|
UN's
Gallach Orders
Press Eviction
by April 6,
Changes Access
Claim
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, March
30 -- On
February 19
without once
speaking to
Inner City
Press,
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
Under
Secretary
General for
Public
Information,
Spain's
Cristina
Gallach,
ordered the
Press to leave
the UN, which
it has covered
for ten years,
in two hours.
February
19 letter
here.
On March 30,
despite having
been
petitioned to
stop her
censorship and
hindering of
the Press'
reporting by,
among others,
a Nobel Peace
Prize winner,
Jose Ramos
Horta, Tamils
of Sri Lanka
and elsewhere
including a
Northern
Provincial
Councilor,
over one
thousand
petition
signers and
commenters,
Ambassadors
and UN
officials and,
it seems,
Jeffrey Sachs,
Gallach
nevertheless
had delivered
to Inner City
Press a final
eviction
letter. It
read, in full:
“Dear Mr. Lee,
I write
further to me
letter of 19
February 2016.
As I made
clear in that
letter, your
accreditation
privileges to
access the
premises of
the United
Nations to
conduct your
journalistic
activities
have been
changed to
that of
non-Resident
Correspondent.
In this
regard, I note
that you have
applied for
and received
your
non-Resident
Correspondent
accreditation
on 25 February
2016. Such
accreditation
allows you
access to the
premises of
the United
Nations in
that capacity
in order to
carry out your
full
journalistic
activities in
the same
manner as any
other
journalist
with such
accreditation
privileges.
“At the same
time, I also
note that as
of today, and
after several
reminders, you
have not yet
emptied the
office of your
belongings,
which remain
untouched, nor
have you
returned the
key to that
office.
“In light of
the above, I
request that
you remove
your
belongings
from the
office and
return its key
to the Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit by no
later than
5:00 p.m. on 6
April 2016. If
you do not
collect your
belongings
from the
office by that
deadline, I
would request
your presence
for the
packaging and
forwarding of
your
belongings to
the address
listed in your
accreditation
application.
Yours
sincerely,
Cristina
Gallach,
Under-Secretary
General for
Communications
and Public
Information”
To many
who petitioned
her, from
Washington to
Jaffna in Sri
Lanka, Gallach
had repeatedly
claimed that
despite
seizing Inner
City Press'
long time
shared office
and
investigative
files, Inner
City Press
would have the
same access AS
IT HAD BEFORE,
or the same
access as
OTHER
REPORTERS AT
THE UN.
This
has proved to
be false.
Since the
non-Resident
Correspondent
pass does not
open the
turnstile on
the second
floor of the
UN's
Conference
Building,
Inner City
Press has been
Banned from
covering
meetings in
the ECOSOC and
Trusteeship
Council
chambers, on
such topics as
UN Security
Council
reform,
counter-terrorism
and Sri Lanka,
the selection
of the next
Secretary
General, and
more.
Even Security
Council
meetings, such
as the March
21 session on
Western
Sahara, Inner
City Press was
Banned from by
Gallach's
order. Now,
after make
claims, she
says Inner
City Press
will have not
the same
access that it
had, or even
access to all
Security
Council
meetings --
rather, the
same access as
other with the
restricted
non-Resident
Correspondent
pass: a
tautology.
We'll have
more on this.
* * *
These
reports
are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click here
for Sept 26, 2011 New Yorker on Inner City
Press at UN
Click
for
BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN
Corruption
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
UN Office: S-303,
UN, NY 10017 USA
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest service,
and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2015 Inner City Press,
Inc. To request reprint or other permission,
e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
|
, 
