UNITED
NATIONS, April
4 -- The UN
claims it
wants to help
journalists
report
on its work.
Forgetting for
a moment their
willingness to
conduct
raids
on media
offices,
leading to the
anonymous
leaking of
raid
photographs,
even on the
most humdrum
basics the UN
under-performs.
On
April 3 while
Inner City
Press covered
the UN
Security
Council, the
UN's wireless
Internet
became weak
and then
stopped
working all
together.
After a
complaint to
the Department
of Public
Information's
Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
unit, it was
said that the
Office of
Information
and Community
Technology
would fix it.
But
on April 4,
while Inner
City Press
covered the
Council's
session on
Yemen, again
there was no
wi-fi. This
time, for
obvious
reasons,
Inner City
Press bypassed
the
non-responsive
and complained
to OICT
as the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
(FUNCA's
twelve
and counting
most needed
reforms
submitted to
DPI as far
back
as February 10
have yet to be
implemented by
DPI; are even
simple
things at the
UN
un-reformable?)
OICT
responded in
writing: “We
are aware of
the wi-fi
issue
happening
today.
Yesturday it
started in the
early
afternoon and
we had it
resovled
shortly after.
Today it
started around
10:30 and we
are
working to
resolve it.”
FUNCA
replied that
“it seems
obvious that
since the
problem
persists
today, it
wasn't really
resolved or
fixed
yesterday. Can
you state
what the
problem is,
that OICT is
trying to fix?
Thank you.”
There
was a
response, but
no answer:
“The network
team is
handling the
issue and the
Helpdesk is
not aware on
the actual
issue at
hand.”
Things
happen. This
is the
Security
Council, two
days in a row.
Who's in
charge here?
Footnote:
As
Inner City
Press has
asked, again
without
answer, there
has been
no chief of
OICT since mid
2012.
The
Group of 77
has complained
in
the Budget
Committee
about the
failure to
fill the post
-- Inner City
Press reported
that after the
UN's failure
during
Hurrican
Sandy,
even to send
an e-mail to
member states,
a more
“political”
OICT
chief was
sought. But it
remains
unfilled, and
the UN lurches
on.
Watch this
site.
, 
