has
since called
inappropriate
was only to
talk to
Ladsous'
spokesman,
privately. So
that's DPI's
response to
physical
inappropriate
acts. Can they
do
more on speech
acts? Watch
this site.
, 
