Free
Speech, UN
Style, Extends
to Press
Bulletin
Boards, Single
Standard Urged
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 22 –
For some
weeks,
alongside Mali, Syria
and
Sri
Lanka, Sudan,
UN
corruption
and the Congo,
Inner City
Press has been
reporting
on a free
speech issue
inside the UN
itself.
Flyers
posted by the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
calling for reforms of
UN
accreditation
rules and
Media Access
Guidelines
have
repeatedly
been
torn down,
counterfeited,
defaced with
slogans like
“Looney Club"
and worse.
FUNCA
held a number
of meetings
with officials
of the
Department of
Public
Information,
mostly to push
for its top
ten reforms
(including for
example
eliminating
the
requirement
that a
journalist
must agree
with
the
unspecified
“principles of
the UN” in
order to be
admitted to
cover it) but
also about
free speech.
First
on January
24, the UN
itself
threatened to
tear down
FUNCA's flyers.
Then after
advocacy,
sometimes more
heated than it
might have
been - those
deserving an
apology got
one, in fine
FUNCA fashion
-- this tear-down
was postponed.
UNCA "leaders"
continued with
the campaign,
expanding
it.
While
the simplest
solution would
have been to
open up the
glassed-in
bulletin board
maintained by
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
on
which without
naming any
UNCA officials
a letter
denouncing
Inner
City Press was
displayed
behind glass
for five
months in 2012,
the UN
has proposed
another
solution.
Late
on the
afternoon of
Friday,
February 22
(four weeks
after the
ostensible
postponement
of tear-downs)
the UN's Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit (MALU)
announced:
A
board will be
installed at
MALU square
most likely
next week. In
the
meantime,
correspondents
can start
putting
information up
in the
designated
area (look for
the press
board sign
across from
the
mailboxes).
The board is
for all
correspondents
who have a
valid
accreditation
and want to
share
information
about their
activities or
issues related
to the media
at the United
Nations
Headquarters.
RULES
FOR POSTING
FLYERS ON ALL
BOARDS IN THE
PRESS AREA
-Only
correspondents
with a valid
accreditation
can put up a
flyer.
-All
flyers must be
related to
press events
or issues
related to the
press
at the United
Nations
Headquarters.
-Insulting
language,
attacks on
other
correspondents
or groups of
correspondents
or any
information
that violates
UN principles
will not be
permitted.
-All
flyers must
include
contact
information
(name,
telephone
and/or
email) of the
person who
posts it.
-Only
one copy of
each flyer can
be posted on
the board.
The
Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit will
remove any
flyers that
are
not complying
with these
rules.
This
last should,
of course,
apply to the
glassed-in
UNCA bulletin
board,
on which they
displayed a
five page
letter
attacking the
investigative
Press for five
months in
2012. A
problem
remains with "separate
but (un)
equal,"
with the UNCA
glassed-in
board.
As
we reported
and asked
earlier this
afternoon in
connection
with a UN
Alliance
of
Civilizations
press
conference
that turned
into an
advertisement
for the German
car company
BMW, who partnered
with the UN
AoC,
sponsoring and
promoting
their UN press
conference on
Friday?
Without
mentioning the
name of any
officials, it
was the UN
Correspondents
Association.
To
be diplomatic
we'll only for
now note that
there has been
more
serious
controversy
about UNCA
sponsoring
events in the
Dag
Hammarskjold
Library
Auditorium --
click here for
one example
-- and
more recently,
this week, demanding
the first
question from
Bolivia's
president Evo
Morales,
even when he
repeatedly
said no, he
had
recognized
another
(Latina)
journalist
first.
There
has been no mea
culpa
about this
fiasco, even
after the next
day's
doubling-down.
What about
this
sponsorship of
what became,
in
essence, an
attempted
advertisement
for BMW?
Without naming
the names
of officials
-- there seems
to be some
sensitivity
about this --
the
question is
raised, like
the question
of documents
obtained under
the
US Freedom of
Information
Act like this
one. And
the questions
should
be answered.
Watch this
site.
, 
