Inner City Press: Investigative Reporting from the United Nations

After Ousting Press, UN Turns Off The Lights for Earth Hour, Hypocrisy

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 19 -- With the UN embroiled in a corruption scandal, a guilty plea entered in the Southern District of New York on March 16 for bribery in the UN and then a new indictment of Vivian Wang of South South News which bought its way into the UN, on March 19 Ban Ki-moon turned the lights out. Photo tweeted by @InnerCityPress, here.

It wasn't an admission of or attempt to stop the spread of corruption and lawlessness in the UN under his watch. It was, the day after Ban cavorted with "Red of Angry Birds," another bit of theater, Earth Hour. This from a UN which not only ousted the Press with no due process or right to appeal, as retaliation, but which Inner City Press has shown to be engaged in fake recycling.

The following was sent out first to UN staff then at the eleventh hour to favored scribes in this UN offices:

"On Saturday 19 March 2016, the United Nations will again participate in 'Earth Hour,' a global initiative uniting hundreds of millions of individuals, companies, organizations and governments around the world in turning off their lights for one hour to focus attention on people-driven solutions for protecting the planet and building a bright, sustainable future.

This year, we will turn off all non-essential lighting at the United Nations Headquarters complex and the UN offices in the annex buildings in New York for one hour, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, 19 March.

Please note that in preparation for Earth Hour, FMS and DSS will be going office to office and floor to floor starting from 4:00 p.m. to ensure all lights and office equipment are turned off. Please ensure you exit the Secretariat and the UN offices in the annex buildings before 8:00 p.m. that day, as afterwards the buildings will be immersed in darkness and offices may not be occupied for safety reasons until the conclusion of the event.

We all have a role to play during Earth Hour – hence, before leaving on Friday, 18 March, please make sure that ALL LIGHTS AND ALL OFFICE EQUIPMENT ARE TURNED OFF. It is also important the blinds are free from obstructions, as they will all be lowered for the event. Please note that tying the blinds into a locked position is not permitted as this will result in the motors burning out. Your help is critical in making this event a success!

We also encourage all staff to join this initiative by turning off the lights at home on Saturday evening at 8.30pm. More information about how you, and your friends and family can participate in Earth Hour is available at: www.earthhour.org.

Earth Hour is a symbolic event that helps us remember that little daily actions that each of us can do can help to make a sustainable world. Play your part by switching off lights and electronic equipment when you leave the office every day. Together, we can all make a positive impact in the fight against climate change."

Talk about form over function. On March 17, Ban spoke at Lehman College in The Bronx.

Many of the claims Ban made were false or incomplete. He repeatedly claimed credit for unprecedented hiring and high placement of women. But only the day before in the UN Press Briefing Room his spokesman Stephane Dujarric threw Inner City Press out of, Ban was criticized for his male envoys on Syria, Libya and Yemen.

The UN used to have a female chief of staff and a female Deputy Secretary General; both position are now held by men.

Ban told those at Lehman they should demand sustainable products. But in Ban's UN, the same day Dujarric threw Inner City Press out of the Press Briefing Room, Inner City Press showed Ban's climate adviser that the recycling on the UN's press floor is false.

Though the top of the garbage can says Cans, Paper and Waste, it all goes into the same bag, right in front of the UN Correspondents Association Ban partners with.

Ban made a few ham-handed references to The Bronx, the cliches about the Yankees and about "new restaurants" on Arthur Avenue. He did not, it goes without saying, address his Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach having thrown out Inner City Press, Banned it from its long time office and cut its accreditation and access.

Inner City Press expected that Ban would take questions, as he did in a recent appearance in London, for example. But an inquiry with Media Relations at Lehman College yielded that there will be no press opportunities. Then a few canned and pre-screened questions were "asked."

When Inner City Press asked on Twitter, Why not, one of the anti-Press troll accounts set up since Ban's UN ousted Inner City Press on February 19 came to Ban's defense, that it's lecture, no reason for Q&A. Really? Is The Bronx less worthy than London? Is there not more interest in Ban, given Frank Lorenzo's guilty plea on March 16?

The UN trolls with Dujarric and Gallach among their few followers were at it again on March 19, defending Earth Hour (they've also defended Ladsous linking rape to R&R, and the UN bringing cholera to Haiti. Wonder who they are....

For more than six months Inner City Press has asked the UN about its dealings with Frank Lorenzo, former Deputy Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic and head of South South News, who is now pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery at the UN.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who had accepted a prize from Lorenzo, never commented; Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric on February 9 told Inner City Press, “I'm done answering questions.” Vine here.

On February 19 Inner City Press was ordered out of the UN, which it has covered for ten years as a Resident Correspondent with a shared office full of files, by a letter signed that day with two hours notice by Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach - who attended the September 2015 South South Awards with Lorenzo, photo here.

On Gallach's order, and with the participation of Ban's spokesman Dujarric, Inner City Press was thrown out onto First Avenue along with its laptop, but without its passport still in its shared office, by eight UN Security guards. Audio here. On February 22, UN Security told Inner City Press it was Banned from all UN premises.

After stories in BuzzFeed and Business Insider, Inner City Press re-entered the UN on a much reduced “non-resident correspondent” pass, Banned from covering such events as UN Security Council reform, Sri Lanka and terrorism, and the Office of the President of the General Assembly. (Inner City Press has continued, with sources, to report, for example here.)

The harassment continued: hours after Inner City Press raised its case orally to Ban Ki-moon and his deputy, UN Security against physically ordered Inner City Press to leave the UN, at 8 pm. Video here.

Dujarric said it is not his job to find Inner City Press a place to work. Q&A here. More and seemingly final threats were made on March 14 -- just before it emerged that Lorenzo is pleading guilty to bribery charges. Now what?

The UN has proved itself unable to reform itself. Under Secretaries General Inner City Press contacted about Gallach's outrageous no due process order, and her failure to recuse herself, did nothing. One said, You can only speak with Gallach; another said, I don't get involved in individual cases.

On March 14, after the threats and asked about Inner City Press' detailed email about the violation of its rights as a journalist, a third USG said, Do you expect me to respond to that? Well, yes.

The DC-based Government Accountability Project wrote to the US Mission to the UN urging them to work to get Inner City Press' resident correspondent accreditation and office restored. But US Ambassador for Management and Reform Isobel Coleman did not even respond to Inner City Press' detailed March 3 email; an oral question to Samantha Power at the UN Security Council stakeout on March 14 after the threats has gone unanswered. Vine here.

Now what? Beyond Lorenzo's guilty plea, how will the UN be cleaned up? All retaliatory acts must be rescinded and appropriate impartial investigations launched.

The pretext Gallach used to oust Inner City Press was its attempt on January 29 to cover a meeting of the UN Correspondents Association, which took money from Lorenzo's South South News and then granted a photo op with Ban Ki-moon to the main funder, also indicted Ng Lap Seng.

The meeting was in the UN Press Briefing Room, apparently “lent” to UNCA by Ban's spokesman Dujarric, who at UNCA boss Giampaolo Pioli's request came in and told Inner City Press to leave so he could see his “f*cking kids.”

Inner City Press said it would leave the glassed in interpreter's booth from which it was live-streaming the meeting as soon as UN Security asked it to. One guard came in and said that Spokesman Dujarric wanted Inner City Press to leave, which it did, and published a story and video.

Without once speaking to Inner City Press, Gallach used this “incident” as a pretext to throw Inner City Press out. Inner City Press has asked the UN the following questions:

Please explain the lending of the UN Press Briefing Room to Lorenzo, and that it was not listed in the days' UN Media Alert.

Please explain USG Gallach's appearance with Lorenzo at the South South Awards, which ICP reported, and that USG Gallach did not recuse herself from ordering Inner City Press' expulsion from its UN office on 2 hours' notice on February 19.

Please explain your [Dujarric's] role, on January 29 to February 19, in the expulsion of Inner City Press.

Please state who lend the UN Press Briefing Room to UNCA on Jan 29.

As a matter of UN ethics, shouldn't USG Gallach have offered me an opportunity to be heard, some due process?

As a matter of UN ethics, to whom an the UN Press Briefing Room be "lent," and by whom, on what basis, without disclosure?

Please provide your response: should staff of the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General, and staff of DPI, accept free liquor and other gift from UNCA, while giving UNCA the UN Press Briefing Room and ousting other journalist whom UNCA's leadership doesn't like?

Please state, no or yes and explain: Do staff of the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General provide advance copies of UN documents to favored journalists who are affiliated to UNCA?

And now: “This is a formal request for Ban Ki-moon's comment on the guilty plea for conspiracy to commit bribery etc by Frank Lorenzo.” Watch this site.

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