For
UNGA,
After Protests
by FUNCA,
Media Seats To
Be Added
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 15 --
The coming UN
General
Assembly
debate week
will
not be
entirely
closed to the
media after
all, Inner
City Press has
learned.
After
two months of
protests by
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
of the
elimination of
all 53 media
seats in the
interim
General
Assembly,
Thursday
morning an
official of
the Department
of General
Assembly
and Conference
Management
told the Press
and FUNCA that
now "some"
media seats
will be set
aside of the
GA floor.
"I
heard about
your
questions,"
the official
said. But the
Department of
Public
Information to
which the
questions were
directed
never answered
at all.
On
June
10, in
connection
with opposing
a set of
anti-access
rules
promulgated
by DPI and its
UN
Censorship
Alliance, UNCA,
the Free
UN
Coalition for
Access
wrote to the
top officials
of DPI
protesting
that media and
civil society
were not
allowed onto
the new
General
Assembly hall
in the North
Lawn building.
FUNCA
also
noted that the
media booths
above the GA
floor, for
photographers,
had no tables,
no
interpretation,
and a single
broken
chair.
(That remains
the case
today, August
15 -- nothing
has been
improved.)
DPI's
answer was to
threaten
to suspend or
withdraw
Inner City
Press'
accreditation
for hanging a
sign of
the Free UN
Coalition for
Access
on the
door of its
shared office,
despite the
"United
Nations
Correspondents
Association"
having five
signs.
While
DPI's Stephane
Dujarric had
in the past at
least replied
to access
questions
raised to him
by twitter on
@FUNCA_info,
of late he has
not
replied to any such
questions,
including
about stakeout
videos not
put online,
and about
the media
seats in the
GA.
So FUNCA
e-mailed
the question
above and
below Dujarric
in DPI and was
told an answer
was coming.
None has
arrived.
On
August
13 Inner
City Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's
deputy
spokesperson:
Inner
City
Press: in the
upcoming
General
Assembly
general debate
week in
the new
interim
General
Assembly Hall,
zero seats for
the press or
the public,
which in the
past could be
in this
mezzanine. So,
what I
wanted to
know, it’s
been difficult
to find out,
how that
decision
was made. It
seems like it
will be the
first year,
admittedly
it’s
a new space,
but who, how
was the
decision made
how these
hundred and
some seats in
the back of
the room are
allocated and
that none
would
go to the
public or
press?
Deputy
Spokesperson:
Well, I’ll
have to find
out for you,
Matthew, I am
not privy to
that
information,
number one.
Number two,
it’s a much
less… it’s a
much smaller
venue, and
arrangements
have had to be
made, first of
all, so that
delegates and
Member State
delegates can
be there.
Inner
City
Press: Given
the things the
Secretary-General
said about
civil
society,
etcetera, it
seems if every
class that
sort of has a
stake
in the UN was
reduced, it
would be one
thing, but now
nothing for at
least two
classes of
stakeholders,
absolutely, so
I just wanted
to
know who made
the decision
and how it was
made.
Deputy
Spokesperson:
Well, as I
said, I’ll
have to find
out for you, I
don’t have
that
information.
But
by August 15
no answer was
given. The
DGACM official
told Inner
City
Press he heard
the question,
and DGACM
would now set
aside some
seats
for media,
finalizing it
in a
"coordination"
meeting next
week. Watch
this site.
, 
