By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
5 -- At the
UN,
transparency
and access are
in decline,
due to
collusion.
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon at his
(closed door)
"Global Town
Hall" meeting
with UN staff
this month
said, "We are
always
accessible. I
think I am one
of the most
accessible
Secretaries-General,
maybe."
Maybe.
On March 4,
Inner City
Press heard
about UN staff
unions thrown
out of the
WIPO Staff Union
meeting in
Geneva, and
asked Ban's
spokesman Stephane
Dujarric about
it.
Dujarric
replied that
he hadn't
heard of it.
Inner City
Press, now on
behalf of the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access, asked
Will you look
into it?
Dujarric
seemed to say
yes, but
twelve hours
there was
nothing. The
link to the
UN's
transcript of
the noon
briefing
didn't work,
as it hasn't
in days, and
the day's UN
selected
Highlighted
did not
include this,
or Inner City
Press'
question based
on the delayed
The New
Republic
profile,
whether Ban is
aloof and, for
example, if he
is speaking to
member states
about his own
same sex
partner
benefits. (Ban
is "watching"
was the
answer.)
After the noon
briefing, from
the chair of
UNCA a/k/a the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance came
disagreement
with the profile,
the statement
that Ban IS
funny. OK.
So here now is
an email from
Geneva, which
Inner City
Press is
publishing:
"Your
e-mail of
February 24,
2015 to the
Head of SSCS
on the matter
of external
individuals
being invited
to attend the
Ordinary
General
Assembly of
the WIPO Staff
Association
and their
access to WIPO
has been
brought to my
attention as
the
Administration’s
focal point on
Staff Council
related
matters.
Consistent
with our
response last
year to a
previous
similar
request to
invite
external
entities to
such meetings
(September 22,
2014) and as
per
established
practice, only
WIPO staff who
have
authorization
to be on WIPO
premises can
be admitted.
Please note
that in this
regard, Mr. B.
Fitzgerald, as
a WIPO staff
member on
secondment to
FICSA, will be
permitted to
attend the
Ordinary
General
Assembly.
"Furthermore,
please note
that WIPO
staff are free
to associate
with external
entities,
including
FICSA and
CCISUA, but
this should be
done outside
the confines
of the
Ordinary
General
Assembly of
the WIPO Staff
Association. "
So... we like
unions, just
don't talk to
other unions.
They had asked
in advance,
"the Human
Rights Council
will be
reporting next
week on your
exchanges with
two UN Special
Rapporteurs
regarding the
unlawful
dismissal of
former WIPO
Staff
Association
President,
Moncef Kateb."
We'll have
more on this.
On January 16,
Inner City
Press for the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric, video here, transcript
here:
Inner
City Press: At
the
Secretary-General’s
town hall
meeting, he'd
said that he's
open to
talking.
“I'm always
ready.
Our senior
advisers are
fully
ready.
We are always
accessible.
I think I am
one of the
most
accessible
Secretary-Generals,
maybe.
So, you can
count on
me. I am
ready to talk
to you.”
So, he was
given a letter
yesterday by
the said
elected
president of
the staff
union Steven
Kisenbera
[sic] to
actually have
a dialogue
about why
there's been
no staff union
for the last
year.
I'm sure you
can talk to
the other side
but if he said
he's the most
accessible
ever and he's
ready to talk,
is that the
case? Or
what's
happened with
the letter?
Spokesman
Dujarric:
Let's see
what… the
letter was
sent
yesterday.
Let's see what
the response
is. But,
I do know
wherever the
Secretary-General
travels, he
takes time to
meet with
staff and
staff
representatives
around the
world.
Inner City
Press:
But does he do
collective
bargaining
about
conditions of
work?
Spokesman:
I think there
is a system
and a protocol
in place,
staff
management
committees to
deal with
those issues
that represent
the
Secretary-General.
Inner City
Press:
And that
continues
without a
recognized
staff union?
Spokesman:
The situation
of the staff
union here in
New York is
unchanged
since we last
talked about
it. Have
a wonderful
weekend.
Meanwhile
press access
at the UN has
continued to
decline under
Ban.
During the
General
Assembly
debate week
last
September,
Ban's chief of
peacekeeping
blocked a
Press camera (Vine here), and the French
mission
ordered all
non-French
journalists to
leave a
briefing by
President
Francois
Hollande in
the UN Press
Briefing Room.
The Free
UN Coalition
for Access
actively
opposed both
of these, as
well as
restrictions
on getting to
the General
Assembly
stakeout and
on taking
photographs
from the
General
Assembly
photographers
booth. After
making the
latter
complaint to
UN spokesman
Dujarric,
Dujarric's
office two
hours later
promoted a
meeting
ostensibly to
discuss
"access
problems," by
the UN
Correspondents
Association
a/k/a UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Now for next
week 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. 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.
UNCA has
become the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
having tried
to get the investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN
and, for
example,
attempting on
October 24 to
confine
information
about one of
the lawsuits
against the UN
for bringing
cholera to
Haiti to a
non-webcast
session for
those which
pay it money.
During the
October 16 UN
General
Assembly
session to
elect five new
members to the
UN Security
Council, the
UN's Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit came into
the GA
photographers'
booth and said
that only
"wire service"
photographers
could remain.
But MALU has
not offered
any definition
of "wire
service," in
this new media
age. The new Free UN Coalition for Access has
demanded such
a definition,
most recently
of Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric at
the October 17
UN noon
briefing. Video here.
Dujarric,
saying he was
quoting a
Supreme Court
justice on
another topic,
said, What
is a wire
service? I
know one when
I see one.
This is, as it
were, the
definition of
arbitrary.
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.
During last
month's
General
Debate,
journalists
weren't even
been able to
go to the
General
Assembly
stakeout
without an
escort from
MALU -- an
escort that
often did not
come on time,
or come at
all.
There was, as
well,
substantive
censorship.
Most recently
of October 16,
media
photographing
the UN General
Assembly vote
for new
Security
Council
members were
ordered NOT to
photograph the
tables of the
voters. Inner
City Press for
FUNCA
resisted, and
discussed this
issue along
with the
elections (and
Cambodia) on Huffington
Post Live's
"World Brief"
on October 17,
here.
On
September 27
while Inner
City Press
filmed from
within the GA
stakeout area,
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous came
over and
blocked -- or
Banned -- the
filming,
demanding to
know what it
was for. Vine
here. Then
Ladsous
canceled the
scheduled
public Q&A
stakeout on
Mali.
While the new
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
challenged
this
censorship, on
September 27
at the
stakeout and
following up
the next week,
the old UNCA
has done
nothing about
it. In fact,
UNCA big wigs
have been
happy to take
private
briefings from
Ladsous
and others, as
access at the
UN for less
"insider"
correspondents
has continued
to decline.
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.)
Now, in a
typical UN
charade, the
very UNCA
which oversaw
this decrease
in access
belatedly says
it is
concerned and
conducts
UN-promoted
meetings that
are akin to
faux, scripted
wrestling
matches with
fake punches.
This is the UNCA
that played
softball
soccer with
Ban, promoting and allowing him a photo op.
Many of these
promotions are
signed by UNCA
figurehead
Pamela Falk of
CBS, nowhere
seen during
noon briefing
fights about
media access.
Meanwhile the
UN
Spokesperson's
office is
promoting a
for-pay event
for UNCA, by
taping a flier
for it on its
counter. This
is the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
The Free UN
Coalition for
Access has
told the UN,
again on
October 16,
that it must
address and
reverse its
blocking of
press access,
and that if it
needs input it
must hold a
meeting open
to all
journalists
who cover the
UN, not just
its chosen
UNCA -- the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance --
which has
become akin to
a
company-created
and supported
union.
Ban's
spokesperson's
office
declined to
criticize the
September 27
censorship,
nor Ladsous'
spokesman
subsequently
asking another
media to
confirm that
it would not
air an on the
record
interview with
Ladsous'
deputy Edmond
Mulet about
the UN
bringing
cholera to
Haiti. Video
here.
In fact Ban's
Spokesman
played a part
in, at least
defending, a
French-only
briefing in
the UN Press
Briefing Room.
On
September 23,
the entourage
of French
President
Francois
Hollande
repeatedly but
unsuccessfully
ordered
the UN
accredited
Press to leave
the UN's
Press Briefing
Room.
Video
here.
On September
25 when the Free UN Coalition for Access asked UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric, who
peaked out
from the VIP /
Green Room
behind the
Press Briefing
Room, about
the incident,
he said
sometimes
countries try
to reserve the
Room.
Asked if other
countries had
done so during
this General
Assembly,
Dujarric said
yes.
Inner City
Press then
asked Dujarric
which other
countries,
beyond his
native France: