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Cannes Confidential, Stealth UN TV Show with Undisclosed
Payments to Host
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at
the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
April 15 -- The UN
hired a television reporter, Daljit Dahliwal, to host its new
television
series, 21st Century, but refuses to disclose how much it paying Ms.
Dhaliwal,
nor how much it spent flying two UN staffer to Cannes, France, to offer
the
show for free to TV networks. The show's trailer
does not mention any UN
connection, and Inner City Press' sources describing filming
session in which
UN photos and logos are covered up to not be shown.
Questions have arisen about what benefit the
UN and its paying member states receive from the money spent on such a
show,
and why the amount of the expenditure is confidential, as the head of
UN TV and Radio Susan
Farkas on April 15 told Inner City Press.
Ms.
Farkas was one of the two UN staffers who flew this month to Cannes,
for the
MIP TV convention. Describing it to Inner City Press as a junket,
sources
suggested that the cost of the trip, how it differed from previous
years, and
the amount paid to Ms. Dahliwal to host it be inquired into. On April
11, Inner
City Press sent written questions to the UN Spokesperson's office, and
received
a response that same day from Ms. Farkas, who confirmed that she
"travelled
to France for MIP TV, the international television production market
held twice
yearly in Cannes."
While
not stating how many other UN people traveled there, Ms. Farkas wrote
that
"some other UN agencies also attended and very useful meetings about
cross-agency coproduction and cooperation were held...I am referring to
UNifeed, our daily satellite feed of news material, the feature series,
UN in
Action, and the monthly magazine program 21st Century."
Ms.
Farkas came to UN TV from stints at the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation and
then from NBC. The UN-hired host of 21st Century is the BBC and CNN
journalist
Daljit Dhaliwal. On April 15, asked how much the UN is paying Ms.
Dahliwal, Ms.
Farkas said simply, "that is confidential." But the UN has
procurement and hiring rules, and what it pays outside contractors,
particularly for work such as this, is presumptively public.
Daljit Dhaliwal on a high (38?) floor, UN
payment information withheld by UN
Following
questions about the Cannes venture and the budget of the 21st Century
show, a
breezy description of the trip was put on the UN's intra-net. But this
did not
say how much the outside contractor is getting paid.
In
fact, there has already been controversy in the UN system regarding
whether it
is ethical for the UN to pay journalists who might (otherwise) cover
the UN. In
a memo this decade to the UN Communications Group, former spokesman of
the UN
Development Program William Orme proposed among other things that the
UN not
hire journalists, or at a minimum make full disclosure of all sums
paid. Either
this proposal was never accepted, or it never reached UN TV. We will
have more
on this -- for now, this link,
to a non-hype, fully disclosed treasure trove, the UN Radio
Classics, and the e-mail below:
Subj: Re: MIPTV (and
UNifeed, etc.) follow-ups, thanks
From: Susan Farkas [at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Date: 4/15/2008 3:20:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Q: the outside host of 21st Century, is she paid by the UN?
A: yes
Q: how much?
A: that is
confidential
Q: how many people went to Cannes?
A: two from DPI, me
and Caroline Petit
Q: how, in terms of
number attendees and UN level, and cost, did this year's venture to
Cannes
compare to previous years?
A: last year, only Caroline attended
Q: what is the relation, in terms of funding and staffing, between
UNICEF and
the Secretariat / DPI, for the UNifeed?
A: UNICEF pays the
salary of the UNifeed Managing Editor
Q: and anything else about what 21st Century, compared to other UN TV
shows to
date, is trying to accomplish.
A:
21st Century focuses on issues on the UN
agenda, underreported stories, in a format that is easily translated
into other
languages.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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[at] innercitypress.com
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718-716-3540
Other,
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in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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