On
Rio
+20, UN Ban on
Global
Conversation,
Staged
Questions in
Briefing Room
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 22 --
As the UN
answers fewer
and fewer
questions
from the
press, whether
about the
multi-nation
war in Somalia
or its
alleged
transmission
of cholera to
Haiti, UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon on
Tuesday held a
staged
"conversation"
event in
the UN's media
briefing room,
complete with
master of
ceremonies
from
BBC.
The
invitation
gave a hint of
things to
come: "A
limited number
of seats are
being held for
media at the
event
launching a
global
conversation
for
Rio+20: The
Future We
Want, on
Tuesday, 22
November, 10 -
11 a.m., in
the Dag
Hammarskjold
Library
Auditorium."
Why
would there
be only "a
limited number
of seats...
held for the
media"
in what is
supposed to be
the UN's media
briefing room?
The event
began with
softball
questions from
the master of
ceremonies,
who
thereafter
selected from
"social media"
what were
called
"good
questions."
Then a member
of the Swedish
Mission to
the UN was
called on to
ask a
question.
Usually
in this
briefing room,
Mission
personnel are
not allowed
in, much less
given
the floor. The
venue for Ban
to take
questions from
Mission is in
the North Lawn
building where
he has his
office.
Conference
Rooms 6
and 7 there
have
television
capability
too. So why
try to give
the
event the
patina of
Q&A and
"conversation"?
(c) UN Photo
Ban on, are at
least in, Rio,
real Q&A
not yet shown
Some
weeks ago
after Ban
named as the
co-chair of
his High Level
Group on
sustainable
energy Charles
Holliday, the
chairman of
Bank of
America
which is being
protested at
Occupy Wall
Street and
elsewhere as
the
Number One
funder of
mountain top
removal coal
mining, the question
was not
permitted to
Ban in the
briefing room,
and
Ban's adviser
said
he'd never
heard of the
issue.
Later it was
said that
"everyone
must have a
seat at the
table." But
remember: only
limited seats
for
independent
media, even in
the media
briefing room.
And so it
goes at the
UN.
, 
