[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: CS Plenary statement condemning repression

[Ronald Koven]

Dear All --

I did NOT say there should be no statement.

I DID say that we should know what the facts were before making one.

There was a description made of what had happened that was neither rigorous
nor professional, by a person who had made previous statements that were
clearly misleading on other subjects at a meeting I had attended the
previous day. (The person claimed that axes and knives had been brought
into the Summit, while his leaflets were seized by security.) I thought it
was in the interest of Civil Society to have a serious image and not to let
itself be stampeded into doing something by a partial account of
circumstances.

Subsequent to my speaking in the plenary meeting to that effect, Alain
Clerc told me that the Geneva chief of police had called him to say that
nobody had been arrested, that four persons who refused to give their
identities to the police were held briefly on the scene -- not taken to the
police station, as the speaker in plenary had said -- and that they were
released there as soon as their identities were established. That version
may or may not be accurate, but it differs from what the plenary was told.

One can be outraged that supposedly peaceful demonstrators had to give
their identities to the police, but in continental Europe, everyone must be
carrying his or her ID papers and must be ready to show them to the police.
There is simply a difference in culture concerning these things between the
Continent and Anglo-Saxon countries. (The way things are trending, those
differences are being erased; we simply must face that, unfortunately.)

Anyway, the only point I was trying to make, as a professional journalist,
is that one must know what it is one is talking about before making
statements. The person describing what had happened was doing so in
emotional terms and had a record of misleading statements, including
insulting statements he made to me after the meeting -- categorically
alleging that I am a CIA agent, on the basis of zero evidence (and which I
am not now and have never been. In fact, as the Foreign Editor of The
Washington Post, I told reporters working for me that any such attachment
would be grounds for dismissal).

If Civil Society groups want to be taken seriously, their statements should
be accurate, as far as is humanly possible. That is and was the only point
I was and am making. Without credibility, Civil Society groups will not be
listened to.

Best regards,

Rony Koven
European Representative
World Press Freedom Committee