UNSG
Guterres Held Town Hall, On UN External Website, ICP Periscope Banned
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 9 -- When new UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres held his first Town
Hall meeting on January 9,
Inner City Press went in early
to stake it out - that is,
stand in front and speak to
attendees -- as it has in
previous years.
But
this year, due to a
retaliatory eviction by former
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's head of
communications Cristina
Gallach and Ban's holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
Inner City Press could not
pass through the turnstile on
the UN's second floor. And
there was no one in Gallach's
Media Accreditation and
Liaison Unit office. Inner
City Press and its coverage
were banned.
But the
Town Hall was on the UN's own
external UN Webcast website,
so Inner City Press from in
front of MALU then the focus
booth it has been reduced to
working out of broadcast the
screen by Periscope, with
voiceover.
Soon a UN
official came in to order it
to stop -- which it did -- and
sent this:
"Dear Matthew,
Please note that the SG
townhall meeting is for UN
staff and is not an open
meeting.
Therefore, broadcasting it is
a breach of the guidelines.
With kind regards,
Media Accreditation and
Liaison Unit "
This
is censorship: the meeting was
on the UN's external website.
Not a good start -- Gallach
and Dujarric are leading even
new SG Guterres down the
garden path of censorship, at
the world possible time for
the UN. Watch this site.
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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