Ban
Ki-moon Issues
Charlie Hebdo
Quotes Without
Qs or Public
Notice in UNCA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 7 --
How and to
whom is news
doled out at
the UN, when
something big,
and bad in the
case of
today's
Charlie Hebdo
murders in
France,
happens in the
wider world?
As statements
of outrage and
condolence rolled in
from capitals
all over the
world, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon stayed
silent. UN
Television
sent out an
updated alert
that the
president of
the Security
Council would
read a
statement
about the
attack at
11:30 am --
but nothing
about Ban
Ki-moon, who
could
presumably
speak faster
and with fewer
approvals.
Ban Ki-moon's
online public
schedule for
January 7
listed, and
still at 2:45
pm only lists,
two
appointments:
“12:00 p.m.
Meeting with
Mr. Mehdi
Jomaa, Prime
Minister of
Tunisia and
3:30 p.m.
Meeting with
Mr. Jack
Rosen, Chief
Executive,
Rosen
Partners,
LLC.”
But UN
correspondents
who had paid
money to UNCA,
now
the UN's
Censorship
Alliance,
had been sent
an e-mail that
Ban would make
remarks in the
clubhouse the
UN gives them,
sometime after
10:15 am.
There at 10
am, UN
Television was
putting
cameras in --
but still,
nothing in the
UN Media Alert
or even UNTV
Pool report.
It became
clear, while
standing in
front of the
UN Censorship
Alliance's
clubhouse,
that Ban would
be using this
private event
to make his
remarks on
Charlie Hebdo,
and
predictable
take no
questions.
What is the
relationship
between Ban's
UN and UNCA?
Journalists
accredited to
cover the UN
are told, if
they ask, that
they are not
required to
join UNCA -
and Inner City
Press is not a
member, having
quit the group
after being
elected to its
Executive
Committee for
2011-12 and
before, and
then
co-founded the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
At noon on
January 7,
Inner City
Press for
FUNCA asked
Ban's
spokesman
Dujarric why
it was not in
the Media Alert.
Click
here for video
of that
Q&A, and
one on Sri
Lanka, and
from outside
the private
event, here.
But the UN was
using UNCA as
a proxy for
the whole
press corps -
trying, as
more than one
correspondent
put it, to
make them join
UNCA to not
“miss news”
such as this.
The past and
returned
president of
UNCA,
Giampaolo
Pioli, has
said that no
correspondent
who is a
member of the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access can be
a member of
UNCA. And the
notification
of and
invitation to
Ban's
“remarks” was
sent only to
UNCA members,
who pay dues
money to UNCA.
Is this
appropriate?
Inner City
Press, after
doing its best
to cover Ban's
short - and
yes,
questionless -
remarks from
the space
outside the UN
Censorship
Alliance's
clubhouse, Tweeted
photo here,
audio
from source
here, went
to the day's
UN noon
briefing and
asked Ban's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric why
Ban's prepared
remarks on the
Charlie Hebdo
killings had
not been in
the Media
Alert.
Dujarric
replied that
it was too
short notice
and said that
it had been
“squawked” --
only to
in-house
journalists
who were
inside the UN
building -- at
9:45 am.
But that left
a full hour to
e-mail a Media
Alert update
to the wider
list of
journalists
accredited to
cover the UN.
It wasn't
done: it's the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Inner City
Press for
FUNCA asked
Dujarric why
it wasn't
listed on
Ban's public
schedule,
while Rosen
Partners was
(Inner City
Press asked
what that
meeting was
about but was
not told.)
Dujarric
replied that
speaking to
UNCA --
ostensibly
wishing happy
New Year to
the
journalists
covering the
UN, in an
event
publicized
only to the
subset which
pays money to
UNCA -- was an
in-house
event.
Correspondents
can, it seems,
become too
embedded.
When asked why
he would hold
a Ban Ki-moon
news event
without making
sure it was in
the Media
Alert, Pioli
said “we have
nothing to do
with the Media
Alert.” And
that is one of
the problems,
or reality:
UNCA is not
ABOUT wider
access to news
at the UN.
In fact, UNCA
board members
including
Pioli tried to
get Inner City
Press thrown
out in 2012,
after
demanding that
articles
and even
photographs be
taken down.
#WeAreCharlie,
as they say.
At the end of
the day's UN
noon briefing,
in which
another
journalist
reminded
Dujarric that
not all UN
correspondents
are members of
UNCA and the
UNCA only
sends notices
to its dues
paying
members,
Dujarric said
he would look
into that.
That is not
enough.
Tellingly,
from the
Twitter feed
of UNCA, which
Dujarric
claims can be
relied on as a
middleman to
reach the UN
press corps,
Inner City
Press is
blocked. Any
particular
media could do
it - but with
UNCA doing it,
the UN must
cease using
UNCA as a
middle-man, as
its Censorship
Alliance.
Notices
should be sent
to all UN
accredited
media. There
is no reason
to use UNCA as
a middle-man.
That Ban
should not
partner in
this way with
censors is
another
question.
Prepared
remarks should
be in the
Media
Alert.
This is basic
- and the Free UN Coalition for Access will
remain on the
case.
, 
