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Ban
Heard of
Gallach's
Press
Crackdown,
Allowed As
Spain Moves To
Drop Her
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, April
28 -- When
Inner City
Press on
February 19
was told to leave
the UN on two
hours notice,
after covering
the
organization
for ten years,
it came as a
surprise. But
now we know
some of what
happened
behind the
scenes.
The incident
used as a
pretext in the
ouster
letter signed
by Under
Secretary
General
Cristina
Gallach, Inner
City Press'
attempt to
cover a
January 29
event in the
UN Press
Briefing Room
which was
nowhere listed
as closed, was
the type of
principled
disagreement
about
journalistic
rights that
led Inner City
Press to
refuse an
order to leave
a briefing by
French
President
Francois
Hollande
ostensibly
only for the
traveling
French press.
Inner City
Press wasn't
thrown out
then. But
something had
and has
changed.
While
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, when
asked about
the ouster,
said “That is
not my
decision,”
those close to
him say that
this crackdown
on the Press
was discussed
at a meeting
of Ban's
senior
leadership
team.
Ban's waning
tenure at the
UN is
embroiled in
scandal not
only of
peacekeeper
rapes under
Under
Secretary
General Herve
Ladsous but
more
dangerously
for Ban the
scandal of bribery
at the UN
by Macau-based
businessman Ng
Lap Seng, of
former
President of
the General
Assembly John
Ashe and
members of
Ban's
Secretariat.
The Office of
Internal
Oversight
Services audit
occasioned
by the
indictment of
Ng, Ashe and
others who had
since pleaded
guilty,
including
Francis
Lorenzo of
South South
News which
still under
Gallach has
its UN office,
named Gallach
as negligent,
at best. See audit
at Paragraphs
37-40 and
20(b).
Gallach
did no due
diligence in
allowing Ng's
Global
Sustainability
Foundation to
hold a corrupt
event in the
UN Visitors
Lobby, with
Ban present.
Gallach did no
due diligence
of Ng's Global
Sustainability
Foundation
sponsoring the
UN's slavery
memorial.
Gallach, who
had found that
some under her
in the
Department of
Public
Information
whom she had
ordered to
sign the
ouster letter
refused to,
said that
Inner City
Press had
broken the
rules and
norms. As time
has gone on,
she had been
unable to
specify which
rules - in
fact, when
directly asked
she refused to
provide a copy
of the rule
she claims to
be relying on.
Ban
heard about
the impending
ouster of
Inner City
Press... and
did nothing.
His supporters
point out to
Inner City
Press that Ban
also did not
speak in favor
of it. We'll
have more on
this.
Spain on the
other hand,
which got
Gallach the
position, has
as part of the
leverage it
has as a
Security
Council member
during the
selection of
the next
Secretary
General
decided to
drop Gallach
and seek to
put a
different
Spanish
official in a
different,
more
substantive
post: the
Office of
Disarmament,
current run by
Ban's senior
adviser Kim
Won-soo (who,
when asked
about the
ouster of
Inner City
Press and how
it makes Ban
looks, said
only, “You
have to talk
with
Cristine”).
But even if
Spain which
unwisely put
the
under-qualified
Gallach in the
DPI position
now sees the
error of its
ways, the
reality is
that Ban
Ki-moon's UN,
in the midst
of a
corruption
scandal,
ousted and
evicted the
critical Press
which is
pursuing the
story.
As Inner City
Press learned
more about how
Gallach got
the position,
and how she
(mis) used it,
the
retaliation
grew - to the
point of
throwing Inner
City Press'
files in the
street on
April 16, video here. Next, Gallach's
staff tore
down the sign
of the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
on the door of
Room S-303,
which opposes
censorship,
and have until
now ignored
Inner City
Press' formal
request
regarding its
office in
S-303. Others
said it was on
hold, despite
French and
Moroccan
moves. But
Gallach is
getting more
and more
desperate and
retaliatory,
and Ban still
claims,
despite the
above, “That
is not my
decision.”
We'll have
more on all
this.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
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for
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Corruption
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