On
Eve of UN Eviction, Still No
NYT, 1:30 AM E-mail from UN,
Film Crew Banned
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Series,
Video
I,
II
UNITED NATIONS,
March 7 – With full eviction
from the UN looming, I'd been
thinking that the New York
Times would later
save me - usually a useless
thought. I called the
reporter; no answer. I was on
my own. I went down to a
reception in the lobby, or the
hallway between lobbies. I
felt tears in my eyes. A women
I vaguely recognized, from
some NGO, came over and said,
I hate to see you like this.
You're going to have to
decided, if you want to stay
here, you've going to have to
eat some crow.
But for what? I went back up
upstairs, unsure if UN
security would come in and get
me, and sent out desperate
emails. To Jeff Sachs - no
answer. To Special Rapporteur
on Freedom of Expression David
Kaye: no answer then.
I found myself wondering, had
they all been gotten-to?
The attempt to oust me was
near-total, and coordinated.
At the next day's noon
briefing Lou
Charbonneau of Reuters
was sitting in my seat; I had
to sit behind. A friend of
mine, behind me, nevertheless
used email to reach me. Stay
cool, he advised. They are
trying to get you to react.
In the General
Assembly, they were
interviewing in UN formal
style the then-nine candidates
to succeed the evicter Ban
Ki-moon as Secretary General.
I got escorted to the
stake-out position in front by
a minder and sat at a glass
table, standing up to ask
questions to seven of the
nine. (For the other two, the
President of the General
Assembly's spokesman refused
to call on me, handing
questions to Reuters retiree
Evelyn, whom he called Edie,
and anyone but me.)
The Friday before the eviction
was scheduled, I somehow
remained hopeful. Maybe they
would let the deadline pass
like on April 6, when I
published the OIOS
audit. But the Media
Accreditation and Liaison Unit
MALU told me, at 2:30 in the
afternoon, that it was on, to
be here at 9 am.
I want to bring a
camera crew, I told him. There
were two guys working on a
documentary, about Haider
Rivzi as it happened, a
cautionary tale of how the UN
can kill even, even if you're
not in Haiti. They agreed I
could bring two people.
That night I didn't
even try to get signed in to
the Delegates' Lounge. It was
too late for that. I was
alone, and it was war.
At 1:30 am, MALU
emailed me that I could only
bring one person. Who was
giving them orders, at 1:30 in
the morning?
***
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