FUNCA
Flyer
Criticizing
Banning of
Press Is
Defaced, Under
UN Camera
UNITED
NATIONS, May
23 -- It's
small, but
telling. And
it is a litmus
test
for the UN. As
the UN press
corps has
moved back
into the
Secretariat
building in
the last two
weeks, Inner
City Press
posted two
flyers on
the door of
its office,
both from the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access.
The
first, dated
May 14-15,
concerned
problems with
the move and
the
exclusion of
the media from
the re-opening
by Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon of the
UN's Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and
Budgetary
Questions.
The
second, dated
May 21-22,
criticized the
UN's (and UN
Correspondents'
Association's)
Media
Access
Guidelines
which ban
media
workspace in
front of the
renovated
Security
Council, bar
all but
resident
correspondents
from the
Delegates'
Lounge, and
purport to ban
flyers
from the doors
of journalists
offices.
This
last has been
explained
because this
year's
president of
the UNCA Pamela
Falk of CBS
does
not like her
name used,
though she
chose to head
a group which
in 2012 sought
to get Inner
City Press
thrown out of
the UN. Neither
flyer,
however, named
Falk or any
other UNCA
member: only
Ban
Ki-moon.
On
May 22, after
this protest,
a
UN Security
camera emerged
above the
office door on
which the
flyers were
posted. Click here for 2-minute video Q&A of May 23 at
noon.
And
later on May
23 it was
seen: someone
stopped and
scrawled
graffiti
defacing
the flyers,
naming Inner
City Press as
"viscious" [sic]
and "a
fraud." Tweeted
photos here,
and here
(showing UN
Security
camera).
The
question
arises: should
flyers be
banned because
the UN can't
or
won't stop its
partners in
UNCA from
defacing them?
After
Inner City
Press and
FUNCA
complained
about the
surveillance
camera,
this was the
reply:
Subject:
Request
for suspension
of Media
Access
Guidelines and
information
about them
From: Stephane
Dujarric [at]
un.org
Date: Wed, May
22, 2013 at
8:16 PM
To: funca [at]
funca.info
Cc: Matthew
Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
Matthew,
On
the camera I
went by your
office this
evening and
saw it for
myself. We
will look into
it.
So
now, will the
surveillance
camera - still
up - reveal
defacement by
one of
Dujarric's
UNCA partners?
While
Inner City
Press and
FUNCA are
pushing for
the removal of
this and
any other UN
Security
camera in the
press area,
this
particular
camera must
have filmed
the defacement
and defacer of
the flyers. So
what will the
UN do? Watch
this site.
Note the
UN Security
camera
directly above
the defaced flyers.
And watch this site.
* * *
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reports
are
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Press at UN
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