UNITED
NATIONS, March
29 -- While
the UN raided
Inner City
Press' office
on
March 18,
without notice
or consent, it
allowed Pamela
Falk of CBS,
the president
of the UN
Correspondents
Association,
to take
photographs.
In
2012 this UNCA
tried to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
for stories
it published
about the
fourth French
chief of UN
Peacekeeping
in a row,
Herve Ladsous,
and about war
crimes in Sri
Lanka.
In
2013 under
Falk, UNCA has
gotten worse,
for example passing
photographs of
Inner City
Press' desk
and bookshelf
to BuzzFeed
though an
anonymous
“Concerned UN
Reporter”
e-mail
address.
The
UNCA leaders
then followed
up with
anonymous
comments under
that and
other
monikers,
including
“Chocorama,”
“UNmediadefend”
and
“Mundo111,”
previously
used to send
an UNCA letter
to the
Guardian UK. Click
here.
Yes,
Inner City
Press has been
critical of
the UNCA
leaders,
particularly
since the 2012
expulsion
attempt. But
its critique
are on the
record,
in its name.
We
have
previously
shown the
connection
between
Mundo111 in
2012 and the
2013 defense
of Voice of
America in a
comment on
BuzzFeed.
But
who are the
elusive or
ashamed
UNmediadefend,
the exotic
Chocorama,
the ubiquitous
Concerned UN
Reporter?
Chocorama's
repeated
focus is on
how Inner City
Press is
funded. This
question
was raised in
the UNCA
Executive
Committee by
Denis
Fitzgerald,
then
a “judge” and
now, perhaps
as a reward,
an Executive
Committee
member at
large. Audio
here.
It
was and is a
strange
fixation for
Fitzgerald,
who while
employed by
the Saudi
Press Agency
spend time
tweeting and faux
blogging about
soccer,
Ireland and
sucking up to
the UN how
ever
possible.
While
operating as a
hatchman in
2012 he said
his acts
shouldn't be
linked to his
employer, the
Saudi Press
Agency. What
was
that about
transparency
and (oil)
funding?
Concerned
UN
Reporter uses
a unique
phrase,
calling Inner
City Press a
“cyber
bully.”
In
the UNCA
Executive
Committee in
2012, it was
Bloomberg
News' UN
reporter who
introduced
that term.
It
seemed
strange, that
publishing on
the record a
story about
how Ladsous
got the UN
Peacekeeping
job, then
following up
with Agence
France Presse
tried
to get the
story
condemned or
taken down,
could be
considered
“cyber
bullying.” But
there it is.
It
is understood
that Bloomberg
News, unlike AFP or
Reuters,
instructed
its UN
reporter to
stand down
from
prosecuting
and voting
against the
Press. But
Bloomberg has
no rules on
related
anonymous
trolling?
UNmediadefend,
in
defense of
UNCA, insists
on its stated
200 members --
out of more
than 2000
reporters
accredited
each year by
the UN. Of the
listed
200, many have
long left the
UN, some are
retired. But
UNmediadefend
doesn't care
-- and why
not, it is
anonymous.
By
contrast,
Brazilian
photographer
Luiz
Rampelotto of
Europa
Newswire
who co-founded
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
commented on
BuzzFeed, with
name and
picture, on
the record.
That is one of
the
difference
between FUNCA
and UNCA, now
known as the
UN Cowards'
Association.
There are
others.
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