By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 13 --
While the UN
preached
democracy
around the
world, in two
elections held
this week
inside the UN,
dysfunction
and decay were
the rule.
In the
UN Staff Union
election, in
which an
incumbent
seeks to stay
on despite
term limits,
there were charges
of illegal
polling, and
an attempt to
stop paying
the Elections
Services
Company. Nevertheless
polling
took place in
the UN lobby
on December 10
and 11; the
contest is
predicted to
go on for
months.
Late Friday
Inner City
Press learned
that results
are delayed by
payment
disputes; the
tallies are
now due on
December 16 or
17.
Here
were
the two slates
listed on
December 5,
which did not
include the
incumbent:
Ref.:
PO/2013/11
Date: 5
December 2014
From:
Hesham
A Auda,
Chairperson,
Polling
Officers of
the 45th Staff
Council
Ticket
1
President
Stephen
Kisambira
(DESA/PD)
First
Vice-President
Emad Hassanin
(DGACM/MPD/PS)
Second
Vice-President
Leonid
Dolgopolov
(DSS/DSSS/SSS)
Ticket
2
President
Nadir
A. Dirar
Bashir
(DGACM/MPD/PS/DTPU)
First
Vice-President
Raymond Gomez
(DSS/DSSS/SSS/OS)
Second
Vice-President
William Bly
(DGACM/OPGA)
While
over 2000
journalists
are accredited
at the UN,
only 111 tried
to vote in the
three days of
polling -- and
door to door
demands to
vote for --
the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association.
Seven of these
ballots
failed. The
incumbent
Pamela Falk of
CBS, running
unopposed,
still managed
to not get 26
of the 104
votes cast.
Her
vote total of
78 is lower
than the 85
obtained in
December 2011
by her predecessor,
who demanded
that Inner
City Press remove
an article
about Sri
Lanka from the
Internet,
click here for
that.
(Inner
City Press
after
withstanding a
kangaroo court
UNCA
proceeding
quit the
organization
and co-founded
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
@FUNCA_info,
to actually
defend the
right of free
press and free
inquiry in and
about the UN
system.)
UNCA is an
organization
in continued
decline. In
2012 many of
its "leaders"
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
as documented
by documents
obtained under
the Freedom of
Information
Act. Voice
of America
asked the UN
to "review"
Inner City
Press'
accreditation;
VOA
said it had
the support of
Agence France
Presse and
Reuters,
click here for
that.
The
Reuters first
vice president
of UNCA spied
for the UN,
giving them an
internal anti
Press UNCA
document three
minutes after
promising not
to (story
here, document
here, audio here).
While
he has stepped
off, the
Reuters
reporter he
supervised
(and who also
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN)
campaigned to
get on UNCA's
board,
demanding in
Friday's noon
briefing to
all present,
"Have you
voted?" It's
as if Reuters
has a
Permanent seat
on UNCA's
15-member
Executive
Committee,
like the P5 in
the Security
Council.
Here
are the
results,
compared to
votes in
December 2011
for the
"candidate" or
their
predecessor
Dec
'13 Dec '11
Prez:
* 78 [85]
Pamela Falk,
CBS News TV
and Radio
1st VP
* 74 [79]
Kahraman
Haliscelik,
TRT Turkish
Radio & TV
2d VP
* 48 71 Masood
Haider, Dawn,
Pakistan
* 48
[71] Sylviane
Zehil,
L’Orient Le
Jour
3d VP
* 55 [62] Erol
Avdovic,
Webpublicapress
38 Ali
Barada,
An-Nahar/France
24
Trez *
81 [71]
Bouchra
Benyoussef,
Maghreb Arab
Press
Sect *
79 [81] Seana
Magee, Kyodo
News
Members
at
Large (9)
*
57 Nabil
Abi Saab ,
Alhurra TV
*
57 Talal
Al-Haj
,Al-Arabiya
News channel
22
George
Baumgarten ,
Jewish
Newspapers,
Nation Media
* 50
Sherwin
Bryce-Pease,
South African
Broadcasting
(SABC)
*
51
Zhenqiu Gu,
Xinhua News
Agency
*
69
Melissa Kent,
CBC/Radio
Canada
*
56
Evelyn
Leopold,
Huffington
Post
Contributor
49 J.
Tuyet Nguyen,
German Press
Agency DPA
*
67
Michelle
Nichols,
Reuters
41
Edwin
Nwanchukwu,
News Agency of
Nigeria
27
Cia Pak,
Scannews
*54
Valeria
Robecco, ANSA
*
54
Sangwon Yoon ,
Bloomberg
Some
of the elected
are new and
their
positions on
UNCA Executive
Committee
members trying
to get other
(investigative)
media thrown
out of the UN,
and the need
to preclude
this and UNCA
leaders'
anonymous
social media
trolling, are
not yet known.
(Some not
elected were among
the better /
more diverse
candidates.)
Beyond
the lack of
reform after
UNCA "leaders"
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
and then
engaged in
2013 in
anonymous
social media
trolling which
the incumbent
though told on the
record did
not stop,
there's now a
dispute
of the
statement
that donated
Samsung
television
equipment "did
not involve a
mission,"
which the UN itself
admits Samsung
have the
equipment to
the South
Korean
Mission, which
gave it to the
UN, which
forwarded it
on to UNCA.
Why,
given how much
they are
charging next
week in
Cipriani's?
They will
honor Ban
Ki-moon, whose
spokesperson's
office
squawked
Friday,
immediately
after a briefing
on Syria
chemical
weapons,
that wine
would be
served in the
UNCA room and
that election
results were
out: to UN,
newsworthy.
When
the UN
Correspondents
Association
leaders tried
stealthy to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
and have
failed to
institute any
reform since,
it became the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Watch this
site.
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