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Ban
Ki-moon Reads
Answer to VOA,
Not a Word on
Africa, Eyes
on Prize
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 3 --
When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon held a
rare question
and answer
stakeout on
Thursday, his
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric in
picking the
questions
awarded the
first one to
Voice of
America.
To the
softball
question, Ban
Ki-moon
answered by
reading from
notes. Inner
City Press Periscope video here.
It
seemed to many
that the
question had
been given in
advance. In
fact, VOA and
its US
government
parent, the
Broadcasting
Board of
Governors,
have
previously
communicated
with Dujarric
as revealed
by an Inner
City Press
appeal under
the Freedom
of Information
Act, here.
This is how
today's UN
operates.
But the
theater
continued,
with questions
from the
French
government's
France 24 and
finally CBS,
also on
climate
change.
Sources close
to Ban Ki-moon
tell Inner
City Press,
with some
disgust, that
the focus is
on trying to
get a Nobel
Prize, either
from COP21
or, as a
long-shot
fall-back,
North Korea.
And so
on Africa,
which is
two-thirds of
the UN
Security
Council's
agenda and 2/3
of the UN's
work, there
was nothing.
Inner City
Press several
times said,
loudly,
“Question on Burundi?”
Then, “Why did
you propose
only a support
team for
Burundi, given
the deaths and
history
there?” So
much for
Rights Up
Front.
Ban
coyly said, to
the (planted?)
Voice of
America
question, that
the next Syria
talks might be
in New York on
December 18.
He is rushing
to Paris --
eyes on the
Prize -- then
back to an
event at which
his UN
Censorship
Alliance or UN
Corruption
Association, UNCA,
is selling
seats next to
him for
$6,000.
This
after a still
unresolved
scandal of
former
President of
the General
Assembly John
Ashe selling
access and
documents from
Ban's
Secretariat.
This too is
today's UN -
and the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
is challenging
it.
Ban's
three (with
CBS, four)
question
stakeout was
called “in
lieu of” a UN
noon briefing.
But the Press'
questioning
will continue.
Watch this
site.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
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