UNITED NATIONS,
September 8 – The UN will
limit access passes during UN
General Assembly week to what
it calls “resident
correspondents,” many of whom
rarely even come into the UN,
some whom have never asked any
questions. Meanwhile the
investigative Press asking the
UN every day about Cameroon,
Sri Lanka and UN corruption,
will be banned from the
passes. An UNnamed UN speaker
in what was declared a
background briefing not made
available to media coming to
cover the GA week told Inner
City Press that while it is
not a “resident correspondent”
- it was evicted while
covering the Ng Lap Seng /
John Ashe corruption scandal -
it could perhaps stakeout for
example the Yemen meeting, but
only with an “escort.” That is
a UN minder, some of whom ask
Inner City Press who it is
trying to speak to. This is
UNacceptable, the Free
UN Coalition for Access
says, as it the weakened wi-fi
and lack of LAN lines for any
but the insider correspondents
of UNCA. The UNnamed speaker
said that the limitation of
the access passes was agreed
to, or requested by, UN
Security and this UNCA (UN
Correspondents Association
a/k/a UN Censorship Alliance).
It was for seeking to cover
this group's event in the UN
Press Briefing Room,
presumptively open to all
journalists, to see if they
would address having received
funds from then indict, now
convicted Ng Lap Seng that
Inner City Press was evicted
and still restricted. We'll
have more on this, and access
issues before, during and
after #UNGA72. The access
briefing should have been
webcast to journalists coming;
UN Security should have been
there, and the Department of
Public Information leadership
reportedly beginning work on
September 8 - they have been
asked, for reforms. When UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres gave a speech to
honor fallen UN staff on
September 8, he took the
opportunity to say that if the
sacrifices of UN staff were
known by unnamed UN critics,
they wouldn't say what they
do. But the UN is in need of
reform, which requires
critique. And, frankly,
sometime UN staff and experts
are killed with some role
played by UN negligence, for
example in Kasai in the
Democratic Republic of the
Congo. The problem with what
Guterres said is that it
emboldens others in the UN
system to simply shout down or
vilify critical voices,
sometimes to the point of
outright physical eviction and
restriction, and sometimes
short of that. Only the
previous day, the acting head
of the UN Department of Public
Information Maher Nasser on
his last day in the post
allowed a heckler to block
Inner City Press' questions
about the UN's duty to the
Haitian families impacted by
the cholera it brought to the
island - then when Inner City
Press asked a legal immunity
question, to say loudly, It's
always about you. Well, DPI
did evict Inner City Press
with no hearing or appeals,
and has restricted it every
day since. But speeches such
as that on September 8,
UNcorrected, validate
targeting and censorship.
Nasser's successor Alison
Smale has been written to, for
reversal. And Guterres did tell a
moving story about staff in
Chad's Abeche - which Inner
City Press covered,
before DPI's eviction meant it
was no longer notified of or
allowed to cover UN Security
Council trips. Here
was from the UN Staff Day
Parade of Nations. We'll have
more on this. For weeks the UN
had promoted its book event
about New York City and the
UN, featuring author Pamela
Hanlon.
But when Inner
City Press went and asked
about the UN having brought
cholera to Haiti and paid
nothing, and whether Haitians
in Brooklyn had been able to
get any accountability from
the UN, there was no answer.
A heckler in the
audience said loudly that the
question was not appropriate.
Video here.
So Inner City Press followed
up on Ms. Hanlon's statement
that the land under the UN is
still US territory. If so,
what of John Ashe selling
diplomatic posts from inside
his UN General Assembly
President's office, and Inner
City Press for covering the
scandal being thrown out onto
First Avenue by eight UN
Security officers? Audio here.
(NYPD told Inner City Press it
has no jurisdiction to take
criminal complaints, even for
assault, for anything east of
the First Avenue curb.)
That question wasn't answered,
either, including by Penny
Abeywardena, Commissioner of
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Office
for International Affairs.
Instead Maher
Nasser, in charge of the UN
Department of Public
Information from April 1 until
tomorrow, said “it's always
about you” and ended the
event, encouraging those
present to buy books for
signing. And so it goes at the
UN.
***
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