UN
DPI Gallach Brags of Logo on 1 Aircraft,
After Evicting Press,
Agreement UNdisclosed
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 16 – The UN has hit a
new low: while refusing to disclose
its agreement with an airline,
it is bragging about have a
logo about its climate change
goals painted on the side of a
single aircraft.
Some UN
Departments have strayed so
far from what they claim to do
they should be broken up and
salvageable functions re-distributed.
So it is with the UN
Department of Public
Information under Cristina
Gallach.
Under
Gallach, DPI brought the UN
into further disrepute by
approving, without due
diligence, UN events and
"investments" by Macau-based
businessman Ng Lap Seng, now
under house arrest facing prosecution
for UN bribery in the US
District Court for the
Southern District of New York.
See UN
audit, Paragraphs 37-40
and 20b.
After
Inner City Press asked
Gallach about her links to Ng
Lap Seng and his South South
empire, she had Inner City
Press evicted without any
hearing or appeal, letter
here, audio
here, NYT
here, and keeps it restricted
to minders for one year
since and counting: it is
ongoing.
Now this
censor Gallach on February 15
appeared at a "UN" event with
an airline which while held in
the UN's Delegates Dining Room
was otherwise unpublicized,
other than by the airline
itself.
So at the
February 16 noon briefing
Inner City Press asked UN
Spokesman Farhan Haq for a
copy of the agreement, video
here, and gave him a
copy of the promotion about
the meeting to help the process.
Four hours
later, rather than the
requested copy of the
agreement, DPI put out a press
release beginning:
"New York, 16
February 2017 – China’s Xiamen
Airlines has committed to
supporting the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), the
United Nations announced
today. In an effort to create
more awareness about the
goals, the airline plans to
paint the exterior of one of
its aircraft in a special
livery, a first for the
airlines industry.
“This is an extraordinary and
very exciting way of
broadcasting information about
the global development agenda,
and the first of its kind,”
said UN
Under-Secretary-General for
Communications and Public
Information, Cristina Gallach.
“We hope millions of travelers
will now gain a better insight
into the Goals and how the UN
is working every day to
improve the lives of all.”
The agreement, which was
signed at the UN headquarters
in New York by Ms. Gallach and
Mr. Zhao Dong, the President
and Chief Executive Officer of
Xiamen Airlines, underscores
the airlines’ commitment to
support the new development
agenda, adopted by the UN’s
193 Member States in 2015 to
end poverty, fight inequality
and tackle climate change...
Xiamen Airlines also plans to
feature the UN’s multimedia
programming in its inflight
entertainment and at its VIP
lounges, as well as include
information on the goals in
its magazine."
Exploiting
the concept of the Sustainable
Development Goal, Gallach has
turned DPI into a machine for
censorship, propaganda and
corruption.
Other UN high
officials, as Inner City Press
has reported,“have been freaking
out. They don't know how much is
going to be cut, and from
where.”
Here's a
suggestion, based not only on
Inner City Press' personal
experience at the UN (NYT
here) but also interviews
with staff, diplomats and
elected officials: if there is
one UN Department to be cut,
even eliminated, it is DPI.
Since Cristina
Gallach of Spain took DPI over,
the Department has been in
decline, reaching the point
where it used
public funds to pay a
trainer to tell UN-accredited
non governmental organizations
that Detroit, Michigan is a
"third rate city" in "flyover
country."
But UN holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric told
Inner City Press, of Gallach,
"Everything that this official’s
done was done in accordance to
the rules." Video
here, UN Transcript (with
Inner City Press asking why
Dujarric was leaving without
answering air-brushed out) here:
Inner City Press: last Friday,
so a week ago, I sent in five
questions. I haven't
actually received an answer to
any of them, but one of them was
a very simple one, whether an
official received approval to
get an award in a personal
capacity and… and spent UN funds
to go and get it.
Spokesman: Everything that
this official’s done was done in
accordance to the rules.
Inner City Press: So…
Spokesman: Thank you.
On February 14, Dujarric's also
holdover Deputy Spokesman Farhan
Haq as Inner City Press asked
about the use of UN funds called
it "obsessive," on Gallach's
UNTV - then an "a*hole" once the
audio went off. Many changes are
needed at the UN. Watch this
site.
***
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