AFP's
Witcher,
Ladsous'
Lapdog, Echoes
on Minova,
Reuters
Re-Tweets
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
7 -- When
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row
to sit atop UN
Peacekeeping,
wants to
spoon-feed
stories and
get
positive
coverage, Agence
France Presse
and its UN
reporter Tim
Witcher cannot
be far away.
It
began the very
day Ladsous
was dumped on
the UN, as a
replacement
for
candidate
Jerome
Bonnafont.
Inner City
Press had the
scoop, first
of
Bonnafont then
of Ladsous.
The result was
a complaint
from Witcher
for anti-Press
action by the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
now known
as the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Flash
forward to
March 7. For
months, Inner
City Press has
been asking
Ladsous about
126 rapes in
Minova by his
partners in
the Congolese
Army.
On November
27, Ladsous
ran from the
question and
took Witcher,
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters and
Margaret
Besheer of
Voice of
America
in the hall. Video here.
But
none of
Ladsous' three
Mouseketeers
wrote a word
about the
rapes. Or
asked about
them in the
weeks after,
including on
December 18
when
Ladsous
directed his
spokesman to
seize the UNTV
microphone to
try to
avoid another
Inner City
Press question
about Minova.
Video
here.
After
Inner City
Press put
the question
to Ban Ki-moon
himself on
March 5,
on March 7
Ladsous' DPKO
decided to
spoon-feed a
vague answer
to
friendly
reporters.
Reuters
wrote
about it first
-- Michelle
Nichols typing
it up,
rather than
Louis “Kurtz”
Charbonneau --
then Besheer
tweeted it, as
a break
from her
concern for
British
royals.
But
then Witcher
chimed in with
his spoon-fed
write up. And
lo and
behold, Lou
Charbonneau
thanked him
for
re-tweeting
Nichols typing
job, and
promoted
Witcher's
echo. This is
how these
particular
wires
work, or don't
work, at the
UN.
Witcher and
Charbonneau
continue in
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance;
Besheer has
pulled back to
an
affiliate.
They are using
social media,
and how! Watch
this site.
, 
