UNITED
NATIONS, May
24 -- Ban
Ki-moon's
office has
signed off on
the
elimination
of media
workspace in
front of the
Security
Council,
Ban's deputy
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey told
Inner City
Press on
Friday. Video
here, from
Minute 14:41.
Before
the Security
Council was
temporarily
relocated to
the basement
during
a $2 billion
renovation,
the UN press
corps had a
table in front
of
the Council on
which work
could be done,
while waiting
to speak with
ambassadors
and sources.
This
table was
maintained in
front of the
interim
Security
Council. But
now such a
table and
method of work
is being
banned by a UN
Media
Access
Guideline
listing as
parties the
Department of
Public
Information,
the Department
of Safety and
Security, the
old UN
Correspondents
Association
and the Office
of the
Spokesperson
of the
Secretary
General.
Inner
City Press
asked
spokesperson
Del Buey, your
Office was
consulted
about these
Guidelines?
Yes,
Del Buey
replied.
"And
you agree with
them?"
Yes,
Del Buey said.
Inner
City Press
thanked him
for his
candor. There
is no longer a
doubt:
Ban Ki-moon's
office has
agreed to the
reduction in
press access
to
the Security
Council. It
seems clear
that UNCA has
as well --
Inner
City Press
asked Del Buey
and he did not
disagree.
UNCA's
2013 president
Pamela Falk of
CBS News has
claimed to at
least two
dues paying
UNCA members
that she had
not seen the
Guidelines,
though
they were
given to the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
on May 20 for
comment.
Nor
in the four
days Inner
City Press for
FUNCA has been
opposing and
asking about
the Guidelines
has UNCA's
Executive
Committee said
anything.
Falk
was at a UN
press
conference on
Friday
afternoon; her
focus was on
whispering
that
she must be
given the
first
question, then
demanding the
speakers'
business cards
after asking
two made-up
questions.
Press access?
Not
so much.
In
fact, just
three office
doors down
from Falk's
single
occupancy CBS
office, a FUNCA flier
raising the
issue of the
loss of media
access
to the
Security
Council was
defaced on the
May 23, with
the words
"fraud" and
the
mis-spelled
"viscous."
(That's
UNCA for you.)
Neither
Falk nor her
First Vice
President
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters, also
on the scene
or at least in
the building
on Friday,
have done
anything about
it - at least
not to stop
it.
In fact, since
at latest
February 22
both have been
aware of
multiple
anonymous
social media
accounts
associated
with UNCA
"leaders" --
and with
Charbonneau's
Reuters --
which falsely
charge
opponents with
being funded
by terrorists.
To this has
UNCA descended
under Charbonneau
and Falk.
Del
Buey concluded
Friday's noon
briefing, as
he has
throughout the
week,
by saying that
only DPI's
Stephane
Dujarric can
answer. But
for now Dujarric
does
not answer or
follow through.
Dujarric
said he would
look into a UN
Security
camera
installed
about the
office door of
Inner City
Press
and FUNCA
-- but has
done nothing;
Inner City
Press had to
go itself
to speak with
the Department
of Safety and
Security about
it.
Dujarric
on
Monday May 20
said that an
erroneously
blacked out
speak by
Palestine's
Saeb Erekat
would be put
online on May
21. It wasn't
that
day: no update
from Dujarric.
Nor
the next day,
after which
Inner
City Press
witnessed an
impacted
Mission
calling him,
and returning
with
Dujarric's
excuse about
"encryption."
Why encrypt
the
video of an
open meeting
about
Palestine?
, 
