After
Eviction, UN Tells Press What
It Can Film and Say, Not Yemen
or Burundi, UN Corruption
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Series,
Video
I,
II
UNITED NATIONS,
February 27 –
I was standing again at the UN
Security Council stakeout,
when a UN guard came to start
locking the glass door. No
way, I told him. The meeting's
still going on. I got my
camera to take a picture. You
better stop taking pictures,
the guard said.
I've been told to
document exclusion, I told
him. One of the other
correspondents, whom I'd
avoided for more than two
years, was Giampaolo Pioli,
the head of the United Nations
Correspondents Association
who'd ordered me to take a
story off-line, about him
allowing a Sri Lankan
ambassador who'd been his
tenant to screen
a war crimes denial film
as a UN Correspondents
Association event.
Yeah, yeah, Pioli said. You're
really doing something. I
ignored him again and went
back to my laptop to Tweet out
the photo of the guard locking
the glass door. But Pioli came
over next to me.
“You're an asshole,” he
said. “Why won't you tweet
that? You're an asshole.” Audio
here.
I was surprised and
probably should have just left
it that. But I said, And
you're corrupt. You rented
your apartment to an
Ambassador then screened his
movie. Then you couldn't take
it--
Guys, guys, a guy cut
in, a partner of Voice of
America with the Arabic
channel from the Broadcast
Board of Governors called Al
Hurra. I wish you would not do
this at the stakeout.
It wasn't me, I told
him. I haven't spoke to him in
two years. He came and called
me an asshole. And you are,
Pioli croaked. You're an
asshole. And you're corrupt, I
told him. Things had reached
that point.
It seemed to me that UNCA's
Pioli calling me an asshole,
and me not swearing back,
might help me. It wasn't the
type of thing, just barely,
that I raised at the noon
briefing - although a previous
Deputy Secretary General
calling me not
an asshole but a jerk
had been raised, not by the
New York Sun - but at the next
Security Council stakeout I
saw Cristina Gallach
approaching. I still had hope,
I gestured her over since I
couldn't leave the area.
As she approached I
said into my phone, my
Periscope, Here comes the UN
official who ordered me
evicted, she went to the South
South - and suddenly the guard
at the top of the ramp cut in.
You know you can't do
that, he said. Do what? I
asked him. I'm at the
stakeout. I can film. You
can't talk like that, he said.
You're telling me what
to report? It's my stand
up. You KNOW, he
repeated. By then Gallach was
coming over; I held my phone
to my side. Yes? she said.
I told her about being locked
out of the stakeout, then what
Pioli had said. Well, she
replied, I've heard you
photograph things that are not
newsworthy.
I thought about that.
“I'm not sure that's for you
to say,” I told her. “There's
a corruption scandal going on.
If I see someone I don't
recognize, walking with the
President of the General
Assembly, I'm going to take a
picture. Then I'll show it
around, to find out who it
is.” I paused. “It's
called journalism.” Gallach
scowled. She had, after all,
been Javier Solana's
spokesperson. So what?
In the briefing room
things went no better. At the
next noon briefing I noticed
two guys in the interpreters
booth and took a photo of
them. When Deputy Spokesperson
Farhan Haq came in, and after
he'd read his canned statement
and I'd asked the usual mix
about Burundi and Yemen I
asked him about the people
who'd just left the booth. He
admitted he didn't know who
they were.
But you didn't check,
right? You didn't throw them
out. So really,there is no
rule.
You're just trying to
justify what you did, Haq
said, again looking at the
front row for support.
Yeah, I tried to cover
corruption, I said. And I
intend to continue.
This they cut out of the
transcript, as they would
start doing more and more. Was
the fix in?
***
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