UN's
Ban Doles
Lunch and
Quotes to
UNCA Insiders
Attacking Free
Press
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 7 –
In a UN annual
ritual which
like so many
has
outlived its
time,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon on
Thursday doled
out lunch and
a few quotes
to 15 members
of the
Executive
Committee
of the UN
Correspondents
Association.
Ban
either did not
know, or did
not care, that
in 2012 this
UNCA
Executive
Committee
spent months
trying to get
the
investigative
Press thrown
out of the UN.
Documents
obtained
under the US
Freedom of
Information
Act show that
in asking
the
UN to “review”
the
accreditation
of Inner City
Press, Voice
of
America
said it has
the support
of Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters,
who was in a
blue blazer at
the lunch and
still
afterward pursuing
Iran
outside the
Security
Council's
Yemen meeting,
and Tim
Witcher of
Agence France
Presse.
Tellingly,
five
hours after
the lunch
AFP's Witcher
published a
story with Ban
quotes about
North Korea,
sourced as “Ban
told a small
group of
reporters,
including AFP.”
(Only after
this ran were
"key
quotes"
distributed to
other
journalists,
here --
none of which
concerned
Sudan, Haiti
or the Congo
for example.)
The
“small group”
was not
random: it was
the 15 members
of UNCA's
Executive
Committee,
including the
bureau chief
of Xinhua who
also
wrote
a story
(albeit
paradoxically
behind a
paywall.)
But
Ban either did
not know or
did not care
that for more
than a month
these UNCA
“leaders” have
been defacing,
counterfeiting
and
tearing down
substantive
flyers of the
new Free
UN Coalition
for
Access.
The ongoing
series of
FUNCA flyers
raise the due
process rights
of journalists
and the need
for
the UN to
accredit
journalists no
matter where
in the world
they
come from.
UNCA
has not raised
the latter
issue, and
cannot raise
the due
process
issue, since
it was UNCA
which tried to
get the UN to
throw
journalists
out.
Ban
UNCA Lunch of
the Lost, Feb
7, 2013,
credit Evan
Schneider,
UNPhoto
Nor
has UNCA's new
president Pam
Falk – to
Ban's left and
elected like
all five other
officers
including
Charbonneau,
over her left
shoulder,
without any
competition
but with lower
vote counts
than the
previous year
– said
anything as
FUNCA flyers
have been torn
down and
counterfeited
just outside
her office.
Falk has also
remained
silent about
UNCA's descent
into
censorship.
As
reported, the
UNCA “leaders”
created an on again,
off again
counterfeit
social media
account to
attack not
only Inner
City Press
but others
seen joining
FUNCA. They expelled a
journalist
after she
joined FUNCA.
Now more have
joined FUNCA
including
confidentially,
and have
gained through
advocacy
fairer
treatment.
Recently
the
chief
of Ban's
Department of
Public
information
has indicated
for
example that
work continues
on some fair
treatment
for the Free
UN
Coalition for
Access, for
example
permitting it
a bulletin
board like
UNCA has to
avoid the UNCA
tear-down of
flyers every
night. We were
heartened, but
are awaiting
this simplest
of reforms.
But
it remains
archaic and
now
inappropriate,
this Ban lunch
and the
exclusive
quotes, not
given to the
journalists
who actually
went to
the day's noon
briefing (and
Security
Council
stakeouts in
the
morning
about Sudan,
and in the afternoon
about Yemen).
This is a
monopoly
for a decayed
and debated
organization
which has lost
that right.
And it is
inappropriate.
Ban speaks
about
democracy and
the rule of
law, but UNCA's
Executive
Committee
violated
its
constitution
by not having
their election
by December
15, and
staying in
office past
January 1. When challenged, they shouted down
the
questioner,
video here.
One of the origins
of the UNCA
Executive
Committee's
dis-accreditation
push was
Inner City
Press' reporting
on Sri
Lanka, as
issue on which
Ban has
appeared in
different
lights.
UNCA
does not
defend
journalists:
it attacks
some
journalists.
We will
work for a
better, fairer
and less
corrupt
future, with
free speech
and press for
all. Watch
this site.
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