UNITED
NATIONS, March
18 -- The
business day
before the UN
raided Inner
City
Press' office,
searching
papers and
allowing UN
Correspondents
Association
president
Pamela Falk of
CBS to take
photographs,
Inner
City Press for
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access had
sent a series
of requests to
the chief of
the UN's
Department of
Public
Information,
with a copy to
the DPI
staffer who
led the raid
on March
18.
The
March 15 FUNCA
requests,
which clear
hit a nerve or
were responded
to
by the raid,
went as
follows:
On
behalf of the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access, this
is a renewed
request:
(1)
to be informed
of the UN
Department of
Public
Information's
rules, if
any, for due
process for
journalists.
(1a)
As a DPI case
pending for
two and a half
weeks, this is
a formal
request for
response,
explanation or
retraction of
DPI's February
27
letter /
complaint
regarding
reporting on a
February 22
meeting
convened by
DPI, as
requested
immediately to
the author of
the letter
on February 27
and in light
of the
responsive
e-mail of
another FUNCA
member to whom
the February
27 letter was
copied. We are
writing
again in this
way due to the
lack of
response to
date. Please
state
the rules, if
any, for the
filing in bad
faith of false
or
pre-textual
complaints.
(1b)
As a timely
test case,
this is a
request to be
provided a
copy of
complaints
seemingly
filed by
correspondents
of Reuters and
of Agence
France Presse,
representative
of and on
UNCA's
Executive
Committee,
following a
verbal
exchange --
that is, more
free speech
than that on
February 22.
That
verbal
exchange was
regarding the
DPKO's
decision to
belatedly
answer
a question
about DRC
rapes which
the USG for
DPKO Herve
Ladsous had
previously
refused to
answer, and
which the SG
only
incompletely
answered on
March 5. DPKO
provided that
half-answer,
anonymously,
to
correspondents
who had not
asked the
questions, and
not to the
actual
questioner, on
March 7.
(2)
This is also a
request to be
informed if it
is DPI's role,
or whose
role it is, to
ensure that
such
mis-direction
and favoritism
in the
provision of
information
and answers by
the UN does
not continue.
(3)
Also on
favoritism and
a seeming
failure to
implement a
committed-to
reform, this
is an
objection to
the posting of
UNCA flyers on
UNCA
letterhead on
the new
non-UNCA
bulletin board
in front of
MALU's
office. As you
will remember,
FUNCA asked
that the
glassed in
UNCA
bulletin board
be opened to
all accredited
correspondents,
but this
was denied.
DPI
said there
would not be a
FUNCA bulletin
board --
again,
favoritism
for one
organization
over another
-- but said
there would be
a
separate board
for non-UNCA
postings.
But
this week UNCA
posted on this
new board
something it
didn't put on
its own board.
It can't have
both -- this
is too much.
(4)
More
generally, we
continue to
await written
response to
the 10 most
needed reforms
submitted by
FUNCA on
February 10.
(5)
We continue to
be troubled by
the lack of
response to an
incident in
which
photographs
taken of a
visiting UN
“partner”
(Beyonce) were
ordered to be
deleted, and
we do not
believe that
as a way of
informing
non-UN
security of
the rights of
journalists
here telling
the cafeteria
contractor
Aramark is
sufficient.
(6)
Similarly, we
do not believe
that telling
one of DPKO's
three
spokespeople
to no longer
seize the UNTV
microphone is
a sufficient
response to
the December
18 UNSC
stakeout
incident
complained of
to
DPI. We ask to
be informed of
DPI's action
on the Greek
Foreign
Minister's
entourage's
order that
UNTV not
record, and
that
journalists
not
photograph, at
the UNSC
stakeout.
(7)
We ask to be
informed of
why the
move-back from
the open
cubicles --
i.e. the
“whistleblower
free zone” --
above the
library has
been
delayed, and
why no vote of
resident
correspondents
was ever
taken.
What is the
new move-back
date?
Since
many of these
question have
been long
pending,
hoping for
rapid
response.
While
the chief of
DPI, despite
the content of
the complaints
above,
referred the
whole thing
down to
overseer of
MALU (which
led the
raid) Stephane
Dujarric, and
we will cover
his “response”
in a
future story,
the real
response, it
seems clear,
was to go into
Inner
City Press'
office the
next business
day, without
notifying
Inner
City Press
which was in
the UN
building
attending DPI
events, and
take
photographs
and search
papers. This
is what this
UN has become.
Watch this
site.
, 
