On
Syria, Ban
Holds
UNbalanced
5-Question
Presser,
Bid for TV,
Race for
Relevance
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 9 --
When the UN
announced Ban
Ki-moon would
hold
a press
conference
Monday at
11:30 am, some
understandably
assumed
that he had
news on Syria.
But
with the room
full of
correspondents,
Ban said "I
have not yet
received the
report from
Dr. Sellstrom,
nor do I know
what it will
contain."
Someone
softly
asked, then
why are we
here? The breaking
news of the
morning was Russia's
Sergey Lavrov
proposing that
Syria give its
chemical
weapons
stockpiles to
the UN.
But Ban's
statement had
nothing on
that.
After Ban's
canned
statement, he
took a total
of five
questions.
This was more
than the
two questions
he took last
Tuesday, also
canceling the
day's UN noon
briefing on
places the UN
actually has
an impact,
like in
Eastern
Congo where
the UN is
selectively
targeting some
armed groups
(M23) and
not others
(FDLR).
Inner
City Press had
put its name
on the
question list.
But only five
were
taken, and it
was far from
balance. The
first
question, by
some
unwritten and
now archaic
and
indefensible
rule, went to
Pamela Falk
of CBS, as the
president of
the UN
Correspondents
Association.
One
problem here
is that under
Falk, UNCA
sponsored a faux
"UN
briefing" in
late July by
Saudi
sponsored
Syria rebel
boss
Jarba. The
UN has refused
to clarify on
what basis it
gives UNCA the
big room it
was held in,
publicized
only to those
who pay money,
and
if it was a
"UN briefing."
Next
was an UNCA
Executive
Committee
member from L'Orient
le Jour on
whom
we will not
comment. Then
Al Jazeera,
which
alongside
excellent
reporting on
Haiti and the
like totes the
Qatari royal
family's line
on most things
Middle East.
Then two US
media, Fox and
Associated
Press. And
that was it.
What
was the goal
of this
exercise? It
seems to have
been to get
Ban
Ki-moon some
face time on
television, on
the day Obama
goes on six
times, and Charlie Rose'
interview with
Assad
(reviewed here
by Inner
City Press)
goes on PBS.
It was like
the UN's
Saturday
briefing on
August 31 -
because it was
an hour and a
half before
Obama spoke,
or
was scheduled
to start, in
the Rose
Garden, it was
picked up all
over. The UN
has a built-in
bully pulpit.
But how is it
being used?
Watch this
site.
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