"The
Administration"
means
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon; he
has arrived
with fanfare
at the annual
"ball" of
what's become
his UN
Censorship Alliance
tonight.
His and two
other cars
arrived with
sirens: the
President of
the General
Assembly, and
that of his
Deputy. The
UK's Lyall
Grant went in
-- he joked,
as he often
does, about a
new
fashion-centric
so far
anonymous
account
-- as
did Colombia's
stylish Nestor
Osorio.
Throughout the
week,
diplomats were
barraged with
requests to
attend. So
who's paying?
The question
is not
answered.
Technically
it's called
the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association,
and in
2012 its
leaders tried
to get the investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
pointing at a
factual
article Inner
City Press published
about Sri
Lanka, the UN
and conflicts
of interest.
Ban's
Secretariat
now admits on
Sri Lanka a
"systemic
failure" - his
Deputy will
speak on that
tomorrow --
but UNCA, which
still has no
rules against
trying to
throw
journalists
out of the UN,
nor apparently
any conflict
of interest
rules, makes
no admission,
no reforms.
Not
surprisingly
it is in
decay. Even as
to its annual
overly
expensive
ball, its draw
Richard Roth
of CNN is
replaced tonight
by BBC's Laura
Trevelyanwho
during a 2009
trip to Sri
Lanka with
Ban Ki-moon
and UK
humanitarian
chief Sir John
Holmes not
only didn't
report Holmes
on the record
comment that
he deleted all
complaining
emails from
Tamils -- she
said the Press
reporting this
"ruined"
relations with
Holmes for her
and, for
example,
Reuters.
Though
over 2000
journalists
are accredited
at the UN,
last week only
111 even tried
to vote in the
three days of
polling -- and
door to door
demands to
vote for --
the United
Nations
Correspondents
Association.
Seven of these
ballots
failed. The
incumbent
Pamela Falk of
CBS, running
unopposed,
still managed
to not
get 26 of the
104 votes
cast.
Her
vote total of
78 is lower
than the 85
obtained in
December 2011
by her predecessor,
who was the
one who first
demanded that
Inner City
Press remove
an article
about Sri
Lanka from the
Internet,
click here for
that.
The
article UNCA "leaders"
tries to
censor
reported on
the previous
financial relationship
of Sri Lanka's
Permanent
Representative
with UNCA's
then
president, in
the context of
this president
screening in
the UN the Sri
Lankan
government's
war crimes
denial film,
without asking
or the consent
of Inner City
Press then on
the Executive
Committee of
UNCA.
No reforms in
UNCA were ever
instituted
after this.
Now as Inner
City Press exclusively
reported
yesterday,
picked
up in Sri
Lanka in
English
and Tamil,
Sri Lanka's
defense
secretary
Gotabhaya
Rajapaksa is
in New York.
Some in Sri
Lanka have
asked: will he
attend UNCA's
$250 a plate
event with Ban
Ki-moon
tomorrow
night?
Will
the leaders of
UNCA, an
association of
correspondents,
make public
who is
attending their
ball, who paid
and how much?
(Inner
City Press
after
withstanding a
kangaroo court
UNCA
proceeding
quit the
organization
and co-founded
the new Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
@FUNCA_info,
to actually
defend the
right of free
press and free
inquiry in and
about the UN
system.)
UNCA is an
organization
in continued
decline. In
2012 many of
its "leaders"
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
as documented
by documents
obtained under
the Freedom of
Information
Act. Voice
of America
asked the UN
to "review"
Inner City
Press'
accreditation;
VOA
said it had
the support of
Agence France
Presse and
Reuters,
click here for
that.
The
Reuters first
vice president
of UNCA spied
for the UN,
giving them an
internal anti
Press UNCA
document three
minutes after
promising not
to (story
here, document
here, audio here).
While
he has stepped
off, the
Reuters
reporter he
supervised
(and who also
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN)
campaigned to
get on UNCA's
board,
demanding in
Friday's noon
briefing to
all present,
"Have you
voted?" It's
as if Reuters
has a
Permanent seat
on UNCA's
15-member
Executive
Committee,
like the P5 in
the Security
Council.
Here
are the
results,
compared to
votes in
December 2011
for the
"candidate" or
their
predecessor
Dec
'13 Dec '11
Prez:
* 78 [85]
Pamela Falk,
CBS News TV
and Radio
1st VP
* 74 [79]
Kahraman
Haliscelik,
TRT Turkish
Radio & TV
2d VP
* 48 71 Masood
Haider, Dawn,
Pakistan
* 48
[71] Sylviane
Zehil,
L’Orient Le
Jour
3d VP
* 55 [62] Erol
Avdovic,
Webpublicapress
38 Ali
Barada,
An-Nahar/France
24
Trez *
81 [71]
Bouchra
Benyoussef,
Maghreb Arab
Press
Sect *
79 [81] Seana
Magee, Kyodo
News
Members
at
Large (9)
*
57 Nabil
Abi Saab ,
Alhurra TV
*
57 Talal
Al-Haj
,Al-Arabiya
News channel
22
George
Baumgarten ,
Jewish
Newspapers,
Nation Media
* 50
Sherwin
Bryce-Pease,
South African
Broadcasting
(SABC)
*
51
Zhenqiu Gu,
Xinhua News
Agency
*
69
Melissa Kent,
CBC/Radio
Canada
*
56
Evelyn
Leopold,
Huffington
Post
Contributor
49 J.
Tuyet Nguyen,
German Press
Agency DPA
*
67
Michelle
Nichols,
Reuters
41
Edwin
Nwanchukwu,
News Agency of
Nigeria
27
Cia Pak,
Scannews
*54
Valeria
Robecco, ANSA
*
54
Sangwon Yoon ,
Bloomberg
Some
of the elected
are new and
their
positions on
UNCA Executive
Committee
members trying
to get other
(investigative)
media thrown
out of the UN,
and the need
to preclude
this and UNCA
leaders'
anonymous
social media
trolling, are
not yet known.
(Some not
elected were
among the
better / more
diverse
candidates.)
Beyond
the lack of
reform after
UNCA "leaders"
tried to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
and then
engaged in
2013 in
anonymous
social media
trolling which
the incumbent
though told on the
record did
not stop,
there's now a
dispute
of the
statement
that donated
Samsung
television
equipment "did
not involve a
mission,"
which the UN itself
admits Samsung
have the
equipment to
the South
Korean
Mission, which
gave it to the
UN, which
forwarded it
on to UNCA.
Why,
given how much
they are
charging this
week in
Cipriani's?
They will
honor Ban
Ki-moon, whose
spokesperson's
office
squawked
Friday,
immediately
after a briefing
on Syria
chemical
weapons,
that wine
would be
served in the
UNCA room and
that election
results were
out: to UN,
newsworthy.
As is the
UNCA "ball"
with Ban
Ki-moon. Who
from the Sri
Lankan
government is
attending it?
Will defense
secretary Gotobhaya
Rajapaksa?
When
the UN
Correspondents
Association
leaders tried
stealthy to
get the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN,
and have
failed to
institute any
reform since,
it became the
UN's
Censorship
Alliance.
Party on.
Watch this
site.
, 
