UNITED
NATIONS, June
27 -- Two days
before long
time UN sound
engineers and
camera
operators
stand to lose
their jobs,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey
about Ban's
labor
practices and
new and
mounting
criticism of
them.
Del
Buey declined
to respond to
the critical
letter of the
ITUC
federation of
unions, with
176 million
members, which
Inner City
Press put
online
yesterday.
On the
situation of
the audio
visual
technicians,
he said he'd
supply an
answer. And
now he has:
Subject:
Your
question on TV
services at
the UN
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not
Reply [at] org
Date: Thu, Jun
27, 2013 at
2:39 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
Regarding
the
contract for
Audiovisual
Services at
the UN, we
have the
following to
say:
Following
a
standard
procurement
solicitation
process, a new
contract for
Broadcast and
Audiovisual
Services at UN
Headquarters
in New York
has
been awarded
to TeamPeople,
a media talent
staffing
company based
in
Virginia.
TeamPeople has
broad
experience in
providing
technical
staffing to
broadcasters,
media
operations,
video
production
companies and
conference
facilities in
the US and the
UK. TeamPeople
will assume
full
operational
responsibilities
on 1 July, and
the
contract will
run for a
period of two
years with
options to
extend.
The
new
contractor has
sole
responsibility
for supplying
the
technicians,
i.e. sound
engineers,
camera
operators and
studio
technicians.
The
UN's contract
is with the
contractor
only and the
UN is not
involved
in the
contractor's
hiring
processes.
Not only does
this sound
suspiciously
like a
clothing
company saying
it is not
responsible
for
its
contractors,
like the one's
whose factory
recently
collapsed in
Bangladesh --
it ignores the
question of
the quality of
the
broadcasts.
Already on
Thursday when
Iraq's
foreign
minister
Zebari spoke,
there was no
boom
microphone
operator.
Inner City
Press shouted
out its
question about
the $11
billion Iraq
still owes
Kuwait --
but still on
the webcast,
trying to
transcribe
it, questions
could barely
be heard.
And it stands
to get worse.
TeamPeople has
told those it
has
interviewed
that it plans
to go to a
“skeleton
crew” through
August.
They will be
doing
trainings this
weekend -- the
two days
before they
become
entirely
responsible
for
UNTV
productions.
Meanwhile on
the UN's
new “EZTV”
system,
already not
working at
BBC, Al
Jazeera
English, TV5
Monde,
MSNBC and all
local
stations. The
UN says it
wants the news
out, but
of late makes
things
difficult for
reporters, and
even threatens
them with
the suspension
or withdrawal
of
accreditation
for aligning
with and
hanging
the sign
of the Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
pushing for
more access,
to hold the UN
to its stated
principles.
Watch this
site.
, 
