For
UN General Assembly Week, List
Here, UN Limits "Pooling" to Insider Group,
UNdisclosed
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
September 14 –
The UN is both unprepared and
unfair in the run-up to the
72nd General Assembly high
level week, which the UN has
bragged will include 90 heads
of state, five vice
presidents, 36 heads of
government, 3 deputy prime
ministers and 55 ministers -
but NOT Myanmar's Aung San Suu
Kyi. Not only access, but also
"pooling" opportunities, are
limited without explanation or
disclosure to insider
correspondents, even for a "UN
reform" event. At a background
briefing on September 8, a UN
Department of Public
Information official told
Inner City Press that “there
will be a secondary pass for
'Resident Correspondents' to
go to basement area, 1B,
limited to resident
correspondents” - a group of
less than 200 of the several
thousand journalist the UN
says are coming. Inner City
Press asked, Why are these
passes limited in that way?
The UN official said, “That's
the arrangement with Security
and with the UNCA [UN
Correspondents Association]
because we have to find some
distinction." So the UN let a
group of at most 200 insiders
limit the access of thousands
of other journalists, with no
transparency. And now the UN
has limited its offer of
"pooling" opportunities to
this group, several of whose
members, disgusted, forwarded
this to Inner City Press and
the alternative Free UN
Coalition for Access: "Dear
colleagues, We have been
notified by MALU of the
approval for pool reporters at
the following events during
UNGA:Monday, September 18th:
FAMILY PHOTO after President
Trump's reform event: PRINT: 1
reporter, VIDEO: 1 reporter,
PHOTO: 1 reporter. Tuesday,
September 19th: SG's STATE
LUNCHEON: 1:15 - 2:45,
Delegates Lounge: PRINT: 4
reporters, VIDEO: 3 reporters,
PHOTO: 3 reporters.Sherwin
Bryce-Pease,
President,
United Nations
Correspondents
Association."
This was only sent to people
who pay UNCA money, and / or
haven't (yet) chosen to quit
the group, as Inner City Press
did after seeing it host a Sri
Lanka war crimes denial film
for a previous tenant, here.
Along with the limitation of
passes to the UN Conference
Building's 1B negotiated
(only) with UNCA, this is
inconsistent with the
principles of freedom of
press, and freedom of
association, and limits
access. We'll have more on
this. This Department of
Public Information has been
headless since April 1 until
this week; New York Times
journalist Alison Smale was
named by Secretary General
Antonio Guterres as
replacement. She has arrived
but has not answered e-mailed
questions
about these elitist
“distinctions.” Actually, the
200 UNCA insiders include
numerous rarely seen state
media, for example Akhbar al
Yom from Sisi's Egypt, making
the “distinction” all the more
telling. Similarly, when Inner
City Press was for assurance
that at least the UN Press
Briefing Room would be open to
all journalists, the UN
official said while missions
are told that, there is no
guarantee, the Media
Accreditation office does not
make the bookings. Those are
done by the UN Spokesman,
Stephane Dujarric, who has a
history as noted by the Free
UN Coalition for Access
of "lending" the UN Press
Briefing Room to the president
of his native France, and to
UNCA, evicting
the Press which tried to cover
the event with Periscope.
The UN is closing
in on itself, while bragging
about all the important people
coming to see it. The reformed
needed at the UN go well
beyond those alluded to in the
pre-signed outcome document of
the September 18 event. That
reform event, tellingly, is
not even mentioned on the UN's
list so far of UNGA72 events:
12 September:
Opening of the 72nd Session of
the General Assembly
(Preliminary list of items in
the provisional agenda);
18 September:
High-Level Meeting on the
Prevention of Sexual
Exploitation and Abuse;
19-25 September:
General Debate of the General
Assembly 72nd Session;
20 September:
Signing Ceremony of the Treaty
for the Prohibition of Nuclear
Weapons;
20 September:
Security Council High Level
Meeting: Reform of UN
peacekeeping, implementation
and follow-up;
ICP/FUNCA: JPCOA
meeting on Iran, Sept 22;
ICP: a Yemen
event Friday, September 22 at
8 am in CR 5;
26 September:
High-level plenary meeting to
promote and commemorate the
International Day for the
Total Elimination of Nuclear
Weapons;
27-28 September:
High -level meeting of the
General Assembly on the
appraisal of the United
Nations Global Plan of Action
to Combat Trafficking in
Persons (resolution 71/287).
Watch this site.
***
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