Israel Matzav

UN 'investigating' false tweet

Remember the tweet above, which was posted during the rocket bombardment from Gaza last week, and came from an employee in the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)? Well, the UN is 'investigating.'

After HR revealed that the false tweet had been posted by a UN employee, news spread to the highest levels of the Israeli government, culminating with an official demand from UN Ambassador Ron Prosor that the UN fire Badawi.

In a strongly worded letter, Prosor noted, “Ms. Badawi stands in complete violation of articles 100 and 101 of the UN Charter.” The articles refer to the principles of objectivity and non-partisanship expected of UN workers. The principles include the statement that employees “shall refrain from any action which might reflect on their position as international officials responsible only to the Organization.”

In response to Prosor’s letter, UN Under-Secretary General Valerie Amos wrote, “It is regrettable that an OCHA staff member has posted information on her personal Twitter profile, which is both false and which reflects on issues that are related to her work. The opinions expressed in her tweets in no way reflect the views of OCHA, nor has it been sanctioned by OCHA.”

That position was confirmed by OCHA spokeswoman Amanda Pitt, who told Fox News that Badawi would continue working at OCHA while the organization undertook an internal review to determine if any action would be taken.

Meanwhile, Badawi returned to her Twitter account for the first time in six days to post a “correction” of her earlier tweet but not an apology or remorse for spreading lies. She also failed to acknowledge that the photo was false, depicting a girl who had been hurt in an accident, not by Israel.

Read the whole thing and sign the petition while you are at it.

Letting the UN investigate itself is like letting the bears guard the honey, isn't it?

Labels: news photography, United Nations

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:33 AM