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Ignoring
UN Scandals,
UNCA Set To
Re-Up Pioli
Who Sold Photo
Op to Ng
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 12 --
With the UN
embroiled in
scandals
including the
indictments of
former
President of
the General
Assembly and Macau
businessman Ng
Lap Seng,
one would
expect the UN
press corps,
even the
entity the UN
itself chooses
to set aside
first
questions for,
to be pursuing
rather than be
involved in
the scandals.
But
with the UN
Correspondents
Association,
this year more
than ever,
that is not
the case. In
2011 under
then-president
Giampaolo
Pioli, UNCA
took money
from the South
South News of
now-indicted
Ng Lap Seng,
then gave
South South
News an UNCA
award and gave
Ng Lap Seng a
photo op with
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
Now in
November 2015,
Pioli has
solicited
$6000 from UN
Ambassadors
for seats
at the “VIP”
table at the
UNCA “Ball” on
Wall Street:
to sit with
Ban Ki-moon.
This is
precisely the
type of sale
of access
involved in
the
indictments of
Ng, Sheri Yan
and Frank
Lorenzo.
While
others are
announcing
audits and
freezing such
contacts, UNCA
under Pioli is
bulling
forward,
charging ever
more money,
getting ever
further from
journalistic
purposes.
On November 12
Pioli posted
his photograph
in the hallway
outside the
clubhouse the
UN gives to
UNCA,
signifying
that he is
running for
yet another
term (this as
the Security
Council met
about Burundi,
where a third
term has
triggered
demands for
change and
reform). For
the three
running
unopposed for
five president
slots, two
were already
on the UNCA
board during
the relevant
time period;
the other is Pioli's
former protege
at Quotidiano
Nazionale.
It's an
Italian thing.
Running for
Treasurer?
It's Agence
France Presse,
whose previous
correspondent
tried
to use a
position on
the UNCA board
to censor
Press coverage
of Herve
Ladsous,
the fourth
Frenchman in a
row atop UN
Peacekeeping.
Reuters
is in the mix,
too, and
another which
joined Pioli
in trying to
censor
coverage of
Pioli
unilaterally
approving a
Sri Lankan
government war
crimes denial
film for a
“UN”
screening,
after Pioli
rented one of
his apartments
to Palitha
Kohona, Sri
Lanka's
Ambassador to
the UN.
This is UN.
But amid the
new scandals
at the UN,
this is
something new:
watch this
site.
Footnote:
Inner City
Press after
Pioli's and
others
censorship
bid, and
attempt to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out of the UN
(uncovered
along with
documents
still to be
published by a
Freedom
of Information
Act request,
here, and
questioned
by the New
York Civil
Liberties
Union),
quit the UNCA
board and
co-founded,
with another
who'd quit
UNCA as
corrupt, the Free UN Coalition for Access.
FUNCA
does not seek
any automatic
first
questions, but
opposes
the UN setting
aside first
questions
for an entity
which, as now
shown, is enmeshed
in the very UN
scandals that
must be asked
about.
Watch this
site.
* * *
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
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
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