By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
4 -- With the
"World
Urban
Campaign" the
subject of a
briefing
at the UN on
March 4, UN
HABITAT's
spokesperson
called on
Inner City
Press to ask
the first
question.
But another
attendee cut
in and
demanded to be
given the
first
question,
citing the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association.
It is an
organization,
Evelyn Leopold
formerly of
Reuters said,
and you are
not. UN
Vdeo here
from Minute
20:10, YouTube
here,
embedded
below.
Her reference
was to the new
Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
Not that it
should matter,
but @FUNCA_info
has 797
followers, all
over the world
including for
example
actual defense
of journalists
in Somaliland,
versus UNCA
which has less
than 125
followers and
has tried to
get
journalists
thrown out of
the UN.
Leopold and
UNCA have done this
before, for
example with
Bolivia's
president Evo
Morales in
February 2013,
click here
and here
for that (on
which we will
have more).
While the UN
Secretariat
has
essentially
broken the
Staff Union by
refusing to
recognize the
slate that got
the most votes
in the
election held
in December,
citing
procedural
violations,
today another
more obvious
procedural
breech is
scheduled by
the UN
Secretariat's
partner, the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association.
That
group, which
in 2012 tried
openly and by
stealth to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN
and became the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance, is
required by
its own online
"Constitution"
to hold its
general
meeting and
financial
report in the
first half of
January.
Under 2013-14
president
Pamela Falk it
never
happened; it
has twice been
postponed. Now
it is more
than six weeks
late,
scheduled for
today at 4 pm
-- at the same
time as the
World Urban
Campaign event
at the Ford
Foundation
that was the
subject of the
briefing at
which Leopold
demanded the
first
question.
But
the UN
Secretariat
and
Spokesperson's
Office, unlike
the approach
to breaking
the Staff
Union which
actually at
times
challenges
them, says
nothing.
In fact, a
question and
answer session
was held this
month by
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
the 15 members
of UNCA's
Executive
Committee the
transcript or
tape of which
was never
given to other
journalists,
even UNCA
members not
among the
fifteen.
Inner
City Press on
behalf of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
asked
Ban's
outgoing
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
for a
transcript and
was told "get
over it,"
video here.
Nesirky
confirmed that
the UNCA
executive
committee
members did
not even bring
up Ukraine and
the disrepute
the UN was
brought into
by the leak
that former US
official
Jeffrey
Feltman "got"
Ban to send
Robert Serry
to Ukraine to,
in the
now-famous
phrase, "F***
the EU."
After
not asking
that critical
UN question,
now UNCA as
representated
by Falk
repeats or
retweets news
about Ukraine,
cc-ing
UN_Spokesperson.
Despite all
this, and the
fact that when
deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey left, his
farewell was
(appropriately)
in the
Spokesperson's
large office,
the farewell
as week from
now will be in
the big room
the UN gives
UNCA, with its
own
kitchenette:
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
The
censorship
goes beyond
trying to get
the
investigative
Press -- and
others --
thrown out.
Inner City
Press was
ordered to
remove from
the Internet a
story about
Sri Lanka and
seeming
conflict of
interest
within UNCA's
leadership,
and was
browbeaten
about an
article about
UN
Peacekeeping
chief Herve
Ladsous.
While
neither
article was
removed, one
of the "for
the record"
complaints to
the UN
Accreditation
official now
slated to
become Ban
Ki-moon's new
spokesperson
on March 10
has been
banned from
Google's
search
following a bogus
Digital
Millennium
Copyright Act
filing, click
here to view:
outright
censorship.
(Ironically on
February 28
when Inner
City Press
asked about
the banning of
a website by
the Sri Lankan
government,
Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson
said Ban is
committed to
free access to
the Internet.
What about this?)
To
the same UN
official, an
explicitly
internal UNCA
document was
provided, with
the notation
"you didn't
get this from
me," three
minutes after
the pass-through
committed that
the document
would remain
within UNCA:
click
here for that.
Under
Falk, has UNCA
even attempted
reforms such
as a
commitment
against
censorship,
not to spy
for the UN
or seek to get
other
journalists
thrown out of
the UN, or ban
things from
the Internet?
No.
While
UNCA's
"leadership"
parties, some
long time
journalists
have been
thrown out of
the UN; others
are losing
work space and
working
conditions at
the stakeout
have declined.
The new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
is taking this
on.
Tellingly,
when a
petition for
at least a
journalists'
work table at
the Security
Council
stakeout was
submitted, the
response was
to browbeat
those who'd
signed and ask
them why
they'd signed.
This is the
UN. Watch this
site.
, 
