Inner City Press -- Investigative Reporting From the United Nations to Wall Street to the Inner City

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- With Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel boss Jarba set for his second faux UN briefing in two months, the UN Department of Public Information which has facilitated this fraud had no answer on Tuesday.

  Inner City Press asked four DPI officials, who had provided as least spin on France's "reserving" of blocks of seats in the UN Press Briefing Room for Francois Holland, the following:

"whether tomorrow's session with Syria rebel Ahmad al Jarba, the second held in Room S-310, can properly be called a 'UN briefing' as UNCA did in July. Also, it has only been publicized to those who pay UNCA dues -- but it is in a UN room. These questions should be answered today."

  But the questions were not answered, or even replied to. For the UN, it is the Department of Public Information which decided to give the UN Correspondents Association the key to large room S-310, as well as an office around the corner, which which to hold faux "UN briefings" publicized only to those who pay them money, under 2013 UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS.

  Now that the UNCA Executive Committee has so blatantly shown its politics, what does it say that Ban Ki-moon gives the first of his only two or three question stakeouts to UNCA 2013 president Pamela Falk? It is propaganda-ville.

  Falk didn't even bother coming to the press conference of Bolivia's president Evo Morales on Monday, sending down (late) a Turkish journalist who asked a softball question in broken Spanish on which his media is sure not to report.

  When Costa Rica's president held a press conference, NO representative of UNCA appeared. The first question went to the Free UN Coalition for Access @FUNCA_info and Inner City Press, about the dispute with Nicaragua.

  UNCA is a politicized group -- it is entirely illegitimate for DPI, and officials like the ones who allowed France to take over the UN Press Briefing Room on Tuesday, to continue to give special favors to UNCA. Watch this site.

 In fairness, this was DPI's response to the Free UN Coalition for access, and FUNCA's reply, UNresponded to:

Subject: Fw: French "reserved" seats in Press Briefing Room - challenge and question by FUNCA
From: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org
Date: Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 4:40 PM
To: funca [at] funca.info
Cc: Hua Jiang [at] un.org>, Isabelle Broyer [at] un.org, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal [at] un.org, Jaya Dayal [at] un.org, Darrin Farrant [at] un.org

Dear Matthew, You've already seen a draft of my response but I am sending something more formal to you nonetheless.

As a courtesy to their large traveling press corps which had to move quickly from the North Lawn Building to the Secretariat for Pres. Hollande's press conference, we allowed the French Delegation to reserve a number of seats.

The press briefing room was indeed 'standing room only,' but in the end you and other UN press corps members all had seats. I also note that a number of UN correspondents, affiliate with UNCA and FUNCA, were able to ask questions of the President.

Stephane Dujarric, Director, News & Media Division | Department of Public Information

To which FUNCA replied, still without response hours later:

Thank you for this response, but it doesn't answer the question asked: what percentage would be OK?

Could France have marked 70% of the seats Reserved? 80%? That's what FUNCA is asking: what is the rule? Be aware: there were many correspondents who had questions and concerns about those "Reserved" signs. So it would be good to answer.

Also, it did make a difference: as you saw, the questions were all clustered in the front of the room. Carla only got a question because she just started asking: she was not called upon by the French mission.

FUNCA continues to challenge the first question automatically going to UNCA, in the briefing room and now, it seems, at mere two or three question stakeouts.

There's more to be said, but most pressingly, this is a request for an answer from DPI whether tomorrow's session with Syria rebel Ahmad al Jarba, the second held in Room S-310, can properly be called a "UN briefing" as UNCA did in July. Also, it has only been publicized to those who pay UNCA dues -- but it is in a UN room. These questions should be answered today, before tomorrow's session. Will appreciate it. Thanks.

Watch this site.