At
UN,
To Avoid Bank
Question to
Ban, Spokesman
Replays UNESCO
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Review
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 1 --
When UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
arrived,
13 minutes
late, for a 30
minute press
conference on
Tuesday, his
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
announced that
Ban would take
"at least
one question."
One
assumed, given
Nesirky's
previous
insistence on
limiting the
topics that
can be
asked about,
that this
question would
be about Ban's
"High Level
Group on
Sustainable
Energy," a
topic on which
Inner City
Press
questioned
Nesirky back
on October 13.
That
question
concerned why Ban put
the chairman
of Bank of
America, which
is been
multiply
protested as
being the
number one
funder of
mountain top
removal coal
mining, on his
"Sustainable"
energy group.
When
question
time came,
more extended
due to broken
UN technology
to connect in
a
speaker from
Sierra Leone,
Nesirky did
everything
possible not
to
take the Bank
of America
question from
Inner City
Press.
Nesirky
even
called on a
journalist who
had no hand
raised, just
to see if a
question could
be cajoled to
kill the time.
Previously at
the
stakeout after
Ban Ki-moon
cajoled
re-election to
a second five
year
term as
Secretary
General,
Nesirky was so
desperate for
a friendly
question that
he called on
an intern from
the UN's own
radio station,
who asked Ban
for his
message to the
world's
children.
(Nesirky
later
blamed
this on the
intern for
being at the
stakeout,
when for the
record it was
not her
fault.)
As
Inner City
Press said,
"Sustainable
energy
question,"
Nesirky took
two
questions
about UNESCO,
after having
already said
Ban had spoken
(if
not answered)
on the topic
the previous
day. Then
Nesirky said
there
was no more
time to
question Ban,
and Ban left.
Inner
City Press
did manage,
despite
blockage by
another member
of Nesirky's
or Ban's
team, to ask
the question,
the gracious
if
disappointing
answer to
which will be
reported in a
separate
story. Between
the 12 and
12:30
press
conferences,
Nesirky
canceled the
daily noon
briefing, just
as
he abruptly
ended it on
Monday with
questions
still
outstanding.
(c) UN Photo
Ban
&, blurry,
Nesirky,
blocking of
questions
&
briefings not
shown
Nesirky's
still
relatively new
Deputy,
Eduardo Del
Buey, handled
the next press
conference,
about the UN
Mine Action
Service in
Libya. Inner
City
Press asked a
question, then
was not
allowed a
follow up
question by
Del Buey - who
proceeded to
allow the next
journalist to
follow up.
(We will have
a separate
story about
the substance
of the Mine
Action
press
conference as
well.)
Last
Friday
October 28
with Del Buey
conducting the
noon briefing,
numerous UN
correspondents
said things
hit a new low,
with no
answers
provided if
Del Buey did
not have a
prepared
answer or
"line" with
him.
Several
said to
Inner City
Press that it
is shameful
that the UN is
being run, or
represented,
in this
fashion by
Nesirky and
sometimes Del
Buey.
Several have
proposed
boycotting the
briefing.
Whlie that
would seem to
just give them
what they
want, what the
other options
are remains
unclear.
Nesirky still
sometimes
jokes, and
it's
appreciated,
but most see
him as getting
worse. "They
made him this
way," as one
correspondent
put it,
referring not
only to Ban
but his whole
team of senior
advisers.
Inner
City
Press ended up
asking Del
Buey if he
would just
read out the
"lines," since
they had been
prepared, so
that the world
would know
what Ban's UN
thinks. That
not how we do
it, Del Buey
replied.
Inner
City Press
considered
writing a
review of
Friday's
surreal
briefing but
decided
against it --
again, Del
Buey is still
relatively
new.
Ultimately,
Nesirky is
responsible
for his
Office, and
Ban despite
Tuesday
gracious
hallway answer
is responsible
for Nesirky.
Watch this
site.
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