After
UN Eviction, Press Re-entry
Hindered by Reuters, VOA,
Ban's Scam with Gallach
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Part of Series,
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
February 16 – The re-entry to
the UN after having to cover
it from the park across the
street brought back to me that
while it was Under Secretary
General Cristina Gallach who
signed the letter,
some United Nations
Correspondents Association big
wigs had lobbied for it. Some
made it obvious. Michelle
Nichols of Reuters said
loudly, when I came into the
briefing room, that some
people couldn't handle the
cold and had to come inside.
Walking to the Security
Council stakeout, this time
down the steps since my
non-resident pass wouldn't
open the turnstile, Voice
of America's Margaret
Besheer came over to further
block my way.
When I raised up my
phone to film Periscope,
Michelle Nichols of Reuters
pushed my arm down. Behind her
was the increasingly wormy Louis
Charbonneau, Bureau
Chief who'd told me he had a
POLICY of not crediting Inner
City Press. The boss of
Reuters Stephen Adler when I'd
emailed him and his deputies
never answered. But the
documents I got from Voice of
America under the Freedom of
Information Act showed that's
when they prepared to sue.
Only the leak had stopped
them. Now they were on a roll.
I kept writing
stories - Burundi, Yemen where
the UN's envoy running and
fishing business and then even
a car import business on the
side, free press abuses in
Turkey and elsewhere - but to
write them, I had to sit in
the windowless bullpen on the
fourth floor with my
headphones on. When I've first
come to the UN, the bullpen
was right across from the
spokesperson's office and by
the elevators. You could get
stories there. Now it was
locked off on the side and no
one seemed to care. There was
no high speed internet, no
phones, no place to have a
private conversation. The
“focus booths” that were
supposed for that had been
given out. It was a First
World problem, but at least
40% of my reporting work, it
seemed, was no longer
possible. That seemed to have
been the goal.
I had to fly my flag, I
decided. To show that I was
back. My pass no longer got me
to the second floor, to the
Delegates Lounge this Friday
night. But a woman from the
indigenous unit of the
Department of Economic and
Social Affairs said she'd sign
me in. They took my drivers
license and said, Don't go off
anywhere, to any other floor.
Yes, boss. Even if I see a
corpse.
The Delegates Lounge
was loud, as usual. The
spokesman of the US Mission,
hipster Kurtis Cooper who
lived in Williamsburg, came
over and said, “They finally
did it.” (Later he'd tell the
New York Times he thought I
was like Lenny Bruce, making
his final jokes about his
court cases - but that's
jumping ahead). A better
source came over, who will go
unnamed here, and said he'd
tell me how Gallach got her
job. This, I had to hear. We
found a table and he began.
“How many people do you
think she managed, before
being given 700 at DPI?” he
asked. I shrugged.
“Seven,” he said. “You
heard me right: seven. She was
the spokesperson for Javier
Solana. Then she wanted a
Gender Equality job, but it
got taken by someone whose
father knew Zapatero. She
waited around. Finally when
Spain was going onto the
Security Council, Ban Ki-moon
wanted to give them a post, to
buy a favor from them, and
they put Gallach in DPI. It's
a nightmare. Everybody hates
her.” He paused. “But you
didn't get this from me.”
Of course not. The
conversation never happened.
More people came over; I spoke
to them one by one at a green
plastic table in the back of
the Delegates Lounge. Some
fight back had begun. But
would it be enough?
***
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