The National Director of the Canadian Association of Journalists says he hopes the United Nations reconsiders its decision to bar a Canadian online media outlet from covering the upcoming COP22 climate conference in Marrakech, Morocco in November.
Nick Taylor-Vaisey tells CFRA's Ottawa Now with Evan Solomon that Ezra Levant, of The Rebel Media, reached out to his organization for help after the UN denied The Rebel accreditation to the conference on the basis they were "advocacy media."
Taylor-Vaisey says he agreed because the UN's reasoning doesn't add up.
"[The UN] neglect to define very precisely, or at all, what advocacy media is," says Taylor-Vaisey. "The criteria [The Rebel] think they meet, and we agree, is for online media. There are four criteria that apply to any digital outfit, and The Rebel meets them. So we wrote a letter of support and we hope that the UN reconsiders its decision."
Taylor-Vaisey says barring media from such an event on ill-defined criteria sets a bad example.
"Just imagine if institutions could just, at will, bar news organizations they thought were not friendly to their cause. You wouldn't have a whole lot of reporters on Parliament Hill left over."
Nicholas Nuttall, a spokesman for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Conference, told The Canadian Press the organization tries hard to make sure those who get accreditation are genuine media rather than advocacy groups or non-governmental organizations pretending they're media.
"We had never heard of Rebel Media before but we looked at their website and, to be honest, they seemed to be in the bracket of being something of a one person band espousing an individual's view of the world rather than being a serious media operation," Nuttall said in an email to CP. "Some of the headlines seemed to verge on extremism as well."
Levant told the Canadian Press he'd be sending reporters to Morocco anyway, and they would shout at delegates as they enter the conference if they had to.
PEN Canada and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression have also contacted the UN on The Rebel's behalf.
Taylor-Vaisey says the fact those two organizations have also intervened shows how strong The Rebel's case is.
"Typically, in situations like this, CJFE, and the CAJ and a few other organizations, where there's common ground, we'll get together, we'll build a coalition and we'll speak out," he says. "In this case, we've all done it independently, which I think speaks to the case The Rebel has made to all of our organizations and we've all stepped up and said, 'we agree with you.' I think that's not insignificant."
Monday was the deadline for accreditation.
With files from The Canadian Press.