At
UN,
Still No
Answer to
NYCLU on
Accreditation
Rules, 48
Hours Notice
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 11 -- One
week ago
today, the New
York Civil
Liberties
Union wrote to
UN officials
asking for a
public
explanation of
their
standards for
revoking media
accreditation.
NYCLU's
request was explicitly
triggered
by Voice
of America's
executive
editor Steve
Redisch's June
20 request to
the UN's
Stephane
Dujarric, on
behalf of
VoA's Margaret
Besheer and
unnamed
"others," to
"review" the
accreditation
status
of Inner City
Press. (While
the Broadcast
Board of
Governors has
sought delay,
Inner City
Press' Freedom
of Information
Act request to
determine
among other
things the
identity of
these "others"
is
proceeding.)
On
July
6, Inner City
Press asked
the Office of
the
Spokesperson
for
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon for
their response
to NYCLU's
request.
In the five
days since
there has been
no response at
all.
But on July
11,
Ban's lead
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
told Inner
City Press, "I'm
going to have
another word
with Stephane
Dujarric about
this" --
apparently
because he
didn't like
how Inner City
Press asked a
question about
Western
Sahara.
This
shows
the lack of
awareness by
the UN, at
least by the
Secretary
General's lead
spokesman,
that there is
a problem
turning a
disagreement
about press
questions or
coverage into
complaints to
the
UN's media
accreditation
officials.
Now
Inner
City Press has
become acutely
aware of
another sample
problem
of UN media
accreditation,
the case of a
journalist
covering the
UN
for 17 years
on issues
ranging from
disarmament
and develoment
to the
indigenous who
has now been
told, with
only 48 hours
notice, to
either
produce a new
letter of
accreditation
or give up not
only his
cubicle
office space
but also his
accreditation.
Inner
City
Press
interviewed
the journalist
at issue on
Wednesday
night and
was shocked by
the lack of
notice, and by
the lack of
support he
received from
the
Correspondents
Association,
whose
president
merely
advised him to
"get another
letter."
The reality is
that
other
reporters at
the UN,
including non
UNCA members,
have been
given far
longer to
regularize
their status,
after a former
employer
either
disavowed them
or went
bankrupt. It's
as the NYCLA
has asked:
what ARE the
rules?
If there are
other unstated
reasons for
this "purge,"
some raised
behind the
scenes by
Xinhua and the
Correspondents
Association's
president
against one of
his own
members, they
should be
disclosed and
a response
allowed --
that's what
the NYCLU
letter and
applicable
case law
requires.
Watch this
site.
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