UN
Security
Ejecting ICP
Wouldn't Give
Name, Grabbed
ID Badge,
Pushed Out
Gate
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 21 --
The UN on
February 19,
after Inner
City Press
asked about UN
inaction in
South Sudan
and Burundi
and financial
irregularities,
handed Inner
City Press a
letter to
leave the UN
by 5 pm. Letter
here.
While
Inner City
Press was
writing up a
UN Security
Council
meeting on
Syria that
went into the
evening, and
Periscope
broadcasting,
UN Security
guards walked
up. They told
Inner City
Press it could
not transcribe
and report on
answers to its
(final?)
questions at
the Security
Council
stakeout.
Inner
City Press
asked the
Security
officer making
this order to
provide his
name, but he
refused. Audio
here.
Inner
City Press
asked how this
could be UN
protocol,
since police
department in
many
jurisdiction
require
officers to
give their
names, and
have names on
their badges
or shields.
The
officer -- who
would late
shove Inner
City Press out
into First
Avenue without
coat or files
-- said, "You
are acting in
a very..."
A very
what? Uppity
manner, asking
for the name
of a security
supervisor
ordering a
journalist to
leave, and
ultimately
grabbing the
journalist's
laptop?
Finally
the name was
provided:
Deputy
Security Chief
Michael
McNulty.
Previously
bragging of
serving Ban
Ki-moon in
Iraq. We'll
have more on
this.
For now we
note this is
why a reduced
accreditation
status that
allows for UN
Security
actions like
this while
reporting from
the Security
Council
stakeout is
UNacceptable.
Later
UN Security
grabbed Inner
City Press'
laptop,
blocked its
Periscope
camera and
turned off the
livestream. Video here.
Then
eight UN
Security
officers led
by Deputy
Chief McNulty
tore off Inner
City Press' UN
ID badge and
carted off
Inner City
Press' laptop
and camera,
returning
these by
throwing them
on the
sidewalk of
First Avenue.
Audio
here.
They did
not allow
Inner City
Press to get
coat or
sweater, or
the files in
its office. No
provision was
made for this.
The
ejection
letter was
signed by the
Under
Secretary
General for
Public
Information
Cristina
Galach of
Spain but
ultimately
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon is in
charge. Ban
and his chief
of staff
Edmond Mulet
and Deputy SG
Jan Eliasson
were all
written to
with details
as this took
place.
When
Inner City
Press was
thrown out
onto First
Avenue,
standing
waiting,
laughing and
filming, was
Voice of
America's
Margaret
Besheer and
another board
member of the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
whose
president
Giampaoli
Pioli told
Inner City
Press if it
didn't remove
a (truthful)
article about
his screening
of a war
crimes denial
film for a
tenant of his,
Sri Lanka's
then
ambassador
Palitha
Kohona, he
would get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN.
But who
is running
this asylum?
Ban Ki-moon,
his spokesman
also involved
Stephane
Dujarric (who
threw Inner
City Press out
of the UN
Press Briefing
Room on
January 29,
also trying to
turn off ICP's
Periscoping
phone), and,
some surmise,
some who don't
like Inner
City Press'
questions.
We'll have
more on this.
The
pretext was
Inner City
Press three
weeks earlier
seeking to
cover a
meeting in the
UN Press
Briefing Room
by an
organization
which has
taken money
from now
indicted Ng
Lap Seng and
Frank
Lorenzo's
South SOuth
News, then
gave Ng Lap
Seng a photo
op with Ban.
(As Inner City
Press
reported,
Gallach
attended the
South South
Awards with
Frank Lorenzo,
photo
here, just
before his
indictment.
She should
have been
recused from
any
decision-making
on this.)
, 
