- "Christ but I am sick of UN special rapporteurs" Archived Message
Posted by margo
on June 6, 2019, 12:35 pm
 Previous MessageJames Ball @jamesrbuk June 5 2019 in reply to Marina Hyde and MediaLens "Christ but I am sick of UN special rapporteurs. It's such a stupid and politicised system." A revealing tweet - and a sickening one - from a senior Guardian journalist. As we know, a small handful of powerful, entitled countries loathe the UN, ignore its rulings: USA, UK and Israel. Of course the UN has its flaws, but it was founded alongside the best of democratic, peaceful values and principles - the very values the UK and US like to extol. For a huge majority around the world, the UN still represents an occasionally helpful public forum where a democratic clamour of voices can, at least, be occasionally heard. That an award-winning liberal progressive journalist like James Ball outs himself as 'sick' of UN rapporteurs gives a telling insight into his mindset and his Guardian milieu. The privileged James Ball may afford the luxury of being 'sick' of UN Rapporteurs but many millions of other humans in the rest of the world - sexual minorities, children included - are dependent on and grateful for rapporteurs on racism, defence of human rights, violence against women, etcetera. The UN site shows that scores of nations (100+ at present) hoefully extend standing invitations for UN Rapporteurs to visit their countries and examine facts around malfeasance. Burundians, Haitians, Cambodians, Palestinians and Somalians (among many others) value UN Rapporteur experts who personally visit them in situ - unlike Guardian reporters who 'report' from air-conditioned offices. One could argue our sorry world needs more UN-type Rapporteurs, not less. Rapporteurs are highly-qualified professionals who're passionate enough about their subject to work on the ground, without renumeration. Who is it that's not keen on such principled fact seekers? Why should a Fourth Estate journalist (by definition someone seeking clarity and transparency via investigation) feel 'sick' of this valuable UN resource? Notable rapporteurs have clocked up successes in shining light on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. One of the more famous rapporteurs has been UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, top Princeton law professor, Richard Falk. --- - - - -- - - James Ball was invited to work for Wikileaks by Julian Assange in 2010. Seems to have been an appointment made in good faith by Assange but one that rapidly soured after Ball launched complaints and then left a few months later, only to be snapped up by The Guardian UK. According to Wikipedia, Ball was promoted in 2013 to the American edition of The Guardian - Guardian US - where he took up the "newly-created position of special projects editor". James Ball is also a judge for Amnesty International UK Media Awards |