For
UNGA, Ban
Ki-moon Prints
Book on
Legacy, But
Who Wrote
& Paid For
It?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 18
-- As Ban
Ki-moon's time
at the UN
winds down and
he prepares
coyly to run
for President
in South
Korea, his
packaging of
his legacy has
become a
vanity amateur
operation.
Take
for example
the hard
cover book on
his conference
table when
he met
on September
18 with Donald
Tusk,
President,
European
Council and
Frans
Timmermans,
First
Vice-President,
European
Commission. It
was called
“Highlights of
the tenure of
Ban Ki-moon,
2007-2016.”
Inner City
Press asks:
who wrote it?
Who paid for
it? Why was
this done?
For the next
meeting, with
Denmark's
Prime Minister
Lars Lokke
Rasmussen,
another copy
of the Ban
vanity book
was out, along
with a pen to
sign it.
By the
last meeting
of the day,
after Inner
City Press
tweeted then
first
published this
story, the
copy of the
book for UNASUR's
Ernesto Samper
Pizano was
covered
up with a file
by Ban's
staff. Is this
on the level?
In
the hall was
the office of
Nardos
Bekele-Thomas,
moved out of
the top job in
Kenya so Ban's
son in law
could occupy
it before Ban
leaves.
Legacy,
indeed....
The
Friday before
UN General
Assembly week
starts in
earnest,
reporters at
the UN were
told of some
of the
upcoming
meetings and
how, despite
restrictions,
to cover them.
Inner
City Press
asked the head
of the UN's
Department of
Public
Information
Cristina
Gallach why
DPI says the
non-resident
correspondents,
the vast
majority of
journalists
covering the
UN, will be
placed in
basement
Conference
Room 1 where
no only food
and beverages
but even water
is not
allowed.
(In
Ban's
conference
room there is
water and,
we've noted at
his all-Korean
meeting, tea.)
Gallach's
reply cited to
“professionalism”
and rules,
both of which
she invoked
when she ousted
and then
evicted
Inner City
Press from the
UN earlier
this year.
Ironically,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric less
that an hour
later explained
having
violated the
rules (about
those without
cameras not
attending
photo ops) so
that South
Korean print
journalists
could witness
Ban's speech
to politicians
visiting from
Seoul.
The
UN's rules are
selectively
implied, in
this case to
censor.
Last October
19, 2015 Inner
City Press asked Gallach about her attendance at the South South Awards
of Ng Lap
Seng, the
Macau-based
businessman
under house
arrest for
bribery at the
UN.
On September
16, Inner City
Press asked
Gallach about
the
since-released
Office
of Internal
Oversight
Services audit,
which found
that her DPI
did not due
diligence on
events by Ng
Lap Seng
fundees.
Gallach said
that the
outside event
- the case in
Federal court
- is being
followed. So
Inner City
Press asked
for her
response to
testimony in
the case that
South South
News, which
unlike Inner
City Press the
rule-invoking
Gallach left
in its UN
office
despite or
because of it
not asking any
questions at
the UN, was
named as a
“conduit of
bribery.”
This, she did
not answer.
After the
briefing,
which included
film maker
Richard Curtis
whom Inner
City Press
asked about
the Next SG
race,
Gallach's
staffer asked
for further
information
about the
water(less)
issue.
Inner City
Press added
the exclusion
of
non-resident
correspondents
from access to
the UN's EZTV
which shows
more events
than the UN
webcast. See flier
here of the
Free UN
Coalition for
Access,
also ejected
and sign torn
down under
Gallach. What
will change?
We'll see.
Watch this
site.
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