After we protested yesterday here in Cairo outside the UN building to ask the international body to pressure Egypt to allow us to enter Gaza, this interesting piece of news from the New York-based Inner City Press:
As protesters massed in front of the UN in Cairo, Egyptian authorities blocked the press from covering the protest or speaking to the protesters.
At noon in New York, Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “does the UN have any comment on Egyptian authorities barred the press from filming or speaking with people in front of the UN facilities in Cairo engaged in a protest regarding the Gaza Freedom March?”
Four hours later, having heard nothing back, Inner City Press went to the Spokesperson’s Office for an answer to this and other questions. The deputy spokesperson asked, which UN building, and indicated that there would be no UN response.
The December 28 request for comment, for the record, was not about the Gaza Freedom March in general — the UN has already no commented on that — but about a host government interfering with freedom of the press to cover a protest in front of the UN. The silence, then, is all the more striking. Watch this site.