POLAND SNAPS BACK AT RUSSIA!

By Owen Akin

Correspondent for Ir of Latvia, reporting for MUNFW World Press

Ir is an independent, liberal Latvian weekly newspaper. They are pro-western and support liberal values. Their stance toward the government is critical yet non-adversarial.

On Friday, 17 April, a disagreement took place in the Second Committee of the General Assembly at Model United Nations of the Far West between the delegate of Poland, Liam Putnam, and the delegates of the Russian Federation and India. Russia Today, a Russian news outlet, told the latter delegates’ side of the story.

Putnam expressed an urgency to tell his side of the story. In response, Ir was able to procure an exclusive interview with the delegate of Poland.

Concerned, Putnam expressed, “The piece written by the Russian correspondent amounts to a bunch of information that is inaccurate and doesn’t accurately describe the situation, nor was Poland asked about anything in the paper and Poland is really unhappy.”

Putnam shared that the context in the article was incorrect. He stated, “I believe [the article] was saying the context we were talking about was renewables and nuclear energy. That’s not accurate. We were talking about fossil fuel taxes. Some delegates were speaking about taxing fossil fuels, so Poland pointed out that Europe is facing an energy crisis right now.”

Putnam then described the 2022 conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which he brought up in his speech on Friday, as well as the current blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. “I said the Russian Federation was strangling Europe in an effort to support its murderous war against Ukraine. I did not say that the Russian federation was murderous nor that the delegate was murderous. I merely described the war as murderous.”

Following Putnam’s speech, the delegate of Russia asked for a right of reply (P-24), claiming defamation, which the chair granted. Putnam felt this was unwarranted.

The chair pointed out to Putnam that granting a P-24 was up to the chair’s discretion, despite his protests. The delegate of Poland “pointed out that that’s not defamation, those are facts. The chair said, ‘regardless of that, we are exercising the power of the chair to allow it.’”

That was not the end of Friday’s altercation. The delegate of India, Mateo Valdez, had something to say. “The delegate called for a P-25 point of personal privilege. And then turned to me and said that it’s sad that it’s devolving into politics and then said you did defame Russia because you called it a murderous war. I wanted to respond.”

Putnam found that comment and the way it was stated unbecoming of a delegate. He stated, “In regards to politics, we’re at the Model United Nations, this is politics and the politics of energy. It’s a committee on energy. Well, you have to bring up when net energy exporters use their economic power as leverage to put a stranglehold on Europe.”

Overall, Putnam remains concerned about media outlets sharing inaccurate information.

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