ICP
Covered UNCA
in Press Room
on Lorenzo
Funds, Lorenzo
Associated
Gallach Ousts
ICP
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 20 --
When the UN
had Inner City
Press
physically
thrown out of
the building
on February
19, with UN
Security
Deputy McNulty
threatening
twice to “turn
you over to
NYPD” saying
Inner City
Press was
trespassing by
being in the
UN it has
covered for
ten years, the
pretext was
vagely alluded
to in the
first
paragraph of
UN official
Cristina
Gallach's Kafka-esque
letter.
Gallach, who
never once
spoke to Inner
City Press
before having
its UN pass
deactivated
and then
ordering
ouster on two
hours notice,
enforced by
eight UN
Security
officers who
took Inner
City Press'
Periscope
broadcasting
phone and cut
off the
live-stream
prior to
making their
threats, said
“I write with
reference to
an incident
involving you
that occurred
on Friday, 29
January 2016
during the
United Nations
Correspondents
Association
Annual General
Meeting.”
As Inner City
Press reported
before, during
and after that
UNCA meeting,
instead of
being held in
the large
clubhouse the
UN gives UNCA
on the third
floor, it was
held in the UN
Press Briefing
Room.
Inner
City Press,
and the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
(FUNCA)
contend that
the Press is
allowed in the
UN Press
Briefing Room.
Contrary to or
ignored by
Gallach's
letter, Inner
City Press
similarly
declined to
immediate
leave a
“private”
briefing when
UN Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric
“lent” the UN
Press Briefing
Room to French
President
Francois
Hollande and
he tried to
exclude all
non-French
journalist.
Inner
City Press
stood up for
the principle
and was
vindicated:
the briefing
was then
opened to all
journalists.
It's called
standing up
for freedom of
the press.
But
when Inner
City Press
tried to cover
meeting in the
same UN Press
Briefing Room
by UNCA,
finding it
newsworthy in
that UNCA took
tens of
thousands of
dollars from
the South
South News of
now indicted
Ng Lap Seng
and Francis
Lorenzo,
somehow UNCA
was given more
exclusionary
rights to
privately use
the UN Press
Briefing Room
than French
President
Hollande was.
UNCA President
Giampaolo
Piolo loudly
declared to
Inner City
Press, “You
are mentally
sick.” (This
violates the
UNCA-agreed
Media
Guidelines
that Gallach
cites, but
Pioli has a
private office
those his
articles, such
as they are,
concern
celebrities
like Morgan
Freeman rather
than the UN.)
Inner
City Press
previously
reported how
Pioli, more of
a landlord
than a
journalist,
rented one of
his family's
Manhattan
apartments to
Palitha
Kohona, Sri
Lanka's
ambassador to
whom Pioli
later granted
a “UN Screen”
of a Lankan
war crimes
denial film.
Inner City
Press wrote
that was a
conflict of
interest.
Similarly,
here, Inner
City Press has
specifically
reported on
Lorenzo's
association
now only with
UNCA but, as
it happens,
with Cristina
Gallach.
Gallach
appeared with
Lorenzo soon
before his
indictment.
Yet Gallach
did not, as
she should
have, recuse
herself from
ruling on the
proposal to
deactivate
Inner City
Press' UN pass
and seize its
files. This
was an ethical
breach on
which we'll
have more.
Gallach,
contacted by
people such as
Nobel Peace
Prize winner
Jose Ramos
Horta, has
attempted to
falsely
assuage their
concerns
saying she is
“offering” a
much reduced
access status
to Inner City
Press in the
UN (perhaps,
some surmise,
so UNCA could
selling Inner
City Press'
office space
-- UNCA openly
tells people
to join it
because for
the UNCA dues
money, you can
“get” a UN
office.
Inner
City Press
quit UNCA,
finding it a
corrupt
organization,
and now faces
having its
longtime
office space
taken to be
re-sold by
UNCA. It is
UNacceptable.
We'll have
more on this.
The UN on
February 19,
after Inner
City Press
asked about UN
inaction in
South Sudan
and Burundi
and financial
irregularities,
was handed a
letter to
leave the UN
by 5 pm. Letter
here.
While
Inner City
Press was
writing up a
UN Security
Council
meeting on
Syria that
went into the
evening, and
Periscope
broadcasting,
UN Security
guards walked
up, grabbed
Inner City
Press' laptop,
blocked its
Periscope
camera and
turned off the
livestream. Video here.
Then
eight UN
Security
officers led
by Deputy
Chief McNulty
tore off Inner
City Press' UN
ID badge and
carted off
Inner City
Press' laptop
and camera,
returning
these by
throwing them
on the
sidewalk of
First Avenue.
Audio
here.
They did
not allow
Inner City
Press to get
coat or
sweater, or
the files in
its office. No
provision was
made for this.
The
ejection
letter was
signed by the
Under
Secretary
General for
Public
Information
Cristina
Galach of
Spain but
ultimately
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon is in
charge. Ban
and his chief
of staff
Edmond Mulet
and Deputy SG
Jan Eliasson
were all
written to
with details
as this took
place.
When
Inner City
Press was
thrown out
onto First
Avenue,
standing
waiting,
laughing and
filming, was
Voice of
America's
Margaret
Besheer and
another board
member of the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
whose
president
Giampaoli
Pioli told
Inner City
Press if it
didn't remove
a (truthful)
article about
his screening
of a war
crimes denial
film for a
tenant of his,
Sri Lanka's
then
ambassador
Palitha
Kohona, he
would get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN.
But who
is running
this asylum?
Ban Ki-moon,
his spokesman
also involved
Stephane
Dujarric (who
threw Inner
City Press out
of the UN
Press Briefing
Room on
January 29,
also trying to
turn off ICP's
Periscoping
phone), and,
some surmise,
some who don't
like Inner
City Press'
questions.
We'll have
more on this.
The
pretext was
Inner City
Press three
weeks earlier
seeking to
cover a
meeting in the
UN Press
Briefing Room
by an
organization
which has
taken money
from now
indicted Ng
Lap Seng and
Frank
Lorenzo's
South SOuth
News, then
gave Ng Lap
Seng a photo
op with Ban.
(As Inner City
Press
reported,
Gallach
attended the
South South
Awards with
Frank Lorenzo,
photo
here, just
before his
indictment.
She should
have been
recused from
any decision-making
on this.)
, 
