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After
UN DPI Ousts
ICP, UN Staff
Union Demands
Restore Office
& Full
Pass
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 26 --
After Inner
City Press was
summarily
ejected from
the UN, which
it has covered
for 10 years,
on February
19, the
ostensibly
deciding
official
Cristina
Gallach told
no less than
Nobel Peace
Prize laureate
Jose Ramos
Horta that
Inner City
Press would
still be able
to cover the
UN.
What she
didn't say was
that Inner
City Press'
ability to
cover the
unfolding UN
corruption
scandal in
which she has
played a role
would be
curtailed
under the
proposed
arrangement -
by design.
Because
as a working
journalist it
needed access
to cover the
February 25 UN
Security
Council
meeting about
North Korea,
and only in
connection
with filing a
lawyer's
letter telling
Gallach and
the UN not to
touch Inner
City Press'
office or
files, Inner
City Press
late morning
entered the UN
with a
so-called
"Green P"
non-resident
correspondents
pass.
At the
stakeout,
after covering
five separate
Security
Council
consultations,
Inner City
Press asked
the President
of the
Security
Council for
February,
Rafael Ramirez
of Venezuela,
about one of
them, and what
he thought of
the UN's
commitment to
free press.
"I hope you
find your
office," the
President of
the Security
Council said.
Video here. So
who is
Cristina
Gallach?
Another
Security
Council
Permanent
Representative
told Inner
City Press
what Gallach
did, ousting
the Press
without due
process, was
"outrageous."
On February
26, the UN
Staff Union's
45th Staff
Council
adopted and
issued a
Bulletin
calling for
the UN to
immediate
restore Inner
City Press to
possession of
its office and
to ensure
these abuses
not happened
again. Full
text here;
excerpts
below:
"The 45th
Staff Council
of the United
Nations Staff
Union
expresses its
solidarity
with Mr.
Matthew R.
long-time
journalist of
Inner City
Press who was
summarily
stripped of
his credential
and physically
thrown out of
United Nations
premises by
security
personnel,
reportedly on
the
instructions
of the
Under-Secretary-General
of the
Department of
Public
Information.
It is shocking
and dismaying
that at the
United
Nations, as a
beacon of all
freedoms
enshrined in
its Charter,
the
Administration
would
blatantly
eject a member
of the press
corps assigned
to report on
events at the
Organization,
in an attempt
to muzzle and
intimidate.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-303,
UN, NY 10017 USA
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest service,
and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2015 Inner City Press,
Inc. To request reprint or other permission,
e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
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