Year
After UN Evicted ICP
As It Covered UN
Corruption, Return With New Indictment Qs, Plus Ca Change?
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 30 – One year and one
day ago, covering the UN
corruption scandals which have
resulted in two sets of
indictments for bribery
involving the UN, Inner City
Press was ordered to leave the
UN Press Briefing Room by then
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane
Dujarric.
Other
correspondents were allowed to
stay in the briefing room,
which Dujarric had "lent" to
the United Nations
Correspondents Association.
But he insisted that Inner
City Press leave. Video
here.
This was
used as a pretext by Ban
Ki-moon's head of
communications Cristina
Gallach to evicted Inner City
Press and keep it, still now a
year later, confined to
minders to cover meetings on
the UN's second floor. The UN
Correspondents Association,
which made Ban Ki-moon its
guest of honor on December
16, 2016, has done
nothing to diminish the
restrictions on non-resident
correspondents: quite the
opposite.
On January
30, when UNCA again scheduled
its annual meeting, Inner City
Press informed and got the OK
from the UN Media
Accreditation and Liaison
Unit, in advance, to stake the
meeting out.
Last year
the topic it sought to cover
was UNCA's view of having put
Ban together with the then-
and now-indicted Macau based
businessman Ng Lap Seng. This
year, Ban's brother and nephew
have been indicted for
UN-related corruption. Do
UNCA's leaders have any second
thoughts about having made Ban
Ki-moon their guest of "honor"
barely six weeks ago?
Several
correspondents paused and said
no comment; there was an
energetic "absolutely" to the
idea of revoking Ban's guest
of honor status. (Inner City
Press wishes to make clear, as
it was informed, it was guest
of honor, not an award, rather
a compass about climate
change. Duly noted).
There was some
complaining about a
prospective rise in dues. One
of the agenda items was
"Proposal to membership on
annual UNCA dues." Another was
"proposal to the
Secretary-General to visit the
UNCA room."
And so it
starts again? Plus
ca change,
plus c'est la meme
chose?
***
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