As
Palestine
Bid Mulled In
Windowless UN
Room, No Sign
Outside, Press
Banned
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 7 --
When the UN
Security
Council's
Committee on
the
Admission of
New Members
convened
Friday morning
down a long
cement
hallway in the
UN's North
Lawn building,
the sign
outside
Conference
Room 7 said
only "Closed
Meeting," with
no hint of the
topic. Nor was
the meeting
listed in the
UN's daily
Journal.
By
contrast, when
a meeting of
the Council,
similarly at
the "expert"
level,
was held on
October 5 in
Conference
Room 6, the
sign outside
disclosed "On
the
Presidential
Statement on
SSR," Security
Sector Reform.
Inner City
Press was
allowed to
stand directly
outside
that meeting
and ask
participants
questions.
One of the
question was
why
Palestine's
application is
being delayed,
ostensibly to
consider legal
issues. The
Committee
could have met
on October 5
-- the
experts, they
said, were a
different set
from those on
Security
Sector Reform
-- but instead
it was put off
to Friday.
South Sudan's
application
was quickly
approved,
despite
contested
borders. Here,
there will be
some "update"
in a week;
sources
predict no
Council action
for at least
three weeks,
referring to
the first
stage of the
Middle East
Quartet's
September 23
announced
process.
On
Friday
morning, Inner
City Press was
told it could
not remain
even down the
hallway from
the Palestine
meeting in
Conference
Room 7.
Concerned
about the
difference,
Inner City
Press at
Friday's UN
noon briefing
asked UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about the
"blackout" of
the meeting,
including the
sign not
mentioning the
topic, and why
the press was
not allowed
even to stand
outside the
meeting.
Nesirky
replied
that
"ultimately
the Security
Council
decides on the
format of
its meetings."
Video here,
from Minute
10.
Abbas launches
application
Sept 23,
blackout of
Oct 7 not
shown
Inner
City Press
pointed out
that the
decision to
bar the press
even from
outside the
meeting room
was not a
matter of
format, nor
seemingly
decided on by
the Security
Council, but
rather Ban's
Secretariat.
Nesirky
insisted
that "the
Security
Council
determines its
own working
methods." Some
note that
October's
Security
Council
President
Nigeria, which
has indicated
it would not
vote yes for
Palestine's
membership in
the
UN, put out a
notice that
for SC
Program,
"There are no
scheduled
meetings for
Friday, 7
October 2011."
And perhaps
that
explains the
Journal's
silence too.
But
Nigeria
doesn't
run the
electronic
signs outside
UN conference
rooms, and
doesn't
control the UN
Secretariat's
Security --
for which Ban
apologized,
too quickly
many feel, to
Turkish prime
minister
Erdogan after
a dust
up that left
three UN
Security
officer
injured and
hospitalized.
But
that's another
story.
In
the face of
these
obstacles,
Inner City
Press is
continuing its
reporting on
the
obstacles
thrown forward
inside the
blacked-out
meeting --
watch this
site.
, 
