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UN Claim of Few Briefings in Past Augusts Disproved, Fewer Under Ban

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 16 -- When the UN on August 12 announced it would cut daily noon briefings by 40%, despite events in Syria, Sudan and Libya, and Inner City Press asked if this was an attempt to cut costs, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's acting deputy spokesman Farhan Haq replied, "I have been here as a Spokesperson for 12 years, and every summer...there are times when we cut back on briefings." Transcript here.

   The claim that this cut back takes place "every year" was repeated, along with Inner City Press' question to Haq, "How did you decide to say that journalists here want less information rather than more?"

  Beyond the fact that the (Arab) Summer of 2011 might be different than past summers, what with Ban Ki-moon supposedly coordinating military action in Libya under Security Council resolution 1973, Inner City Press has gone back to the UN's archive of noon briefing transcripts for the past ten years and found that only in 2009, under Ban's previous spokesperson Michele Montas, were some briefings canceled in August. See links below and here.

Under Kofi Annan, since at least 2001, daily briefings were held in August. Then under Ban Ki-moon and Montas, in 2009, briefings in August were reduced to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Even in 2010, under Montas' successor Martin Nesirky, briefings were held daily in August. Now in 2011, with Nesirky out from now until the end of August, his deputy Farhan Haq announced on August 13 that briefings would be reduced -- and said it had always been this way. But see links below

  And so on August 16, as rebels closed in on Tripoli assisted by NATO's -- Ban Ki-moon's? -- air strikes and the news was full of war crimes in Southern Kordofan amid inaction by UN peacekeepers and of killing in Syria, there was no noon briefing. Inner City Press submitted some questions to Haq by e-mail, copying Nesirky.

  On whether Ban's post-Gaddafi adviser on Libya Ian Martin could brief the press and how large his UN funded team is, there was no answer. Likewise on a briefing by departing UN Controller Jun Yamazaki, no answer, not even a date by which the UN's top budget official will leave. (His job has already be advertised in The Economist.) No answer on a question about top UN humanitarian Valerie Amos.


Ban, Haq, Pascoe & Kim, Nesirky not shown, Q&A reduction not admitted

  On a question about Darfur in Sudan, Haq said only "check with DPKO." On a job Ban Ki-moon gave out to Samuel Koo while in South Korea, Haq said ask UNEP -- Inner City Press has, and there has been no answer. And so it goes at the UN -- but note, unlike Haq's claim that it has always been this way, it has not. It is getting worse.


2001 August 15, WednesdayText | 
16, Thursday Text
17, Friday Text | 
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2002 August 15, Thursday Text
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2003 August 14, Thursday Text
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25, Monday Text |
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2004 August 13, Friday Text | 
16, Monday Text |
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2005 August 15, Monday Text |
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22, Monday Text |
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2006 August 14, Monday Text |
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2007 August 13, Monday Text |
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20, Monday Text |
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2008 August 15, Friday Text | 
18, Monday Text |
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2009 August 05, WednesdayText | 
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17, Monday Text |
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2010  August 13, Friday Text | 
16, Monday Text |
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 But see the UN's transcription of its August 12, 2011, noon briefing, for video click here.

Click for Mar 1, '11 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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