IMC-Israel Freelance Journalist Refused Entry to UN Human Rights Hearing in Geneva

[bryan at indymedia.org.il]

IMC-Israel Freelance Journalist Refused Entry to UN Human Rights
Hearing in Geneva 

By Jonathan Dale Rapoport 

Jonathan Dale Rapoport will be organizing a protest to the UN about the
UN Geneva Press Office Director Elena Ponomareva and her assistant
Katherine Fegli’s lack of respect for the freedom of the press. 

Rapoport alleges that he was refused press-accreditation without
grounds by Ponomareva and Fegli, and that this act is a “de facto”
censoring of the truth about the true scope of the human rights abuses of
the Palestinians from the people of the world. 

On 31 July 2001, the director of the press office at The European
Headquarters of The United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland refused to
allow a freelance journalist who publishes regularly on IMC-Israel to
attend The 53rd Annual Session of the Sub-Commission on the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. 

“You are not publishing on a real media outlet,” Press Office Director
Elena Ponomareva told Rapoport. 

“The Israel Independent Media Center is indeed a real media outlet,”
Rapoport stated. 

“No it is not,” Ponomareva insisted. 

“What then is a ‘real’ media outlet?” Rapoport asked Ponomareva. 

“If you were publishing in ‘Ma’ariv’ or the ‘New York Times,’ for
example, I could give you a press pass for the UN, but you are not
publishing in a real media outlet,” Ponomareva stated. 

“What then, can the press office offer me?” Rapoport asked. 

“Nothing,” Ponomareva stated flatly. “I can offer you nothing.” 

As this article will clearly demonstrate, the UN decides the worthiness of
press-accreditation not on objective grounds, but by political and
ideological grounds. 

Prior to his arrival in Geneva, UN Geneva Press Office Director Elena
Ponomareva told freelance journalist Jonathan Dale Rapoport by
telephone that he would be allowed to attend the session of the sub-
commission as a 
freelance journalist as long as he provided a letter from the editor of the
publication where he publishes his articles as a freelance journalist, a
copy of his passport and a copy of his press badge. 

These requirements were met. 

Rapoport clearly explained that he publishes on The Israel Independent
Media Center as a freelance journalist. Ponomareva told Rapoport that
this was no problem. 

Jonathan Dale Rapoport spent several hundred dollars of his own money
to travel to Geneva in order to cover the sub-commission hearings,
which are billed by the UN as an open forum for all people in the area of
human rights to present allegations of human rights abuses. 

Apparently the forum is not open to human rights journalists publishing
on The Independent Media Center Network. 

Upon arrival in Geneva, Katherine Fegli, Ponomareva’s assistant at the
UN Press Office in Geneva arrogantly told Jonathan Dale Rapoport: 

"We only allow journalists who publish in real newspapers that are sold
in kiosks and published in print." 

"We do not allow journalists from 'associations' like the one on which
you publish your articles." 

It appears that the UN only allows journalists working for the corporate
controlled and government censored mass media to attend their
hearings. 

Jonathan Dale Rapoport is an Israeli Citizen who has written extensively
about the human rights abuses against The Palestinians by The State of
Israel. 

Palestinian human rights activists, lawyers, torture experts and others will
be presenting a wealth of evidence about the violations of the human
rights of Palestinians committed by Israel over the last 10 months. 

The evidence will include eyewitness accounts and previously unseen
video footage of human rights abuses. 

The significance of these human rights abuses will be evaluated at this
very important UN hearing, which plays a key role in setting the agenda
for The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights in Geneva
and the UN General Assembly in New York and the various councils in
New York. 

However, the graphic presentations and descriptions of the numerous
human rights abuses of The Palestinians that will be reported at this
supposedly open and neutral hearing by the UN will inevitably be
inaccurately reported, if at all, by Israel's government censored mass
media and the rest of world's corporate controlled and government
censored mass media. 

The truth about the Israeli human rights abuses will once again be
covered up. 

The director of the UN Press Office in Geneva, Elena Ponomareva, is
directly responsible for seeing to it that those abuses will be covered up
and censored from the people of the world by not allowing a freelance
journalist who publishes on IMC Israel access to the hearings. 

If you want to know what the Palestinian human rights activists who are
attending these hearings are alleging, you can follow the advice of UN
Geneva Press Office Director Elena Ponomareva and her assistant
Katherine 
Fegli and purchase a copy of a "real media" newspaper that is sold in a
kiosk. 

I am sure that Thomas Friedman of the "New York Times" will publish
everything that The Palestinian human rights activists attending these
hearing are alleging verbatim. 

We can count on Friedman to publish everything word by word in a
special supplement in the Sunday edition of the “New York Times.” 

There is no need for coverage by The Independent Media Center
Network. 

If you would like to protest to UN Geneva Press Office Director Elena
Ponomareva or her assistant Katherine Fegli for collaborating in a “de
facto” manner with the corporate and government controlled mass media
in censoring the truth about the abuses of the human rights abuses of The
Palestinians here is their contact information. 

Please assist this freelance journalist in demanding that UN Geneva
respect the freedom of the press and allow this independent freelance
journalist to attend these hearings. 

The hearings started 30 July 2001 and will last for 3 weeks. 

If you would like to support Jonathan Dale Rapoport’s efforts to obtain
the truth about the violations of the human rights of the Palestinians over
the last 10 months, please demand that UN Geneva respect the freedom
of the press and allow Rapoport access to the hearings. 


E-mail The Office of The United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights and protest the way in which their press office director is stifling
freedom of the press: 



hchr at unog.ch 



Write a letter to: 



Elena Ponomareva, Director 
UN Press Office, Geneva 
13 Avenue de la Paix 
1211 

Geneva 10 
Switzerland 


FAX: Country Code 41 (22) 917-0073 
Telephone: Country Code 41 (22) 917-2313 



Katherine Fegli, Assistant to Director Ponomareva 
Telephone: 41 (22) 917-2313 

To learn more about The 53rd Annual Session of the Sub-Commission
on the romotion and Protection of Human Rights please click on the link
below: 

{HYPERLINK "http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/52sub/52sub.htm"}http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/2/52sub/52sub.htm 

Bryan Atinsky
IMC-Israel
Engish Editorial Coordinator
http://www.indymedia.org.il