Free Press Stifled at United Nations, Reporters Say (OT)

[Guest guest]

Here's a conspiracy for

you......Note at the end, where it says the U.N. is not only the

defendant, but the judge as well. Plus, notice that since they have

diplomatic immunity, the U.N. is not subject to Freedom of Information

laws. They can pretty much get away with anything, using my and your

money to do it.........Lynn

Free Press Stifled at United Nations, Reporters Say

By Fred Lucas

CNSNews.com Staff Writer

March 18, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - Reporters covering the United Nations complain

that the organization, whose Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls

for freedom of the press, has been trying to stifle reporters covering

the U.N. itself.

This month, for example, U.N. officials reportedly seized videotapes from

journalists who recorded the site of a U.N. helicopter crash in

Nepal.

In addition, the group Reporters Without Borders says the U.N. yielded to

pressure from certain member countries in refusing to recognize

" Freedom of Expression Day. "

Earlier this year, the U.N. threatened to pull the credentials of

Inner City Press reporter Matthew Russell Lee after he reported

embarrassing stories about the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). Inner

City Press also was delisted from Google News for a time, fueling

speculation that the U.N. had played a role in that incident.

Critics of the U.N.'s treatment of the press say these are just a few

recent examples of U.N. hostility toward, and intimidation of,

journalists who ask questions that U.N. officials don't want to

answer.

In recent years, the United Nations has come under fire for corruption

scandals, including allegations of bribery in the oil-for-food program,

sexual abuse by U.N. relief workers, and, more recently, U.N. money

allegedly ending up in North Korea's missile development

program.

The press has a harder time holding the U.N. accountable than it does

U.S. government agencies because the U.N. has no equivalent to the U.S.

Freedom of Information Act, Lee told a forum at the conservative Heritage

Foundation on Monday.

After media attention was focused on Lee's plight, Google put Inner

City Press back on its list, and the U.N. did not pull his

credentials. Still, Lee said he would like to see more coverage of the

goings-on at the U.N.

" Many of the journalists there are great journalists, but they need

access, whether it's to the U.N. high officials or the ambassadors on the

Security Council, " Lee said. " There is less investigative work.

Oil-for-Food, there was some great work done. There are day-to-day

misdeeds -- corruption and lack of accountability that doesn't get

covered because the journalists there are mostly there to cover the

Security Council or Iran sanctions, Gaza and Israel. How the U.N.

functions is a wide open field. "

Article 19 of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls on

governments to promote freedom of the press, said William Davis, director

of the United Nations Information Center.

" We live in an imperfect world, " said Davis, who spoke at the

Heritage gathering in defense of the U.N. " Every year when these

principles are put to the test, there are going to be shortcomings from

member states and ourselves. "

Davis noted that the General Assembly commemorates May 3 of every year as

World Press Freedom Day, and he said the U.N. has always been a strong

advocate for freedom of the press. But he said accreditation is based on

whether a reporter is " formally registered with a media organization

in a country recognized by the U.N. General Assembly. "

He stressed that the U.N. holds daily news briefings for reporters and

puts an abundance of information on its Web site.

However, former Wall Street Journal reporter Claudia Rosett, a

journalist-in-residence for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies,

scoffed at the notion that the U.N. is transparent.

Rosett was one of the leading journalists who helped break the

oil-for-food scandal.

" The United Nations Information Center spends well over $100 million

per year--much of that your tax money--on what they call public

information, " Rosett said. " It's important not to confuse that

with honesty and frankness and revelatory disclosures to the press. It's

largely propaganda. You will find nothing about the real scandals, dirt,

and corruption. "

Rosett said that when scandals arise at the U.N., there is a propensity

to call for an investigation and then turn aside reporters and " not

answer questions on the grounds that it's an ongoing investigation. "

 

Often these investigations are not trustworthy because the U.N. is

investigating itself and making its own rules, said Beatrice Edwards,

international program director for the Government Accountability Project,

a watchdog group.

The U.N. has new whistleblower rules, but those often are handled

internally, Edwards said.

" If they are subject to retaliation for disclosing fraud or

corruption at the U.N., then they would go to a hearing to protest what

has happened to them, (but the hearing) is presided over by the

institution which they are disclosing perhaps embarrassing information

about, " Edwards said.

" So they face a forum where the institution itself is both the

defendant and the judge. The record of whistleblowers being vindicated or

prevailing in these kinds of forums or hearings is very, very

poor. "

Edwards noted that the U.N., World Bank and other international bodies

have diplomatic immunity and are not subject to freedom of information

laws.

" If they are able to shut down free press or free speech inside, to

the extent that they often try to, then we are really talking about very

powerful, very wealthy, lawless organizations, " she said.