The hazards of false reporting.
The blogosphere was all atwitter yesterday with reports that the UN had ordered the closing of a field hospital in Haiti. The uproar was caused by a segment on CNN on AC360. Google "haiti hospital evacuated gupta" and you will find many blogs based on that report. Many of them using it for the customary UN bashing.
The problem, of course, is that the report was not correct!
There was also a recommended diary here on DK on the issue. It was quite level headed and provided running updates, including update 11:
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Saturday that the world body's mission in Haiti did not order any medical team to leave the Port-au-Prince field hospital. If the team left, it was at the request of their own organizations, he told CNN.
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Finally, last night, CNN took down their previous article and replaced it with one containing a correction: Security concerns cause doctors to leave hospital, quake victims
CNN initially reported, based on conversations with some of the doctors, that the United Nations ordered the Belgian First Aid and Support Team to evacuate. However, Belgian Chief Coordinator Geert Gijs, a doctor who was at the hospital with 60 Belgian medical personnel, said it was his decision to pull the team out for the night. Gijs said he requested U.N. security personnel to staff the hospital overnight, but was told that peacekeepers would only be able to evacuate the team.
He said it was a "tough decision" but that he accepted the U.N. offer to evacuate after a Canadian medical team, also at the hospital with Canadian security officers, left the site Friday afternoon. The Belgian team returned Saturday morning.
Gijs said the United Nations has agreed to provide security for Saturday night. The team has requested the Belgian government to send its own troops for the field hospital, which Gijs expects to arrive late Sunday.
Responding to the CNN report that Gupta was the only doctor left at the Port-au-Prince field hospital, U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Saturday that the world body's mission in Haiti did not order any medical team to leave. If the team left, it was at the request of their own organization, he said.
See the top video in the link (next to paragraph starting with "Gijs said the United Nations..." for CNN's initial report.
I wanted to get the corrected news out to more eyes since the initial and faulty one got so much attention.
Dozens of U.N. personnel killed by Haiti quake
The United Nations said on Thursday that dozens of its personnel were killed in Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti, the worst loss of life the world body has ever suffered in a single incident.
Speaking to reporters via video link from Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, senior U.N. official David Wimhurst said four U.N. police officials, 13 civilian staff and 19 military personnel were among the dead -- 36 altogether so far.
"Sadly, we must expect ... we will start to recover more bodies," Wimhurst said.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier that around 150 U.N. staff remained unaccounted for. He added that he had no news about the fate of the head of the peacekeeping mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi of Tunisia.
This is not the time for unfounded bashing of the UN. A momentous task lies ahead for the organization, along with other global and local relief agencies. Stay on top of the news from Haiti. Support the UN in its efforts, the Flash Appeal is proceeding.