AFP
Closeness With
UN Shown by
Revolving Door
to Getting
Paid, Context
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
11 -- Agence
France Presse,
which has filed
a
complaint
against Inner
City Press of
which no copy
has yet been
provided, is close
not only with
Herve Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman
in a row to
head UN
Peacekeeping,
but with the
UN more
widely.
UN
Security on
Monday
afternoon
informed Inner
City Press
that Tim
Witcher of AFP
and a
correspondent
of Reuters
have tried to
convert a
verbal
disagreement
about their
use by the UN
into a
complaint to
which Inner
City Press is
supposed to
respond --
without seeing
a
copy.
Inner
City Press has
requested a
copy, and any
and all
applicable UN
rules
(these have in
the past been
denied, even
to the New
York Civil
Liberties
Union, click
here for that.)
For
now, here is
the more
context, which
UN Security
should have
checked,
or still
should check,
before
processing a
frivolous and
pretextual
complaint from
Tim Witcher or
AFP.
Back
in September
2011, when
Witcher asked
the UN
Correspondents
Association to
censure Inner
City Press for
a story it
wrote about
Ladsous, Inner
City Press
asked Witcher
about what
conflict of
interest rules
might exist at
AFP or the UN
applicable to
a person
who covered
the UN for AFP
then working
for the UN.
Click
here
for audio, for
the context
of Witcher's
still unseen
March 2013
complaint.
Witcher
first
said he didn't
know who was
referred to,
then insisted
that
despite a UN
Staff badge
the person did
not work for
the UN but
rather...
Human Rights
Watch. Audio
here.
Witcher
of AFP, March
8, 2013,
Ladsous not
shown, thanks
UN Multimedia
The
Reuters bureau
chief, Louis
Charbonneau,
said there
would be no
conflict of
interest
working for
the UN, it
would be up to
AFP.
Later
in June 2012,
as shown by
documents
obtained under
the US Freedom
of
Information
Act, AFP and
Reuters
supported
Voice of
America's
request
to Stephane
Dujarric of
the UN to
“review” the
accreditation
of
Inner City
Press, based
entirely on
things
published and
said by
Inner City
Press.
Now
Witcher of AFP
and
Charbonneau's
Reuters charge
have tried to
convert
free speech --
the word
“lapdog,”
which is not
even a swear
word
-- into a
complaint to
UN Security.
This
is one reason
AFP, at least
at the UN, is
becoming known
to stand for
Anti Free
Press, just as
during
Witcher's and
Charbonneau's
tenure,
now along with
Pamela Falk of
CBS, UNCA is
functioning as
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Falk at an on
the record
February 22
meeting
including
Dujarric told
Inner City
Press that to
write to these
these media
companies to
ask about
their policies
"might be a
crime."
Censorship
Alliance
indeed.
Inner
City Press is
requesting a
copy of the
complaint, and
of due process
rules the UN
should have,
which have
also been
formally
requested by
the New York
Civil
Liberties
Union and now
by the new
Free UN
Coalition for
Access. Watch
this site.
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