UN
Dept of Public Info
Tells Press Its Agreements
with Airlines &
Media Are Secret
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 16 – How can the
ostensibly public UN's
Department of Public
Information say that its
agreements with an airline and
undisclosed media
organizations are confidential
and not to be disclosed? By
what authority are these
blue-washing deals made by
Under Secretary General
Cristina Gallach secret?
The
UN has now hit a new low:
while refusing to disclose to
the Press and public its
"cooperation agreement" with
an airline, it is bragging
about having a logo about its
climate change goals painted
on the side of a single
aircraft.
Inner City
Press asked for a copy of the
agreement on February 16. The
response was a press release
later in the day - but no copy
of the agreement. So Inner
City Press on February 17
asked UN Deputy Spokesman
Farhan Haq again for a copy of
the agreement. He said he
didn't think it's public.
What? The Department of Public
Information?
Haq's
office has also sent Inner
City Press this, which we publish
in full:
"Regarding the
question you asked at noon, we
can say the following: DPI
establishes partnership with
media outlets and other
private sector entities to
help disseminate information
about the UN. This includes
with airlines who broadcast UN
programmes in-flight and
disseminate UN information
through in-flight magazines
and other means. Xiamen
Airlines of China is the
latest to join such a
partnership, including
undertaking to help promote
awareness of the Sustainable
Development Goals by painting
its aircraft with SDGs livery."
Inner City
Press on February 17 asked for
a list of those signing such
deal with the UN - it has not
been provided. We'll have more
on this.
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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