UNITED
NATIONS, June
3 -- In front
of the UN
Security
Council before
it was
closed for
repairs, there
was a media
work-table
from which to
cover
it. The table
was maintained
during the
relocation to
the UN
basement
under the
General
Assembly until
May 31.
But
today when the
Security
Council
re-opened
there was no
table. On May
21, Inner City
Press saw and
reported, and
through the new
Free
UN
Coalition for
Access
opposed, a
rule which Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's
office says
it and the
other parties
including the
old
UN
Correspondents
Association
agreed to:
"f.
The Security
Council
stakeout area,
including the
Turkish
Lounge, is
not to be used
as a permanent
workspace for
the media.
When the
Council is not
in session,
correspondents
should
minimize the
amount
of time in the
area, unless
interviewing
or conversing
with a U.N.
delegate or
official."
From
May 21 right
into the
weekend of the
move, Inner
City Press and
FUNCA
worked to get
the rules
suspended or
modified,
asking about
it at six
noon briefing
and speaking
with the
Department of
Public
Information
on May 31, and
even on
Saturday, June
1,
both with
respect to the
so-called
Turkish
Lounge.
Inner
City Press was
asked to hold
off writing to
allow a final
pre-move
check to take
place -- and
Inner City
Press agreed,
and abided by
it.
But this
morning the
Council
opened, with
the UK's Mark
Lyall Grant
hoping
bilateral
meetings in
the Council,
and there was
no table.
Where
was UNCA
during all
this? Its 2013
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS, who
claimed to
have not seen
the draft of
the rules that
FUNCA was
given,
was
robo-tweeting
stories
written by
others. Her
first vice
president
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters was
promoting the
mega-corporation
he
works for, and
himself.
As
Inner City
Press has
shown, the
Gulf and
Western big
media who rule
UNCA not only
don't care
about the
table -- they
generally sit
upstairs
waiting to be
spoon-fed
documents and
spin by
"their"
missions --
but actively
sought its
elimination.
This
was both a
matter of
making it
harder for
smaller
investigative
media
to cover the
Council, and
some say a way
to "get back"
at
articles they
haven't liked.
In 2012 UNCA
board member Voice of
America, saying
it had the
support of
Reuters, Agence
France Presse
through Tim
Witcher, and others,
asked
the UN's
Stephane
Dujarric to
"review" the
accreditation
of Inner City
Press.
This
was exposed
using the US
Freedom of
Information
Act, and the New
York
Civil
Liberties
Union wrote to
the head of
DPI asking
to know the
due
process rights
of journalists
at the UN. (No
rights, no
real answer.)
In
2013 it was
Dujarric, with
the head of
DPI away, who
wrote to Inner
City Press and
FUNCA, even
before
responding to
the detailed
proposed
amendments
submitted,
that there
will be no
table. On May
31, the UN
couldn't even
state the
status of the
comments or
the rules. But
as
the Security
Council
re-opened this
morning on
June 3, there
is no table.
We
will have
more, much
more, on this.
Watch this
site.
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