By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 23
-- The
entourage of
French
President
Francois
Hollande
repeatedly
ordered UN
accredited
Press to leave
the UN's
Press Briefing
Room on
September 23.
A briefing by
Hollande had
been scheduled
for 11 am,
then was
canceled. But
at 10:55 am as
a previous
briefing about
climate change
was ending,
Inner City
Press was told
to leave the
room.
The question,
On whose
orders? was
not answered.
Instead a
woman in the
French
delegation
said the room
was
"reserved."
This is not a
restaurant,
Inner City
Press replied,
now on behalf
of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, which
advocates for
the rights of
journalists
and for a
Freedom of
Information
Act covering
the UN.
Another member
of the French
delegation
said loudly,
"They'll take
away his
accreditation."
It was not
necessarily an
idle threat:
the UN
Spokesperson
Stephane
Dujarric had
looked into
the room as
this happened.
Inner City
Press said, if
UN Media
Accreditation
-- or UN
Security --
tell me to
leave, I will.
But not
before. Video
here.
Meanwhile the
representative
of the old UN
Correspondents
Alliance
meekly left;
previously,
UNCA did
nothing when
previous
French
Permanent
Representative
Gerard
Araud in
this room told
a Lebanese
reporter, "You
are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent."
After a time,
the woman from
Hollande's
entourage said
that the chief
of UN Media
Accreditation,
whom she made
a point of
saying she
knows well,
was not
answering the
phone. A
French
security guard
told Inner
City Press to
leave. But
this is not
their role, in
the UN
briefing room.
Finally the
French foreign
minister
Laurent Fabius
and the new
Permanent
Representative
to the UN came
and sat in the
front room
with Inner
City Press and
FUNCA.
Hollande
appeared from
the doorway
Spokesman
Dujarric had
looked out of.
Hollande said
he had come
mostly about
climate
change, but
that a French
citizen had
been taken
hostage in
Algeria by a
group linked
with ISIL or
"Da'ech," as
he called the
group. He said
arms
deliveries
would
continue; he
noted the
previous
night's air
strikes, by
others, on
Syria.
Hollande said
he would meet
in the
afternoon with
the Syrian
Opposition
Coalition's
Hadi al Bahra,
who he called
the only
legitimate
leader of
Syria. Then he
left without
taking
questions.
The day
before, UNCA
hosted al
Bahra (as they
had his
predecessor
Ahmad Jarba)
in the
clubhouse the
UN gives this
group,
publicized
only to those
which pay it
dues. Given
that UNCA did
nothing when Araud
told the
Lebanese
reporter "you
are not a
journalist,
you are an
agent,"
why didn't
Hollande hold
his press
conference in
the club of
UNCA, the UN's
Censorship
Alliance?
While
more than two
dozen
countries
pledged
support for
Iraq against
the Islamic
State in the
Security
Council on
September 19,
who would
speak on UNTV
about it?
For
more than an
hour the media
was told that
French foreign
minister
Laurent Fabius
would be
“coming to the
stakeout” to
take questions
on UNTV. It
was pushed
back, then
when finally
Fabius emerged
he rushed
past the
stakeout into
the hallway,
where he spoke
only in French.
Update:
to be fair,
the French
Mission put
out this
transcript.
So too
with Turkey's
foreign
minister
Mevlut
Cavusoglu.
When he
emerged from
the Security
Council, he summoned
Turkish media
down the
hallway
for a private
stakeout. Some
non-Turkish
journalists
weren't
allowed to go,
something
protested by
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
But why not
openly take
questions?
The
three
on-camera
stakeouts that
occurred were
by Syria's
Bashar
Ja'afari,
Iraq's
Foreign
Minister
Jaafari
(no relation,
if that needs
to be said),
and Canada's
John Baird.
To the last of
these, Inner
City Press asked if
before any
bombing in
Syria consent
should be
sought from
Damascus or
the Council.
That has “yet
to be
determined,”
Baird replied.
Iraqi
FM Jaafari,
when Inner
City Press
asked if the
Coalition
should speak
with Syria,
seemed to
dodge the
question. But
at least he
took questions
on camera, as
did Syria's
Ja'afari.
Where were the
others? Is
this how GA
Week will be?
FUNCA in is on
the case,
including
about faux
UN press
conferences
like those
held in the
private club
handed out by
the UN to its
Censorship
Alliance.
That group tried to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
now
masquerades on
media freedom.
This is how
the UN works.
Watch this
site.
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