Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 23 -- At the UN, transparency and access are in decline, due to collusion. In a telling dysfunction, UN Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous on January 22 openly refused to answer Press questions, video here.

 Standing next to Ladsous while he refused Press questions was Ban Ki-moon's envoy to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Martin Kobler, who Inner City Press has exclusively reported has been nominated for the UN's top aid job.

   While Inner City Press audibly told Ladsous, Maybe Mr. Kobler wants to answer, Kobler did NOT answer on camera. Instead he came back after Ladsous left the stakeout and told Inner City Press, among other things, that MONUSCO could verify only ten deaths from the crackdown on protests, and that the extend of MONUSCO's support to the Panzi hospital has been to provide security at the site.

  The following day, January 23, there was a UN Security Council meeting about human rights and UN Peacekeeping missions, including MONUSCO. But the meeting was closed to the public and press. Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access asked and asks, Why? The old United Nations Correspondents Association, on the other hand, not only doesn't protest such closures - it schedules its only "faux fighters" meeting for exactly the same time.

  This decayed UN Correspondents Association, run by president Giampaolo Pioli who has himself demanded censorship, has also done nothing about Under Secretary General Ladsous openly refusing Press questions. On January 22 UNCA Executive Committee member Reuters in fact took two questions, why not, since this UN Under Secretary General is allowed to pick only friendly question(er)s.

  Earlier on January 22 -- this is all just one day, mind one -- UNCA demanded the first set-aside question in a press conference run by the French and German mission. The question was taken by a person who said nothing when the French mission ordered all non-French journalists out of the UN Press Briefing Room in September so that Francois Hollande could use the UN as his theater or prop. This is the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  Now for January 23 -- at the very same time as a Security Council meeting about human rights and, yes, peacekeeping -- this UNCA, trying to rehabilitate itself while under the helm of a past president, Giampaolo Pioli, who in his last tenure ordered the Press to remove articles from the Internet or he would move to expel it - including from the UN - has set a meeting, a once a year affair.

Photo: Today's #UNSC meeting about #Peacekeeping & #HumanRights is closed to press & public: why? pic.twitter.com/qMz2SueAXj

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) January 23, 2015

Here's an annotated agenda:

Space, "including journalists on the waiting list for office space" -- in reality, UNCA tells correspondents that if they pay money to join it, they will be helped in getting office space from the UN. Is this proper?

"UNCA room activities, press conferences and events for 2015" -- Pioli in his last tenure granted the Ambassador of Sri Lanka Palitha Kohona, a former tenant of Pioli in one of his Manhattan apartments, the use of UNCA to screen inside the UN a film denying Rajapaksa government war crimes. It was reporting about this that Pioli ordered Inner City Press to remove from the Internet. There have been no reforms since.

"Social media" - despite Ban's UN purporting to use UNCA to reach all journalists at the UN, the Press is blocked from UNCA's moribund social media presence. Is this attributable to all 15 Executive Committee members? Just Pioli?

"UNCA soccer" - this involved providing a craven photo op for, yes, Ban Ki-moon

"UNCA Awards 2015" - in December 2014, UNCA gave out an award about Haiti with no mention of the UN bringing cholera there, or UN peacekeepers shooting at democracy demonstrators. Ban Ki-moon was in attendance and they had him take pictures with another of their awardees, which was mischaracterized as  UN award. As with office space, it seems that UNCA sells the UN.

   Similar to the claim that UN labor issues are handed in happy one-way meeting with staff during country visits, it is with this that it seems the UN will partner to say it has listened on media access issues.

  After the September 2014 General Assembly week UNCA "minutes" and partial list of grievances were provided to FUNCA by one of UNCA's many disgruntled members. They are laughable. The ejection of non-French journalists from the UN Briefing Room was not mentioned, nor the physical blocking of filming.

  Instead, UNCA complains that there is too much news during the General Assembly -- they want fewer side events -- and apparently too many journalists at the UN: they want a private wi-fi password leaving the current open wi-fi only for "guests and others."

  Tellingly, one of the UNCA proposals is for a booklet co-signed by Ban Ki-moon and UNCA.

  With this bogus list and presumably seeking that booklet, they say that the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit proposes to meet only with their Executive Committee. This is akin to a fake wrestling match, in which the two sides pretend to fight, for an audience.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access has told MALU, but repeats: if they even aspire to legitimacy, the UN must reach out to all journalists, at the UN and ideally beyond, and not that subset which pay UNCA money. That is a decidedly partial subset: a fake wrestling match.

 The UN while throwing out media from workspace gives its UN Censorship Alliance a large room, which it then limits to those that pay it money in dues. Here's how it works: a new media at the UN is told, from the pinnacle of the UN's Censorship Alliance, to pay UNCA $90 and UNCA will get the UN to give the media UN office space.

     Today's UN Censorship Alliance is unlikely to get any meaningful media access problem addressed -- members its Executive Committee have, in fact, caused or colluded in many of the decreases in access. They drafted a rule with MALU to eliminate journalist workspace at the Security Council stakeout; they withheld audio tapes and transcripts of a Ban "interview" with them, even from their own members.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access targeted these censorship practices in a September 29 flier, online, in the UN including on the "open" bulletin board it got the UN to install (the flier was torn down, one can only imagine by whom, but has gone back up.)

   The French-only briefing was described on HuffPost Live, here.)

Footnote: as noted the old UN Correspondents Association, which is given privileged status and set-aside first questions nearly always used for softballs, has done nothing in recent years to improve or even defend press access. In fact, members of UNCA's Executive Committee have tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and there have been no reforms since. It's become the UN's Censorship Alliance. They provide Ban Ki-moon with photo ops playing soccer with them. This is today's UN - and FUNCA is fighting to hold the UN to its stated principles.