Inner City Press



These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis


In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

,



Share |   

Follow on TWITTER

More: InnerCityPro

Home -

These reports are usually available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis

CONTRIBUTE

(FP Twitterati 100, 2013)

ICP on YouTube

BloggingHeads.tv
Sept 24, 2013

UN: Sri Lanka

VoA: NYCLU

FOIA Finds  

Google, Asked at UN About Censorship, Moved to Censor the Questioner, Sources Say, Blaming UN - Update - Editorial

Support this work by buying this book

Click on cover for secure site orders

also includes "Toxic Credit in the Global Inner City"
 

 

 


Community
Reinvestment

Bank Beat

Freedom of Information
 

How to Contact Us



UN's Gallach Lies to Nobel Winner About ICP in Press Room, Never Spoke to ICP

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 19 -- The UN on February 19, after Inner City Press asked about UN inaction in South Sudan and Burundi and financial irregularities, was handed a letter to leave the UN by 5 pm. Letter here.

  The letter was signed by the Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach of Spain but ultimately Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in charge.

  The pretext was Inner City Press three weeks earlier seeking to cover a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room by an organization which has taken money from now indicted Ng Lap Seng and Frank Lorenzo's South SOuth News, then gave Ng Lap Seng a photo op with Ban.

  This was a principled dispute whether the UN and Ban Ki-moon's Spokesman Stephane Dujarric can order a journalist out of the UN Press Briefing Room, and can "lend" the UN Press Briefing Room for private events to anyone they choose, from French President Francois Hollande ("lent" to by Dujarric) or the UN Correspondents Association a/k/a/ UN Corruption Association, apparently lend to without much knowledge by new head of DPI Cristina Gallach.

  Even major UNCA members have told Inner City Press it was a mistake by the UN or Gallach to give the UN Press Briefing Room for a private UNCA event. The only reason was the UNCA chief Giampaolo Pioli was paying waiters for a corrupt open bar event up in the large clubhouse the UN gives to UNCA.

  Now, trying to obfuscate (we are being diplomatic) all this, Gallach has written - to a Nobel Peace Prize winner no less - that

"From: Cristina Gallach <gallach@un.org>
Date: 19 February 2016 at 9:23:37 PM GMT-5
To: "J. Ramos-Horta"
Subject: Re: Pls clarify

Dear mr Ramos-Horta,

Many thanks for your message which allows me to inform you about the decision I have taken on the type of accreditation that Mr Lee has and will have in the future.

Recently mr Lee openly broke the rules that guide all the resident
correspondents."

  Inner City Press did NOT violate any rule; at the time Gallach sent this evasive email, her UN guards were tearing the UN pass of Inner City Press' neck and refusing to allow it to access its files or even its coat on an 18 degree night.

  To top it off, Gallach in the three week since the event she mis-presents did not ONCE try to email or speak with Inner City Press about why it believed and believes it has a presumptive right to cover events in the UN Press Briefing Room.

  Who chose this person to be in charge of the UN's public information and press accreditation office?

  Inner City Press uses the word "lie" advisedly, since UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, on video / Periscope, announced while acting to eject Inner City Press from the UN Press Briefing Room on January 29, "He lies a lot."

 Is this how a UN Spokesperson, even a deputy, should be speaking about a UN correspondent?

   Gallach repeated this same ill-informed anti-Press position, without once speaking with the Press, to at least one Permanent Representative of a UN Member state, and had her "bag carrier" Darrin Farrant tell a UN Security Council member state that nothing could or would be done.

Who runs the UN?

(As Inner City Press reported, Gallach attended the South South Awards just before the indictments. What "rules" did that violate - actual laws that have led to legal indictments?)

  UN Security demanded ICP's pass, which it declined to provide at least until 5 pm. Then UN Security told Inner City Press its grounds pass was being revoked in full and it could not re-enter the UN for any purpose.

A Nobel Prize winner has written to the reclusive UN official censor Cristina Gallach:

From: "J. Ramos-Horta"
Date: 19 February 2016 at 8:41:22 PM GMT-5
To: gallach@un.org
Subject: Pls clarify

Dear USG Gallach,

I've been contacted by a number of UN Press Correspondents expressing concern about your office abrupt termination of the accreditation of Matthew R. Lee. I am in possession of your letter which was communicated to Mr. Lee giving him till 5pm today to hand-over his UN Press Pass and abandon the UN premises.

Obviously apart from your letter which doesn't not say much about the alleged gravity of Mr. Lee's breach of UN rules, I don't have any additional information that may throw light on the case and validate your decision.

I am hereby writing to express my serious concern about this case and hoping that an amicable solution can be found that would enable Mr. Mathew to continue to cover UN activities from within UN premises as a bona fide UN Correspondent.

J. Ramos-Horta

There will be more.
 

Share |

* * *

These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City Press at UN

Click for  BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Google
  Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

            Copyright 2006-2015 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com