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The
Far-Right Attack on United
Nations
Correspondents...
and
a Reply by
James
Wurst, Tony Jenkins,
& Ian Williams
Current,
Past and Former
Presidents of the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association
Available
for Media
Interviews: MaximsNews@MaximsNews.com
Several
members of the UN
Correspondents
Association have
recently been
approached by Cliff
Kincaid, veteran UN
basher to suggest
that their work has
been tainted by
pro-UN money.
His
most recent
investigative coup,
emblazoned across
the intellectual
deserts of the
Far-Right blogs was
that an author was
corrupted because of
accepting money from
the UN Foundation
and the Better World
Foundation to write
a book.
He
is unlikely to win a
Pulitzer for it,
however, since his
source is the
author's
acknowledgements in
the front of the
book, published a
year ago!
For your amusement
and insight, we
attach his letters
to Ian Williams and
to Tony Jenkins,
last year's
President of UNCA
and the replies.
Kincaid
to United Nations
Correspondents
Association, 8
February
Dear
Sir:
It
has come to my
attention that the
U.N. Foundation of
Ted Turner and the
Open Society of
George Soros have
underwritten the
awarding of
journalism prizes
through UNCA.
I
would like to know
how much money these
groups have
contributed to UNCA
for the awarding of
these prizes or
other purposes.
Also, are there any
rules prohibiting
UNCA members from
receiving money from
the U.N. or its
agencies? If not,
why not?
Thank
you for your
attention to these
matters.
Cliff
Kincaid, editor,
Accuracy in Media
(AIM) Report.
Dear
Mr Kincaid:
We take it that the
purpose of your
request is to imply
that members of the
UN Correspondents
Association somehow
trim their reporting
to suit the tastes
of the foundations
that sponsor our
annual UNCA Awards
or that our judges
have rewarded
journalism that
panders to the UN.
We have no doubt
that such an
allegation would
cause general
merriment amongst
the senior officials
at the UN.
In
2003, UNCA gave a
prize to the Wall
Street Journal's
investigative team
for their work on
the Oil For Food
program.
Last
December, they won
the Print Award and
the top UNCA Award
for broadcast
journalism went to a
documentary titled
"East Timor
: Betrayal and
Resurrection,"
the
"betrayal"
referring of
course to the UN's
long failure to
protect East Timor's
independence and its
failure to protect
the civilian
population from
massacre during the
final months of
Indonesian rule on
that island, despite
the heavy UN
presence.
The
various
organizations that
sponsor some of our
prizes leave the
choice of winners to
our panel of judges,
and all the money
they donate goes
directly to the
winners and is
advertised as such
in the program.
Indeed over the
years the UNCA
Awards have
consistently been
won by journalists
who, in the best
traditions of our
profession, have
fixed a baleful eye
on the
organization's
deepest faults.
As an Association we
strive to
continually assert
our independence in
other ways.
In
each of the last two
years we have had
very public and very
embarrassing (to the
UN at least) clashes
with the Secretary
General over our
determination to
preserve our press
club premises as a
free speech
zone.
We
have organized
briefings with
Taiwanese officials
in defiance of the
powers that be and
ignored their pleas
to quietly let the
subject drop. (See
attached
letter).
When
blocked by UN
Security from
admitting the
Director of the
Taipei Economic and
Cultural Office to
the UN in 2003 we
held a press
conference on the
steps of the
headquarters
building, to further
demonstrate our
rejection of such
attempts at
censorship.
Would that the White
House Correspondents
Association were so
active.
We
assume that a
majority of the
White House press
corps are Americans
and as such owe
allegiance and
sympathy to the
United States of
America
.
Nevertheless
their duty is to be
skeptical of each
and every incumbent
administration, to
dig for the
objective truth, not
to be mere
mouthpieces for the
White
House.
In
the same way it is
probable that a
majority of our
members are
sympathetic to the
institution we
cover, that does not
mean that we pull
back on criticizing
whoever the
incumbent is.
We refuse to be
politically
categorized.
In
2003 we organized
briefings by Ahmad
Chalabi -criticizing
the UN,
France
and
Germany
-as well as by
Michael Ratner's
Center for
Constitutional
Rights that accused
the Bush
administration of
war crimes.
We
had a group of Iraqi
exiles urging
invasion and a group
of retired
US
diplomats speaking
against.
We
have hosted the
leading Cuban
dissident Ramon
Humberto Colas and
we vigorously
protested Fidel
Castro's arrest of
journalists (see
attached letter),
just as we protested
the US decision to
expel the
correspondent of the
Iraqi News Agency
without producing
evidence of his
alleged illegal
activities (see
attached
letter).
We
have arranged
briefings by Chechen
rebels and by the
Moscow-appointed
stooge Chechen
president.
These
examples fall within
a long UNCA
tradition of
inviting speakers
who have caused
heartburn to the UN
authorities:
IRA
rebels, Taliban
leaders, East
Timorese resistance
fighters (at a time
when the UN was
content to let East
Timor slip quietly
into permanent
Indonesian control)
and Chinese
political
dissidents,
including Hong Kong
democrats, Falun
Gong officials and
leaders of the
Tiananmen Square
protests…
We could go
on.
Our
point is that we owe
allegiance to no one
and nothing but
good, hard, critical
-but fact based-
reporting.
We
are a proud, feisty
and independent
association of
journalists.
If
you wish to speak to
us of your concerns
of bias our Club is
open to you whenever
you wish to come.
Yours,
Jim Wurst
President 2005, UN
Correspondents
Association
Tony
Jenkins
President 2003 &
2004, UN
Correspondents
Association
Ian Williams,
President 1995 &
1996, UN
Correspondents
Association
Kincaid
wrote Tuesday 8 February.
Mr.
Williams:
One
bio of you says that
"He has
produced several
booklets for UN
agencies, including
one on
Portugal
and aid to
Africa, another on
ASEAN, and has
edited reports for
agencies such as
UNCTAD."
How
much money have you
accepted from the
U.N. and its
agencies?
Doesn't
this present a
conflict of interest
for a professional
journalist covering
the U.N. and on an
objective
basis?
Also,
how much money has
Ted Turner's U.N.
Foundation or the
George Soros Open
Society Institute
contributed to the
U.N. Correspondents
Association (UNCA)
to underwrite
journalism prizes or
UNCA itself?
Thank
you for your
attention to these
matters.
Cliff
Kincaid, editor,
Accuracy in Media.
Ian
Williams replied the
same evening:
Dear
Cliff,
What's
with the Mr stuff?
We have spoken in
the past because you
thought my
criticisms of the UN
put us in the same
team. I gather you
now realize the
difference.
As
you know, since you
were there, I have
in the past accepted
money from
Conservative groups
to go to debate
Congressman Ron Paul
about the UN at CPAC
conferences, without
it buying my soul!
Fox sends me limos
to go on their talk
shows. Indeed, I
have even been paid
by Rupert
Murdoch's company
over the years. But
I have never written
anything I did not
believe was true.
And I may add
that since I am
self-employed, no
one pays me when I
go on Fox, CNN,
MSNBC etc to combat
the paid "pundits" of all
the conservative
anti-UN foundations.
I do it because
telling the truth
and exposing lies
and distortions is
my profession and my
vocation.
I am happy to share
the details of my
other income with
you if you will
provide in return a
complete list of
donors to your
various
organizations and
employers, with
their names,
addresses and
affiliations, and
your considered
opinion on whether
they would continue
to finance you if
you suddenly took a
more objective and
less hostile
attitude to the
United Nations.
But, since you seem
to be worried on
this score, I can
assure you that my
very occasional work
for UN agencies over
the years has not
inhibited me from
criticizing the UN
for pandering to
Beijing over Taiwan,
for pandering to
Israel and the
American right over
removing Peter
Hansen the head of
UNRWA, for its
shameful collusion
over East Timor,
Western Sahara,
Bosnia and Rwanda,
and indeed its
occasional practice
of keeping sexual
harassers and
wife-beaters on the
payroll.
I look forward to
seeing your chums at
Fair and Balanced
Fox show similar
objectivity with
criticisms of the
Bush administration
foreign policy.
However unlike you
and your friends, I
also have no
inhibitions
whatsoever in
supporting the UN
when it gets things
right – such as
when it refused to
back the disastrous
and illegal war in
Iraq. In fact, the
latest polls show
that a majority of
the American
electorate now seem
to agree that the UN
was right in not
supporting the
invasion – a view
already held by the
overwhelming
majority of people
on the planet.
Perhaps I should
remind you. It is
neither illegal nor
immoral for
journalists to
express the
considered opinion
of the vast majority
of Americans and
other humans in the
world, that the UN
is a necessary
institution. It is
no more a crime for
Ted Turner and Soros
to support the UN
than it is for
Forbes, Murdoch and
the like to oppose
it.
Happy to resume the
debate with you, or
indeed Ron Paul,
anytime.
Ian
James
Wurst, Tony Jenkins,
& Ian Williams
Current,
Past and Former
Presidents of the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association
Available
for Media
Interviews: MaximsNews@MaximsNews.com
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