By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 20 --
Yesterday UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon announced
as his new
spokesperson
Stephane
Dujarric,
who currently
oversees the
UN's News and
Media Division
and, among
other things,
the
accreditation
of journalists
to enter and
cover the UN.
Today Inner
City Press
asked outgoing
spokesperson
Nesirky if
there had been
a formal
recruitment to
replace him,
and if
journalists
would have any
input into at
least the
criteria for
selecting a
new chief of
UN News and
Accreditation.
Tellingly,
Nesirky
called the
request for
any
journalists'
input into the
criteria to
choose the
head of
division which
ostensibly
"liaises" with
them as "not a
serious
question." Video here (at Minute 1:30) and
embedded
below.
This stands in
contrast, for
example, to
even the US
Federal
Reserve Board,
which in
selecting a
new head of
its Division
of Consumer
and Community
Affairs is
formally
seeking input
from the
constituencies
that Division
deals with.
So
today's UN is
more closed in
on itself that
the Fed, a
financial
regulator.
Inner
City Press
asked what
it wrote about
yesterday:
the issues
raised by the
head of media
accreditation,
in charge of
choosing who
can come in
and ask
questions,
becoming the
spokesperson
who then faces
and one hopes
answers the
questions.
Beyond
yesterday's
initial
report, the
reason for the
questions is
that while he
was atop Media
Accreditation,
not only did
Dujarric
receive and withhold
(and, it
seems, solicit
and now censor)
anti-Press
complaints --
he also
several times
told Inner
City Press how
to cover and
write about
Ban Ki-moon
and his head
of
peacekeeping Herve
Ladsous,
to the point
of demanding
an "urgent"
explanation by
Inner City
Press of a single
tweet
mentioning
World War Two,
Germany and
Dujarric's
native France.
The
issue of
censorship was
and is raised,
when an
individual in
charge of
granting or
denying
accreditation
to the UN
tells the
journalist how
to cover the
UN and some of
its officials.
We will have
more on all
this,
including a
claim Dujarric
made that a
meeting had
been "off the
record" when
not only did
Inner City
Press
say "this is
on the
record,"
but the other
side
(which
Dujarric
favored and
favors)
acknowledged
the meeting
would be
written about
-- Dujarric turned
this into his
own complaint
letter.
For
now, while
Nesirky said
the idea that
journalists
should have input
into the
selection
process and
criteria for
selecting the
UN official
who interfaces
with and
accredits (or
doesn't) the
media is "not
a serious
question," the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
formed after
some of the
stealth
complaints and
the censorship
issues
sketched above
considers
it a serious
question
and will
pursue it.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
on
the response
that no
recruitment
process is
needed, Ban
can simply
directly
appoint both
the
spokesperson
and the deputy
spokesperson,
it seems that
previous
Deputy
Spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey went
through a
formal
recruitment
process. Some
also question
the "intra-P3"
switch in
nationality of
UN
spokesperson
from the UK to
France. We'll
have more on
this as well.
, 
