UN
Claim of
Canceled
Briefings in
Past Augusts
Disproved, Cut
Under Ban
Ki-moon,
Dodging on
Sudan &
Mismanagement
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
August 16 --
When the UN
on Friday,
August 12
announced it
would on
Monday start
cutting
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 online here.
Under
Kofi Annan,
since at least
2001, daily
briefings were
held in
August, by his
spokemen Fred
Eckhard and
Stephane
Dujarric, who
is still with
the UN. 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 archived
daily
briefings
links,
and 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 15,
WednesdayText | 
2002 15,
Thursday
Text|
2003 14,
Thursday
Text|
2004 13,
Friday
Text |
2005 15,
Monday
Text |
2006 14,
Monday
Text |
2007 13,
Monday
Text |
2008 15,
Friday
Text |
2009 05,
Wednesday
Text |
2010 13,
Friday
Text |
But
see the UN's
transcription
of its August
12, 2011, noon
briefing,
for video
click here.
, 
