UNCA
Uses Noon
Briefing to
Demand 1st
Question &
Reply, Despite
Evo Fiasco
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 21 –
Yesterday
Bolivian
president Evo
Morales
was repeatedly
cut off and
urged to cede
the first
question in
his
press
conference to
an unelected
representative
of the UN
Correspondents
Association.
Today UNCA
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS came to
claim that
even at the
UN's daily
noon briefing,
it is
“tradition”
that UNCA
should always
get the first
question.
[February
21 video
here, from
Minute 15:22;
the
February 20
Evo Morales
fiasco video
is here,
from Minute
4:55 to 6:05.]
Inner
City Press on
behalf of the
new Free UN
Coalition for
Access
objected, and
asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin
Nesirky if he
had called on
Falk first the
past two days
as a
journalists or
as a
representative
of UNCA. Video
here, from
Minute
13.
The
basis of the
objection was
not only that
UNCA had
created a
“fiasco”
during the Evo
Morales press
conference,
drawing
negative
comments to
the UN from
all over the
world -- click
here for
sample
complaint
against UNCA
from Germany.
Also, since
UNCA charges
nearly $100 a
year
for dues
giving its
members the
first question
would
constitute
conditioning
this access to
the UN to the
payment of
money.
This
point was
raised by
UNCA's own
annual meeting
on February
15, when
Falk's first
vice president
Louis
Charbonneau
of Reuters
said that
the UNCA seat
for the first
question was
not limited to
the Executive
Committee but
was for any
UNCA member. Audio
here, Part 1.
The only
requirement,
as for the
UNCA
representative
who heckled
Evo Morales,
is the payment
of the nearly
$100 in dues.
Pay to play.
It
is Falk, who
agreed to run
without any
competition
for UNCA
presidency
after a year
in which the organization
spend most of
its
meetings
trying to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
who has
brought this
on.
Contrary
to
her claim, a simple review of webcast archives of
UN noon
briefings
over the past
six years will
show that it
is not at all
the
tradition for
UNCA to get
the first
question at
regular noon
briefings. In
fact, when
Falk earlier
this year
cited UNCA in
a first
question to
Nesirky's
deputy Eduardo
Del Buey, even
Del Buey had
to
laugh. It was
unheard of.
But
UNCA is under
fire -- its
“leaders” have
been tearing
down
substantive
flyers by the
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
and starting
anonymous
social media
accounts
to try to
undermine
FUNCA and
Inner
City Press by
sending false
messages to
countries'
mission to the
UN.
This
is Falk's
UNCA, and it
seems clear it
cannot have
the first
question
at UN noon
briefings.
In
mid 2012,
according to
documents
obtained under
the US Freedom
of
Information
Act from Voice
of America, UNCA
“met with UN
officials
(very
quietly)”
to get Inner
City Press
thrown out.
Voice of
America,
saying it
had the
support of Reuters
and Tim
Witcher of
Agence
France Presse,
made the request
on June 20,
2012.
The UN
confirmed
receipt -
but
once the
request was
exposed and
VOA got calls
from Congress,
the
process
stopped.
On
Thursday, Falk
insisted on
making a
“right to
reply” to what
had
been Inner
City Press'
question, and
pontificatd
that “for
almost
six decades”
UNCA has been
having a first
question
because it
supposedly
represents the
vast majority
of media
covering the
UN.
In
fact, UNCA
represents
less than ten
percent of the
journalists
accredited to
cover the UN,
and an even
smaller
percentage of
reporters
worldwide who
cover the UN.
In recent
years, UNCA
has
become a
plaything of a
small number
of big media,
to get
themselves
big offices
and, as
happened in
2012, to try
to throw other
media who
dare stand up
to them out of
the UN.
All
of this has
been raised to
the UN. The Free UN Coalion for Access
has met with
the head of
the Department
of Public
Information,
who
has most
recently
confirmed
receipt of FUNCA's
list of ten
reforms
needed to the
UN
accreditation
and Media
Access
Guidelines.
After
weeks of UNCA
“leaders”
tearing down,
defacing and
counterfeiting
Free UN
Coalition for
Access flyers
while
maintaining
their own
glassed-in
bulletin board
(on which they
posted a
letter
denouncing
Inner City
Press for five
months in
2012), FUNCA
has been told
that a
new “open”
bulletin board
had been
ordered.
It has been
suggested
that even
before its
arrival, space
be made for
non-UNCA
postings
which UNCA
“leaders” will
be directed
not to deface.
Watch this
site.
Footnote:
Perhaps
Falk is
unaware that
it is NOT a
“tradition”
for UNCA to
have the first
question at
noon briefings
because she
has so
infrequently
attended the
briefings.
It
was notable on
Thursday that
after in the
lead
announcement,
which
delayed the
briefing one
hour, Nesirky
said the UN
dismissed the
claim it
introduced
cholera to
Haiti as “not
receivable,”
Falk
even with the
first question
-- for the
last time, it
is hoped --
did
not ask about
Haiti, but
about the
status of her
own letter to
the
UN, then about
the Alliance
of
Civilizations.
(UNCA is
promoting to
its members a
“private
luncheon” on
Friday with
the Alliance
of
Civilizations.)
That's UNCA:
quite the nose
for news...
From
the UN's
February 21,
2013
transcript:
Inner
City Press: I
have some
other stuff as
a question,
but I wanted
to
make sure to
be able to ask
this one. It's
a very simple
one, it has
to do with how
these
briefings are
conducted, and
I just want to
say for the
last couple of
days, each
time you’ve
called on Pam,
I
don’t know if
this is in the
context of
[United
Nations
Correspondents
Association],
and the reason
that I ask it
is that
yesterday
there was a
briefing here
by the
President of
Bolivia, and
there was
something of a
minute-long —
I would call
it a fiasco —
in which it
was said it is
a tradition
that UNCA
[United
Nations
Correspondents
Association]
get the first
question; he
[Evo Morales]
continued to
call on
somebody else,
it went around
and around, so
I
just wanted to
be sure, is it
a tradition in
the noon
briefing to
give UNCA the
first
question?
Because, if
so, I object
because they
have said that
the same seat
will be given
to any UNCA
member who
are, in fact,
paying dues
and it creates
a situation in
which,
basically,
people are
required to
pay money to
get the first
question, and
I would
encourage the
UN not to
create, allow
or permit
such a
tradition.
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Thank you for
your
statement.
What’s your
question? Any
other
questions?
Inner
City Press:
Thank you, it
has to do with
Brahimi. There
have been
these various
reports that
Mr. Brahimi
has agreed to
extend his
contract for
six months,
and it was
said that it
was going to
expire
on Friday. Is
that the case?
Spokesperson:
I can confirm
that the
contract of
the Joint
Special
Representative
for Syria,
Lakhdar
Brahimi, has
been extended
through to the
end of
this year — so
not six
months.
Through to the
end of this
year. The
contracts for
his Deputy,
Nasser
al-Kidwa, and
the head of
his
Damascus
office,
Mokhtar
Lamani, have
been extended
for a similar
length of
time.
, 
