As
Budget Scrutiny Looms, UN Must
Do Better on Press Freedom, Due
Process &
FOIA
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 7 – The United Nations
at the beginning of 2017 still
has no
Freedom of Information Act,
no content neutral standards
for media accreditation and no
right to due process or
appeal for journalists.
This is UNacceptable.
New UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres
should be expected to address
these issues, and to hold at
least monthly sit-down press
conferences. On January 6
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric indicated he would
wait for something to
announce. But Q&A should
not be tied to a particular UN
announcement.
Downgrading to non-resident
correspondent status, and
eviction from UN work-space,
is not a legitimate way to
respond to coverage of UN
irregularities and corruption
such as that alleged in the
ongoing Ng Lap Seng / John
Ashe UN bribery case. It must
be reversed, but also
non-resident correspondents
should not be restricted
to minders or escorts to
cover events on the Conference
Building's second floor.
On January 6,
Dujarric and DPI's Cristina
Gallach led Guterres on a tour
that implied that only those
who pay money to a group which
last month gave an award to
anti-press Ban Ki-moon, and
who are granted (and not
evicted in retaliation from)
UN office space are part of
the UN press corps. Click
here for Inner City
Press' story,
and YouTube
video. This will
ill-serve Guterres, and the
UN.
New SG
Guterres is toured around by Gallach &
Dujarric, Jan 6, 2017, photo by M.R. Lee
Beyond
headquarters, the UN in the
field must become more
responsive to local
journalists. A Free
UN Coalition for Access
member in Hargeisa, Somaliland
complains that the UN in
Mogadishu refuses to answer
simple journalistic questions.
The same has occurred in
Colombia, while the UN's
leadership in Kenya has
informed staff not to speak to
particular media. This is
UNacceptable.
That
former Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon, among his very first
acts upon leaving the UN, took
legal action against reports
of possible corruption during
his tenure reflects badly on
the UN.
FUNCA hopes for a
better 2017, but hope is not
enough. The UN needs a FOIA, a
reversal of recent anti-press
decisions and due process and
content neutral standards, and
at least monthly Secretary
General press conferences,
going forward. We will have
more on this; watch this site.
***
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