Soft
Porn Sold in UN Lobby, Despite Gender Advisor's Complaints to UN
Management
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, February 25 -- As the UN on
Monday launched its Campaign to End Violence Against Women, in the lobby
of UN Headquarters, soft porn remained for sale. At the newsstand next
to the elevator to the Secretary-General's offices on the building's
38th floor, titles such as Curve and Smooth and King, along with Dirty
South, were on display, with oiled-up women vamping for the camera.
Following a press conference at noon at which
time apparently did not permit Inner City Press to ask this question
despite a hand raised high throughout the question and answer period,
the question was put to the UN's Special Adviser on Gender Issues and
the Advancement of Women, Assistant Secretary-General Rachel N. Mayanja.
"I am glad you are raising it," she told Inner City Press. "I am very
appalled. I had already raised it to the Department of Management and
had been assured they were going to ask them to take it down."
Inner City Press asked how long ago the
request had been made to the Department of Management, headed by Under
Secretary General Alicia Barcena. "At least six months ago," Ms. Mayanja
said. "I am going to go back to them. It should be removed."
Ban Ki-moon
launches Campaign to End Violence Against
Women, soft porn not shown
While the sale of soft
porn on the newsstand in the United Nations lobby may raise First
Amendment issues, it appears to be the UN's position that while the UN
is in the United States, it is international territory to which the U.S.
Constitution does not apply. Perhaps then it is Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights that has constrained the UN from
removing the pornography from the newsstand it licenses in its lobby.
Recently, the
Department of Management and Ms.
Barcena have had no problem condemning
journalistic coverage of a
death at the UN
as causing "complete shock and outrage," as being "insensitive" and
"clearly transgress[ing] accepted boundaries of professional
journalism." Soft porn which the UN's own Special Adviser on Gender
Issues six months ago asked the Department of Management to have
removed, however, has generated no such shock or outrage within the
Department of Management, nor apparently even a letter to the newsstand.
Footnote: to the UN's credit, even
when time or a moderator deny a journalist a question, most (but not
all) UN officials are willing to slow down and provide at least some
answer to a question, if a reporter is persistent enough. The matter of
soft porn in the lobby is one that Inner City Press has wanted to ask
ASG Mayanga about for some time. And despite obstacles on Monday, the
question was asked, and now we'll see what happens. Watch, if not the UN
lobby, this site.
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