UNITED NATIONS,
September 18 – As UN General
Assembly week began, the UN
escalated its two-tier
reduction in access and
accountability. On September
17 the UN Department of Public
Information said publicly that
there would be no assigned
spaces in its Media Center,
where Inner City Press
following its eviction from
its long time shared office in
the UN for covering UN
corruption went on the morning
of September 18. It sent up in
an open desk but was quickly
told to move. “We're
Associated Press, we paid for
this,” Inner City Press was
told. So Inner City Press
moved forward one row. But
before it could download a
single video of its questions
and answers, it was told, You
can't stay here. Inner City
Press asked, does that apply
to AP too? No, the DPI staffer
said - they are AP, they are
big. So why claim there
are no assigned or
grab-and-hold spaces? Audio here.
The UN gives AP and other
wires (and several no-show
state media like Egypt's
Akhbar al Yom) office space.
It is used as a carrot and
stick so that UN corruption
and incompetence and worse is
not covered. These issues have
been raised, repeatedly, to
DPI chief Alison Smale,
without response. Later on
September 18, a staffer of
French President Macron, who
previously assisted by "UN"
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric
ordered Inner City Press out
of the UN Press Briefing Room,
took over a full row in the UN
Media Center. No assigned
spaces? The UN is
limiting 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.
***
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