UNITED NATIONS,
September 15 – The UN will
limit access passes
during UN General Assembly
week to what it calls
“resident correspondents,”
many of whom rarely even come
into the UN, some whom have
never asked any questions.
Meanwhile the investigative
Press asking the UN every day
about UN reform and corruption,
Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Yemen,
Burundi and elsewhere, will be
banned from the passes. It has
already begun. On September
15, as Inner City Press worked
in the small booth it's
confined to since being
evicted from the UN Press
Briefing Room and its UN
office by UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, it saw some insider
correspondents passing by and
into the Briefing Room. To not
fall into a trap, Inner City
Press asked UN Media Accreditation
what the event was, of which
it was not informed. You can
go in, it was told. Inside,
three senior UN officials
we'll leave unnamed were
giving a background briefing
about Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' schedule for
the General Assembly week.
Inner City Press asked why
there are no events about
Yemen and Burundi, and told
the officials to tell Guterres
to ensure that all journalists
are treated fairly. Dujarric
cut that off and said, "You're
here, aren't you?" Only
because the other venue he'd
tried to invite his friends to
was too small and the event
was moved. This is how today's
UN is working - or not
working. New DPI chief Alison
Smale has changed nothing, has
not even responded to a
petition on the issues. Retaliation
for coverage continues, and exclusion
or attempted exclusion from UN
"Communications." Reform was
discussed and even, for once,
asked about, but only vaguely.
The UN and its affiliates were
bribed by Ng Lap Seng, as
shown in a trial this summer.
No answers. Back last Friday an
UNnamed UN speaker in what was
declared a background briefing
not made available to media
coming to cover the GA week
told Inner City Press that
while it is not a “resident
correspondent” - it was
evicted while covering the Ng
Lap Seng / John Ashe
corruption scandal - it could
perhaps stakeout for example
the Yemen meeting, but only
with an “escort.” That is a UN
minder, some of whom ask Inner
City Press who it is trying to
speak to. This is
UNacceptable, the Free
UN Coalition for Access
says, as it the weakened wi-fi
and lack of LAN lines for any
but the insider correspondents
of UNCA. The UNnamed speaker
said that the limitation of
the access passes was agreed
to, or requested by, UN
Security and this UNCA (UN
Correspondents Association
a/k/a UN Censorship Alliance).
It was for seeking to cover
this group's event in the UN
Press Briefing Room,
presumptively open to all
journalists, to see if they
would address having received
funds from then indict, now
convicted Ng Lap Seng that
Inner City Press was evicted
and still restricted. We'll
have more on this, and access
issues before, during and
after #UNGA72. The access
briefing should have been
webcast to journalists coming;
UN Security should have been
there, and the Department of
Public Information leadership
reportedly beginning work on
September 8 - they have been
asked, for reforms. When UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres gave a speech to
honor fallen UN staff on
September 8, he took the
opportunity to say that if the
sacrifices of UN staff were
known by unnamed UN critics,
they wouldn't say what they
do. But the UN is in need of
reform, which requires
critique. And, frankly,
sometime UN staff and experts
are killed with some role
played by UN negligence, for
example in Kasai in the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The problem with what
Guterres said is that it
emboldens others in the UN
system to simply shout down or
vilify critical voices,
sometimes to the point of
outright physical eviction and
restriction, and sometimes
short of that. Only the
previous day, the acting head
of the UN Department of Public
Information Maher Nasser on
his last day in the post
allowed a heckler to block
Inner City Press' questions
about the UN's duty to the
Haitian families impacted by
the cholera it brought to the
island - then when Inner City
Press asked a legal immunity
question, to say loudly, It's
always about you. Well, DPI
did evict Inner City Press
with no hearing or appeals,
and has restricted it every
day since. But speeches such
as that on September 8,
UNcorrected, validate
targeting and censorship.
Nasser's successor Alison
Smale has been written to, for
reversal. And Guterres did tell a
moving story about staff in
Chad's Abeche - which Inner
City Press covered,
before DPI's eviction meant it
was no longer notified of or
allowed to cover UN Security
Council trips. Here
was from the UN Staff Day
Parade of Nations. We'll have
more on this. For weeks the UN
had promoted its book event
about New York City and the
UN, featuring author Pamela
Hanlon.
But when Inner
City Press went and asked
about the UN having brought
cholera to Haiti and paid
nothing, and whether Haitians
in Brooklyn had been able to
get any accountability from
the UN, there was no answer.
A heckler in the
audience said loudly that the
question was not appropriate.
Video here.
So Inner City Press followed
up on Ms. Hanlon's statement
that the land under the UN is
still US territory. If so,
what of John Ashe selling
diplomatic posts from inside
his UN General Assembly
President's office, and Inner
City Press for covering the
scandal being thrown out onto
First Avenue by eight UN
Security officers? Audio here.
(NYPD told Inner City Press it
has no jurisdiction to take
criminal complaints, even for
assault, for anything east of
the First Avenue curb.)
That question wasn't answered,
either, including by Penny
Abeywardena, Commissioner of
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Office
for International Affairs.
Instead Maher
Nasser, in charge of the UN
Department of Public
Information from April 1 until
tomorrow, said “it's always
about you” and ended the
event, encouraging those
present to buy books for
signing. And so it goes at the
UN.
***
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2017 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
,
