UNITED NATIONS,
November 6 – The UN
Secretariat has been silent on
human rights abuses by the
Egyptian government, while
doing it and its state media
favors. On November 6 Inner
City Press asked UN Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: there's a
controversy in Egypt where a
lawyer, Ibrahim Metwaly, is
detained. And he was
working on the case of the
killed Italian student, Giulio
Regeni, and he was detained on
10 September. Various
countries… I don't know what
the UN has had to say, but the
various countries have raised
the concern. And the
Government of Egypt has said
this is entirely
internal. Given that he
was trying to reach the UN
Committee on Enforced
Disappearances at time of his
detention, what has the UN
system done about his
detention? And does it
agree that it's an internal
matter if a human rights
lawyer is trying to reach a UN
body? Deputy Spokesman:
Well, we certainly want there
to be respect for all human
rights defenders, and anyone
who is trying to work with the
mechanisms of the United
Nations, including our human
rights mechanisms, must be
allowed to do so." The UN
hit a new low
on September
20, when Inner
City Press'
request to
cover the
meeting of
Egypt's Sisi
with Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres was
denied - and a
rarely present
Egyptian state
media was
authorized by
the UN to
"pool" the
meeting.
Afterward,
Inner City
Press asked
for Akhbar al
Yom's pool
report, and
got this:
"Evidently
there was not
much to report
as the photo
was in GA-200
and the
meeting in
another room.
They welcomed
each other,
the president
signed the
guest book,
they took hand
shake photos
and went to
the other
room." Even in
GA-200, in
which Inner
City Press was
previously
allowed to
cover
bilateral
meetings,
there was more
to observe.
Inner City
Press has
asked: "why
then was a
print pool
reporter given
one of the few
spots in
G-200?
Who decided
that Egyptian
state media
would take one
of the spots,
as pool?
And as pool,
who was there
on the
Egyptian side,
and on the
Secretariat
side? Feltman?
UN Human
Rights?" While
this remains
unclear, on September
21 Inner City
Press asked UN
Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, UN
transcript here: Inner
City Press:
you’d said
previously
that the media
center,
c’est ne
pas vous.
But I do want
to know, is
there a UN
role in these
bilaterals?
Some of them
have been
taking place
in [room]
GA200.
And so, you
know, they say
it’s
pooled.
It’s too
small.
It has to go
cover the one
about
Egypt. I
wasn’t allowed
to. But
what I want to
ask is, who
does decide
that?
Because my
understanding
is actually an
Egyptian State
media went to
it without a
camera or
anything
else.
And so it’s
not specific
to that so
much as to say
whether it’s
you or the
Secretariat,
given that
these are
meetings of
the
Secretary-General,
if he meets
with a
Government,
who decides
who gets to
cover
it? I
understand
there may be
limitations,
but even
within those
limitations… Spokesman:
When there are
space
limitations, a
pool is
organized, and
I think
there’s an
agreement with
UNCA [United
Nations
Correspondents
Association]
to provide a
non-… one
non-visual
reporter to do
colour for
each meeting. Inner
City Press:
But do you
think it’s
appropriate
that that be a
media that’s
controlled by
the very
Government… Spokesman:
"I think
what’s
appropriate is
that it’s a
decision taken
by the
Correspondents
Association." Really?
There was
no UNCA
"color."
Their retiree
is a former
president of
UNCA, which
bragged to its
dues paying
members that
the UN
"has informed us that we have
approval to send a pool
reporter to the SG bi
laterals/photo ops, where
possible. If you are
interested in pooling one of
these events, please send an
email to the UNCA office...
Sherwin Bryce-Pease,
President, United Nations
Correspondents Association."
Egypt, needless to say, has
one of the worst press freedom
records
in the world - but its state
media was on September 20 the
UN's, and UNCA's, "pool" to
covers Sisi's UNSG meeting.
Meanwhile the investigative
Press asking the UN every day
about UN reform and
corruption, Cameroon, Sri
Lanka, Yemen, Burundi and
elsewhere, is banned from the
passes, as are the many
journalists working out of the
UN Media Center (in which the
handler of French President
Emmanuel Macron took over a
whole row, despite claims
there are no assigned seats).
The UN's holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, when Inner
City Press asked, said le
Media Center, ce n'est pas
moi. He also said, in a
"background" briefing he tried
to exclude Inner City Press
from, that he would be sending
around the "grid" of UNGA
events. He never sent it to
Inner City Press, nor
presumably to the other
journalists the UN denies the
special "UNCA" passes to. But
Inner City Press obtained the
grid from a disgusted
whistleblower elsewhere in the
UN system and now in the
spirit of the Free UN
Coalition for Access puts it
online here,
for wider use. (If Scribd
stops working, as it sometimes
does, it is also on Patreon,
here.) Open the UN. On
September 15, as Inner City
Press worked in the small
booth it's confined to since
being evicted from the UN
Press Briefing Room and its UN
office by UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, it saw some
insider correspondents passing
by and into the Briefing Room.
To not fall into a trap, Inner
City Press asked UN Media
Accreditation what the event
was, of which it was not
informed. You can go in, it
was told. Inside, three senior
UN officials we'll leave
unnamed were giving a
background briefing about
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' schedule for the
General Assembly week. Inner
City Press asked why there are
no events about Yemen and
Burundi, and told the
officials to tell Guterres to
ensure that all journalists
are treated fairly. Dujarric
cut that off and said, "You're
here, aren't you?" Only
because the other venue he'd
tried to invite his friends to
was too small and the event
was moved. This is how today's
UN is working - or not
working. This too: Inner City
Press has learned that last
month, after it asked Dujarric
how the UN had vetted a
shadowy event co-sponsored as
exposed in the Ng Lap Seng /
John Ashe trial by a business
interest and two developing
world countries, Dujarric told
the Permanent Representative
of one of the sponsors NOT to
talk to Inner City Press, it
would just write about it. The
UN has arrived at the
situation in which its
holdover spokesman tells
member states not to speak to
the Press. Now those at the
top of the UN know about it -
what will they do? They are
responsible. New DPI chief
Alison Smale has as of yet
changed nothing, has not even
responded to a petition on the
issues. Retaliation for
coverage continues, and
exclusion or attempted
exclusion from UN
"Communications." Reform was
discussed and even, for once,
asked about, but only vaguely.
The UN and its affiliates were
bribed by Ng Lap Seng, as
shown in a trial this summer.
No answers. Back last Friday
an UNnamed UN speaker in what
was declared a background
briefing not made available to
media coming to cover the GA
week told Inner City Press
that while it is not a
“resident correspondent” - it
was evicted while covering the
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe
corruption scandal - it could
perhaps stakeout for example
the Yemen meeting, but only
with an “escort.” That is a UN
minder, some of whom ask Inner
City Press who it is trying to
speak to. This is
UNacceptable, the Free
UN Coalition for Access
says, as it the weakened wi-fi
and lack of LAN lines for any
but the insider correspondents
of UNCA. The UNnamed speaker
said that the limitation of
the access passes was agreed
to, or requested by, UN
Security and this UNCA (UN
Correspondents Association
a/k/a UN Censorship Alliance).
It was for seeking to cover
this group's event in the UN
Press Briefing Room,
presumptively open to all
journalists, to see if they
would address having received
funds from then indict, now
convicted Ng Lap Seng that
Inner City Press was evicted
and still restricted. We'll
have more on this, and access
issues before, during and
after #UNGA72. The access
briefing should have been
webcast to journalists coming;
UN Security should have been
there, and the Department of
Public Information leadership
reportedly beginning work on
September 8 - they have been
asked, for reforms. When UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres gave a speech to
honor fallen UN staff on
September 8, he took the
opportunity to say that if the
sacrifices of UN staff were
known by unnamed UN critics,
they wouldn't say what they
do. But the UN is in need of
reform, which requires
critique. And, frankly,
sometime UN staff and experts
are killed with some role
played by UN negligence, for
example in Kasai in the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The problem with what
Guterres said is that it
emboldens others in the UN
system to simply shout down or
vilify critical voices,
sometimes to the point of
outright physical eviction and
restriction, and sometimes
short of that. Only the
previous day, the acting head
of the UN Department of Public
Information Maher Nasser on
his last day in the post
allowed a heckler to block
Inner City Press' questions
about the UN's duty to the
Haitian families impacted by
the cholera it brought to the
island - then when Inner City
Press asked a legal immunity
question, to say loudly, It's
always about you. Well, DPI
did evict Inner City Press
with no hearing or appeals,
and has restricted it every
day since. But speeches such
as that on September 8,
UNcorrected, validate
targeting and censorship.
Nasser's successor Alison
Smale has been written to, for
reversal. And Guterres did tell a
moving story about staff in
Chad's Abeche - which Inner
City Press covered,
before DPI's eviction meant it
was no longer notified of or
allowed to cover UN Security
Council trips. Here
was from the UN Staff Day
Parade of Nations. We'll have
more on this. For weeks the UN
had promoted its book event
about New York City and the
UN, featuring author Pamela
Hanlon.
But when Inner
City Press went and asked
about the UN having brought
cholera to Haiti and paid
nothing, and whether Haitians
in Brooklyn had been able to
get any accountability from
the UN, there was no answer.
A heckler in the
audience said loudly that the
question was not appropriate.
Video here.
So Inner City Press followed
up on Ms. Hanlon's statement
that the land under the UN is
still US territory. If so,
what of John Ashe selling
diplomatic posts from inside
his UN General Assembly
President's office, and Inner
City Press for covering the
scandal being thrown out onto
First Avenue by eight UN
Security officers? Audio here.
(NYPD told Inner City Press it
has no jurisdiction to take
criminal complaints, even for
assault, for anything east of
the First Avenue curb.)
That question wasn't answered,
either, including by Penny
Abeywardena, Commissioner of
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Office
for International Affairs.
Instead Maher
Nasser, in charge of the UN
Department of Public
Information from April 1 until
tomorrow, said “it's always
about you” and ended the
event, encouraging those
present to buy books for
signing. And so it goes at the
UN.
***
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