UN
Claims Media
Space Given
Fairly,
Defers FUNCA's
Other Reforms
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 9 --
Nearing the
end of a year
at the UN
which
featured one Under
Secretary
General who
refuses to
answer Press
questions
and several
who refuse to
hold press
conferences at
all,
Sunday there
was a small
response from
the UN.
Since
the response
promises that
information
will be made
public, we
make the
response, and
requests,
public here.
The
Free
UN Coalition
on Access,
the day after
its launch,
raised a
number of
issues and
reform
proposals to
the head of
the UN's
Department of
Public
Information.
One of the
most concrete
issues was a
meeting he has
scheduled for
December 10
with some
members of the
UN
Correspondents
Association
executive
committee,
about how
media space
will be
allocated in
the repaired
UN
headquarters.
Ignoring
for
now the other
issues --
about chief UN
Peacekeeper
Herve Ladsous
refusing to
answer
questions, and
disparities in
the treatment
of
media
organizations
covering the
UN -- the
delegated
answer
concerned
only the
December 10
meeting on
space:
"rest
assured that
all
resident
correspondents,
whether
members of
UNCA, FUNCA or
of no
organization,
will be
treated the
same and
offered the
same services
at the same
rate."
Even
this
is a contested
point. Wire
services which
are
represented on
the UNCA
executive
committee have
gotten big
private
offices; other
wire
services have
been given
smaller,
shared space.
Media from
Korea, the
Secretary
General's home
country, keep
space they
rarely use.
Other
correspondents
have been
ousted from
their spaces.
And on these
and
other issues,
UNCA has done
nothing.
Here
are some of
the other
issues,
excerpted from
FUNCA's first
but not
last letter to
Peter
Launsky-Tieffenthal,
the
Under-Secretary-General
for Public
Information:
During
the General
Debate in
September, we
were troubled
to be told
that the only
way to get
passes to
cover events
on the second
floor of the
North Lawn
building was
through UNCA.
The UN should
not be forcing
correspondents
to go through
UNCA.
We are
requesting
that
henceforth UN
passes and
other benefits
not be
distributed
through UNCA,
that first
questions in
press
conferences
not
automatically
go to UNCA
(for now, we
propose that
one in four
first question
not go to
UNCA), and
that the
"pool" for
photo
opportunities
not be limited
to UNCA
members, much
less UNCA
executive
committee
members.
As it stands
now,
non-favored
photographers,
who have
worked at the
UN for eight
years, are
turned away
from photo
opportunities.
This is not
acceptable.
Given not only
the UNCA
executive
committee's
involvement in
the June
20 letter from
Voice of
America
seeking
"review" of
accreditation
status but
also a failure
to defend
other ousted
correspondents,
we ask that
you inform
FUNCA, and
also otherwise
make public,
every
withholding or
limiting of
accreditation...
After the
Voice of
America
request, a
request under
the US Freedom
of Information
Act has
yielded
documents
showing that
VOA said that
Reuters
and Agence
France-Presse
supported that
dis-accreditation
request
and that UNCA
met with UN
officials
"very quietly"
about this
dis-accreditation
request.
We
remain
troubled and
interested to
discover who
these UN
officials
were, as we
believe you
should be.
Longer term,
we urge you to
push for a UN
Freedom of
Information
Act, an idea
we previously
discussed with
then USG for
Management
Alicia Barcena
but on which
no progress
has been made:
quite the
opposite.
We
respectfully
request -- as
apparently the
UNCA executive
committee has
not -- that
you schedule
and hold a
Q&A press
conference,
and urge that
USG Patricia
O'Brien and
all other USGs
at
headquarters
do so. Many
have been in
office for
some time
without
holding such
Q&A.
The
short
response, from
the official
to whom Voice
of America's
dis-accreditation
request was
directed and
who thanked
VOA for it,
and opined on
its
publication,
does not
address these
points.
Instead, it
says the
issues will be
addressed soon
-- not on
December 10 --
presumably by
USG
Launsky-Tieffenthal.
It also
states,
providing more
basis for this
publication,
that "DPI
expects that
UNCA will
share
information
from that
meeting with
all Resident
Correspondents
whether or not
they are
members of
UNCA."
This
has not
been
happening, and
it is unclear
how it could.
When Inner
City Press
asked for a
list of
accredited
correspondents
at the UN, it
was told this
information is
private and
would not be
provided.
Would the UN
give it only
to UNCA? There
is no need or
benefit in a
one-party
system. Watch
this site.
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