UN
Says
Ban Held
“Press
Encounter”
With Peres But
Didn't
Tell Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 29 --
When is a
“press
encounter” not
a press
encounter?
When the UN
claims that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon held
one, but the
press corps
which covers
the UN is not
informed and
is
not present.
On
Sunday, June
29 Ban's
spokesperson's
office sent
out a
transcript of
what it called
Ban's “Remarks
at Press
Encounter with
H.E. Mr.
Shimon Peres,
President of
Israel.” What
was sent out
did not say
when it had
occurred, nor
where, other
than “New
York.”
No
notice was
sent out by
the UN's Media
Liaison and
Accreditation
Unit,
nor by
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric. When
Dujarric was
in charge of
MALU, the new
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
formally asked
him to begin
providing
notice of Ban
events even if
held outside
of the UN
headquarters.
But
where did this
one take
place? The
only covered,
in a style
echoing
state media,
was by the
UN's own UN
News Centre,
which ran
a
photograph by
UN Photo and
“reported”
that Ban was
“speaking at
the beginning
of a meeting
with President
Shimon Peres
of Israel at
the UN
Headquarters
in New York.”
But
the photo
appears to
show Ban's own
residence,
blocks away
from UN
Headquarters.
It was on the
door of Ban's
UN-provided
residence that
legal papers
in the first
case against
his UN
bringing
cholera to
Haiti were
taped -- but
the UN refused
to confirm
that.
Last
Friday June 20
Dujarric and
his deputy
Farhan Haq
refused to
answer
Inner City
Press' written
request for
confirmation
or denial of
the
service on Ban
of yet more
Haiti cholera
papers.
And
from June 26
to June 27
Dujarric would
not even
confirm
receipt of
Inner City
Press'
questions
about UN
Peacekeeping's
Herve Ladsous
flying
the
UN-sanctioned
leader of the
FDLR militia
in a UN
helicopter
without any
approval from
the UN
Security
Council.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
is opposing
selective
answering,
failure
to answer, and
here, failure
to notify.
So
when IS a
“press
encounter” not
a press
encounter, but
a scam?
How long can
this go on,
and how much
lower can they
go? Watch this
site.
