Facing
US Cuts, UNRWA Uses Outside PR
Firm, Takes Pitch Into Private
Club, UN Censorship Alliance
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photo
UNITED NATIONS,
February 8 – In the wake of
announced US budget cuts to
the UN Relief and Works Agency
for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA
is understandably trying to
reach out for other sources of
funds. So when its West Bank
Director, Scott Anderson and
the Director of its
Representative Office in New
York, Peter Mulrean, want to
speak to the press covering
the UN, one would think they
would do it in the UN Press
Briefing Room. But for a
February 8 briefing UNRWA has
chosen instead to make its
pitch in a private club in the
UN, one that has gotten
critical journalists thrown
out using the UN's lack
of content neutral media
accreditation and access
rules. UNRWA, which has a
spokesperson and media staff,
is using an outside public
relations firm. While Inner
City Press will not enter this
clubhouse, the pitch in
advance is that "On January
16, the United States, the
single largest contributor to
the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees (UNRWA), announced
that it would disburse only
$60 million of its expected
2018 contribution of more than
$360 million to the agency.
UNRWA says the cuts are
abrupt, harmful to the
millions who benefit from the
agency’s lifesaving services,
and risk destabilizing the
Middle East. In response,
UNRWA launched the Dignity Is
Priceless global fundraising
campaign to keep UNRWA’s
schools and clinics open
through 2018 and beyond.
Recently UNRWA also launched
an $800 million emergency
appeal for areas of crisis
intervention, including the
West Bank.
Please join us for a briefing
with Scott Anderson, UNRWA’s
Director of West Bank
Operations, and Peter Mulrean,
Director of UNRWA’s
Representative Office in New
York,
discussing how the funding
freeze is affecting day to day
operations on the ground for
UNRWA’s beneficiaries in Gaza,
the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon
and Jordan. This briefing is
on the record and is open to
press and UN staff. Members of
the press are requested to
RSVP to
MarathonStrategies.com. A
light breakfast will be
served... United Nations
Correspondents Association
(UNCA)." No thank you. It
seems obvious that journalists
should not be serving up the
"delicacies" of those they
purport to be covering. But at
the UN, as with content
neutral accreditation and
access rules, that is thrown
out the window. This month the
UN Correspondents Association
is partnering with Kazakhstan,
whose new media law is called
repressive and draconian, to
distribute "national
delicacies" every Tuesday and
Thursday. Photo here.
On January 5, Inner City Press
asked the UN Spokesman Farhan
Haq, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I actually
have a different kind of press
freedom question. I
wanted to ask you. In
[the United Republic of]
Tanzania, the Government has fined
a number of TV stations for
simply reporting on a report
by the legal Human Rights
Centre about irregularities in
an election and human rights
abuses, and I'm
wondering. I know it's
one of the countries where the
UN has a, you know, a country
team, et cetera. Is the
UN aware of that? Do
they have any comment on the
open fining of stations simply
for… for reporting on human
rights issues? Deputy
Spokesman: "I don't have
anything in particular on
this, but we'll ask with our
country team about that."
Seven hours later, nothing.
And no response from the UN
Department of Public
Information, whose chief
Alison Smale was asked the
simplest of questions. No
answer, even as she suddenly
promotes Kazakhstan stories.
More on this to follow.
It's that
Kazakhstan is president of the
Security Council this month,
and UNCA is selling the
correspondents it charges a
hundred dollars to access, or
the illusion of access,
however it might appear. In
November it was espresso served
up by Italy, the country of
UNCA's long time landlord
president Giampaolo Pioli.
Now, it's Kazakhstan. A new
and peculiarly UN tradition,
of sycophantry, is born. And
the Free
UN Coalition for Access
opposes it. We are certainly
open to hearing from the
Kazazh Mission its side of the
story. But any "press" group
which partners to hand out
delicacies, and limits
information to those who pay
it money, is no press
organization at all, except in
today's UN. Here is RSF's
review of Kazakhstan's new
law: "Under one of the most
controversial amendments,
journalists are required to
obtain the permission of
persons named in their
articles before publishing
information involving matters
of 'personal and family
confidentiality.'
Investigative journalists fear
it could obstruct their
reporting, especially coverage
of corruption. There is
similar concern about a ban on
“information violating lawful
interests,” which are also not
defined. One of the amendments
complicates the right of
access to state-held
information. The length of the
time within which officials
must answer journalists’
questions is more than
doubled, with the result that
by the time journalists get
their answer, there is every
chance it will no longer be
newsworthy. Furthermore,
officials are also given the
right to classify certain
answers. Under one of the
amendments, Internet users are
required to identify
themselves before posting a
comment on a news website, and
their information will be
stored for three months. This
suggests that there could be a
further increase in the number
of people being jailed because
of their online comments,
which has already grown
sharply in recent years." But
UNCA, now the UN's Censorship
Alliance, will be serving up
those Kazakh national
delicacies for the Mission. In
other related news, Iran will
be the subject of a UN
Security Council meeting of
some type on January 5 at 3
pm. There may be a procedural
vote - Inner City Press on
January 4 asked
Russian Ambassador Nebenzia
about any Iran meeting and he
replied, "Not unless they held
one without me." Kazakhstan is
the president of the Security
Council for January, and just
as they refused
on January 2 to take a single
Press question about Africa
(the first question was given
as a delicacy to UNCA, which
allowed for questions to be
bundled in packs of five to be
evaded), on January 4 they
sent notice only to their
favored correspondents.
(Notable, given press freedom
issues there.) As quickly
obtained by Inner City Press
from multiple sources, they
wrote: "Dear friends, To keep
you informed, tomorrow SC
meets on Iran at 3.00PM, open
format. And a short
announcement, our Delegation
is delighted to invite you to
a Tea and Coffee table with
Kazakh national delights, to
be served every Tuesday and
Thursday, starting from 9
January, 9.30 to 11.30AM, in
the UNCA Room, 3d Floor,
Secretariat Building. Alma
Konurbayeva, Spokesperson /
Counsellor, Permanent Mission
of the Republic of Kazakhstan
to the United Nations." Of
what might those "national
delights" consist? When
Kazazhstan held a press
conference about its
Presidency of the UN Security
Council for January,
Ambassador Kairat Umarov began
by noting that the majority of
the agenda involves countries
in Africa: at least seven
peacekeeping missions to be
reviewed in the month, with
Burundi and Cameroon not even
listed. But when the Kazakh
mission spokeswoman took
questions, not a single one
was on anything in Africa.
There was climate change, from
a self-described syndicated
columnist. There were
questions about two
(non-African) countries in the
Program of Work's footnotes.
But not a single one on
anywhere in Africa.
Inner City Press
said loudly, “On the DRC did
anyone even ask for a
statement on the crackdown?”
Video here
from 44:15. But the Ambassador
chose to answer another
question, about an issue he
called close to Kazakhstan's
heart, then ended it.
He had
said, during the press
conference, the Kazakhstan has
energy resources for the next
100 years. They won the Asia
seat over Thailand; apparently
that didn't require political
resources, at least in Africa.
We'll have more on this.
Back in September
2017 with the UN Security
Council presidency being taken
over by Ethiopia's Tekeda
Alemu, Inner City Press on
September 1 asked Ambassador
Alemu four questions, the
answers to which sketch out
the Ethopian government's
worldview. Video here.
In response to Inner City
Press asking why Burundi,
where even the UN says there
is a risk of genocide, is not
on his September Program of
Work nor on the agenda of the
Council's visit to Addis
Ababa, Alemu said that you
can't compare Burundi to
Central African Republic, that
Burundi has “strong state
institutions.” But it is that
very “strength,” which some
say the country shares with
Ethiopia, and with until
recently military-ruled
Myanmar about which Inner City
Press also asked, that has led
to the human rights
violations. In this context,
Inner City Press asked Alemu
about the Oromo protests - and
crackdown - in his country. He
diplomatically chided Inner
City Press for not having
asked in private, saying that
social media has played a
dangerous role. On the other
hand, when Inner City Press
asked Alemu at the end about
the murders of two UN experts
Michael Sharp and Zaida
Catalan, he replied that while
the DR Congo is due to
sovereignty the one to
investigate the murders, the
gruesome nature of the
killings put a “great
responsibility” on the DR
Congo. We'l have more on this.
Alamy photos here.
Earlier on September 1 in
Alemu's briefing to countries
not on the Security Council,
Bangladesh specifically asked
that the Council remain seized
of the situation in Myanmar.
When Inner City Press asked
Alemu about this, he said he
still had to inform himself
more about that situation. The
Security Council is traveling
to Addis from September 5
through 9, when alongside
African Union consultations
the Council's member will meet
for an hour with Prime
Minister Hailemariam Desalegn,
Alemu said. The Council will
receive the “maiden briefings”
late in the month of the new
Under Secretaries General of
OCHA and on Counter-Terrorism.
There will be peacekeeping on
September 20, during the High
Level week of the UN General
Assembly, and Yemen on
September 26. But tellingly,
there will not be Burundi.
Watch this site.
***
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