UNITED
NATIONS, March
25 -- The
lawless
cynicism of
the current UN
Secretariat
was on display
Monday, a week
after the UN
conducted a
raid on Inner
City Press'
office without
notice or
consent,
searched
papers and
took
photographs.
During
the raid on
March 18,
Pamela Falk of
CBS News who
is also the
president of
the UN
Correspondents
Association
also took
pictures.
Ever
since three
photographs
taken inside
Inner City
Press office appeared
on
BuzzFeed on
March 22,
Inner City
Press has
asked: whose
photographs
are these, and
who gave them
to BuzzFeed
through an
anonymous
“Concerned UN
Reporter”
e-mail
account?
Pam
Falk replied
on March 23
with a legal
threat to
“cease and
desist,”
sent from her
CBSNews.com
email address.
Inner
City Press has
asked
CBS News
whether this
is in fact
their legal
threat --
which is
contrary to
freedom of the
press -- or if
it is
consistent
with the
policies and
standards. We
will have more
on that.
The
UN's Stephane
Dujarric sent
an evasive
response on
March 22, only
that
“regarding the
photos on
BuzzFeed. They
were not
shared by
the UN with
the author and
I can't very
well ask her
where she got
them.”
But
Inner City
Press and the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access were
and are
not telling
the UN to ask
author Rosie
Gray who
“Concerned UN
Reporter” is.
Rather,
it
is for the UN
to determine,
simply, which
UN personnel
it had in
Inner City
Press' office
on March 18,
which of them
took
photographs,
and with whom
they shared
these
photographs.
If
the UN can't
do this how
could they
possibly
investigate,
say,
chemical
weapons in
Syria?
Inner
City Press
went to the UN
noon briefing
on Monday and
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
three
questions
about
Africa, one
about the
Syria chemical
weapons
investigation.
Finally Inner
City Press
asked by
why right the
UN took and
gave the
photographs to
known
opponents of
Inner City
Press, who
have
previously
asked the
UN's Stephane
Dujarric to
throw Inner
City Press
out. Video
here,
from Minute
28:26.
(See
Voice
of America
complaint
procured by
Margaret
Besheer;
see also, Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters
stealth
complaint;
Tim Witcher of
AFP and
Michelle
Nichols of
Reuters
filed
complaints
earlier this
month, based
entirely on
speech, that
Inner City
Press has not
even been
shown a copy
of.)
Nesirky's
answer,
repeated
twice, was
that the UN's
Stephane
Dujarric had
“replied...
apparently not
to your
satisfaction,
but he
replied.”
But
he replied
with an
obvious
evasion. The
questions
remain: it is
for
the UN to
determine,
simply, which
UN personnel
it had in
Inner City
Press' office
on March 18,
which of them
took
photographs,
and with
whom they
shared these
photographs.
Watch this
site.
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