After
UN Eviction, Coverage Then
Re-Entry With Limited Access,
Still In Place Year Later
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Part of Series,
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
February 15 – I tried to
ritualize my partial re-entry,
with a "non resident
correspondent" pass I would
remain confined to for a year
and counting. I spend an hour
in the morning that day,
February 25, 2016, in the park
across from the UN with heroic
homeless Haitian Adrian,
talking with diplomats who
stopped by, a few UN staffers
who gave a thumbs-up then
rushed across the street not
wanting to be seen with me.
I called the
reporter from Business
Insider, who'd once been an
intern reporting on the UN,
and told him I was going to
re-enter. People said it was
only because of previous
coverage the UN was forced to
allow even this
still-restricted pass. Then I
called UN Media Accreditation
and told them I wanted back
in.
“Okay go up to the pass
office. They'll be waiting for
you,” they said.
“Not like last time
when they said I was banned
from all UN premises?” I
asked. I'd started using that
on-line: BANned, capital
B-A-N, as in banned by Ban
Ki-moon. “I want to get in for
the noon briefing." “Then you
better hurry.”
I walked north on First
Avenue, the same way I'd
walked down to the park after
being told that I was BAN-ned
worldwide. In the pass office,
they were waiting for me,
didn't ask to see a passport
as they had last December.
(Mine had visa and entry
stamps from trips I'd taken
with the Security Council, to
Sudan, Kenya, the DR Congo,
Djibouti and Cote d'Ivoire,
and the one ill-fated trip
with Ban to Sri Lanka. There
would be no more of
that.)
“Now go around the
corner to get your photo
taken. New pass, new photo.”
After the photo
was taken, I handed them a
letter. This was all without
prejudice. I did not concede
anything. I just wanted back
in.
I got in another
line at the metal detector.
One of the UN Security guards
I passed glared at me; the
next high fived me. I kept my
eyes on the prize. It was
11:56.
Though the lobby
with its carpet portraits of
each Secretary General
including the Nazi Kurt
Waldheim. Through a turnstile
on the first floor - here, my
new Green P pass worked, as it
wouldn't upstairs -- then
along another hallway to the
escalators. There was a cafe
now in the lobby, to half
replace the cafeteria closed
down because the New York City
Police Department thought a
car bomber might target it
from the FDR Drive. Up the
escalator and down a hall to
the Press Briefing Room, the
room I was thrown out of on
January 29, the ultimate
entrapment.
Inside Stephane
Dujarric had started his
briefing, which meant reading
a series of press releases.
The seat I usually used, front
row extreme left, was empty,
but Lou Charbonneau of Reuters
was right next to it. I
squeezed in, turned on my
laptop. When Dujarric finished
with the canned statements he
called on Reuters first. Then
he called on me:
“I had some
questions about being pushed
into the street with no due
process, as you said.
But, I’ll put those at the
end. I wanted to ask you
about Burundi first. I
saw the statement by the
Secretary-General praising the
reopening of some radio
stations and the release of
prisoners. And I wanted
to ask you two questions about
that. One is, is he
aware, and what do you say
that two of five radio
stations have opened and
they've been forced to sign
pledges to not undermine the
country's security?”
There were still no
answers to questions like
this. But I was back. The
question was, for how long?
***
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