UNESCO bans WikiLeaks from international conference on WikiLeaks

[Magda Hassan]

From the Department of Irony...

UNESCO bans WikiLeaks from international conference on WikiLeaks

By DJ Pangburn 18 hours ago
An international UNESCO press freedom conference being held today, February 16-17, on the subject of WikiLeaks has restricted the free information publisher from appearing. As a result, WikiLeaks has denounced UNESCO and its decision as a "ban."
The conference, The Media World after Wikileaks and News of the World, has been organized by the international non-governmental organization World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC) along with UNESCO. A press release boasts that "The range of speakers from all parts of the world will ensure that these questions are considered from the different perspectives of the global media village," but leaves out WikiLeaks, one of the most important players in publishing in the last few years.
To put this contradiction in some perspective, it would be as if UNESCO and WPFC had organized a conference on The Pentagon Papers and failed to invite Daniel Ellsberg and The New York Times editors and reporters as speakers.
In a press release published yesterday, WikiLeaks stated:

The large two-day conference, which has 37 speakers listed, is to be held UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. US organizers have stacked the conference with WikiLeaks opponents and blocked all speakers from WikiLeaks, stating that the decision to censor WikiLeaks representation was an exercise in 'freedom of expression… our right to give voice to speakers of our choice'.

Julian Assange added, "UNESCO has made itself an international human rights joke. To use freedom of expression' to censor WikiLeaks from a conference about WikiLeaks is an Orwellian absurdity beyond words."
"UNESCO has a duty to assure that fairness and balance is secured in important discussions carried out under the banner of the organization. It is obvious that this will hardly be the case, given the selection of speakers. This is both a disgrace to UNESCO and potentially harmful to WikiLeaks," wrote WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson in a letter to UNESCO.
Indeed, it's rather repugnant that UNESCO and WPFC would seek to stifle free speech at a conference about, of all things, free speech. WikiLeaks should, in the interest of fairness, be given the opportunity to enter into debate with their critics and thus present a fair and balanced picture of press freedom.

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/178756/u...wikileaks/