As Sri Lanka Bans NGOs Communicating with Press, UN Tells ICP It "Has to Evaluate"

Описание: As Sri Lanka Bans NGOs Communicating with Press, UN "Has to Evaluate"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 7 -- After Sri Lanka's Minister of "Defense and Urban Development" issued an order banning all non-governmental organizations from press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases which is beyond their mandate," Inner City Press asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about it. Video here.

Inner City Press asked, since UN envoy Oscar Fernandez Taranco was recently in Sri Lanka, had he spoken to the Rajapaksa government about this crack-down, or did he have any comment now?

Haq replied, "We'll have to study what this particular injunction was... we'll have to evaluate that." Evaluate if a government should ban NGO's from communicating with the press? We've put the order online here: http://www.innercitypress.com/sri2ngo...
h/t Groundviews

After UN official Oscar Fernandez Taranco visited Sri Lanka but has refused to take Press questions upon his return to New York, Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on June 25 about a protest, video here:

Inner City Press: There's a protest scheduled for today at 1 p.m. on 47th Street of mostly people from Sri Lanka and elsewhere about the violence there. And they've said that they intend to hand a letter to the Secretariat, seeking action against the action there. I wanted to know: is this going to be possible? Is Mr. [Oscar Fernandez-] Taranco... it's great that Mr. Šimonovic will brief on Burundi. It seems like it's a kind of a similar situation. And is the UN aware of this? And what has been the reaction to the upswing in violence in Sri Lanka?

Spokesman Dujarric: I think we've spoken about this from this podium. We've condemned the violence that we've seen recently. And obviously, the Secretary-General fully backs the efforts of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. As for the demonstration, I was unaware of it. If I have any information, I will let you know.

Inner City Press: That panel is about war crimes at the end of the conflict on both sides, whereas this is something that's actually taking place currently. That's why I'm sort of asking, like, did Mr. Taranco deal with this issue while he was there?

Spokesman Dujarric: As I said, I shared with you what I had on Mr. Taranco's visit.
The protest took place: see Inner City Press tweeted photo here.

In a previous protest by Sri Lankan Tamils, the UN sent a lower level functionary who told the protesters the letter would be rejected if they told the Press about it. Dujarric said he would check. This comes amid much hypocrisy at the UN.

With Navi Pillay slated to leave as UN High Commissioner on Human Rights on August 31, on June 25 she made an announcement about the HRC Panel on Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile amid renewed Buddhist extremist violence in the country and restrictions on media, on June 24 and June 25 Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Ban's envoy Oscar Fernandez Taranco's visit.

Dujarric said Taranco discussed "post war achievements." Inner City Press asked, did he discuss press freedom issues? Apparently not.

This comes as many big-wigs in the UN use the outrageous detention of three Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt to promote... themselves. What did they say about the killing of five journalists in Eastern Ukraine? What have they said about Sri Lanka? Some in the UN even tried to censor Sri Lanka coverage, here: http://blog.srilankacampaign.org/2012...