UNITED
NATIONS, May 2
-- Yesterday
morning Inner
City Press published
an
expose that an
internship at
the UN was and
is being sold,
online,
for more than
$20,000. Then
at the May
1 UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
the UN to
justify that
Inner
City Press:
people should
pay $22,000 to
work in the
UN, it’s for
the UN NGO
Committee on
Human Rights,
for six weeks.
They are
auctioning it
off openly to
benefit
something
called the RFK
Young
Leaders
Foundation. It
says, you’ll
learn how the
UN really
works.... I
have written
an article
about it... I
am wondering
if the UN is
comfortable
with positions
inside the
building being
sold for money
online.
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I’ll have to
look into
that; I am
not aware of
that
particular
unusual story,
Matthew. [Video
here, at
13:42]
Nearly
eight hours
later after
some others
jumped on that
story if only
on
Twitter, some
far away
giving credit
or hat tips
and some
closer at
hand
troublingly
not, the UN
sent Inner
City Press
this answer:
Subject:
Re:
Your question
today
From: UN
Spokesperson -
Do Not Reply
[at]
un.org
Date: Wed, May
1, 2013 at
7:53 PM
To:
Matthew.Lee
[at]
innercitypress.com
Internships
at
the United
Nations are
not for sale
and cannot be
put up for
auction. We
are trying to
find out the
details of how
this came
about
and have
contacted
'charitybuzz.com'
Inner
City Press
immediately
published this
answer, in a
second story
noting that it
had asked the
RFK Center's
Sierra Ewert:
"I
am
a journalist
who covers the
UN; this
morning I
wrote a story,
then
asked the UN a
question,
about the RFK
Center's RFK
Young Leaders
role in the
auctioning off
of a "UN
internship"
for over
$20,000 on
CharityBuzz.com.
I want to ask
you, on
deadline, what
the
RFK Center's
knowledge of,
involvement
in, and
position on
this
auctioning off
of an
internship at
the UN is.
Please respond
ASAP."
The
RFK Center has
yet to
respond; some
have come to
its defense, or
to the defense
of Bruce
Knotts. But is
that the
point?
Inner
City Press put
in other
requests for
comment.
For what it's
worth, the
bidding started
at $500 then
got into a
contest
between
"m.alam" and
"Aygul," with
the latter the
interim
(Young?)
leader at
$22,000.
The
UN, after
publication of
Inner City
Press' second
story, sent a
"further to"
clarification:
"Further
to
the earlier
email, just to
add that we do
not believe
that the
internship in
question is a
UN internship.
As mentioned,
we are
trying to
establish the
details of
this case and
have contacted
'charitybuzz.com.'"
It
was at this
point, using
precisely this
"further to"
language from
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson's
office,
that another
slowly came to
the story. How
did it happen?
What
was
the role of
the
spokesperson's
office, which
just last week
didn't
answer Inner
City Press' April
25 noon
briefing
question about
Ban
meeting with
former French
president (and
now investment
adviser for
Qatar) Nicolas
Sarkozy --
then gave the
answer to
Agence France
Presse?
There is a
growing
pattern of
this.
The
auctioned
internship
story has hit
a nerve given
the parallel
debate
about the
ethics of
unpaid
internships;
some have
become aware
of it through
that world,
and that's
good. But in
the
smaller world
of those who
cover the UN,
there are
troubling
developments
on which we
have also put
in questions.
In the UN
fUN-house it
is "World
Press Freedom
Day;" one
would expect
answers. Watch
this site.
, 
