Of
$100 Charge to
Hear Kane on
Syria, UN Says
Only
She Won't Keep
the Money
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 30
-- Does the UN
under
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon now
allow
admission fees
of up to $100
to be charged
to hear
a UN official
speak, in the
UN, about
their work?
Apparently
yes.
Inner
City Press on
Monday asked
Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
about an
invitation or
solicitation
sent out that
morning by the
Global
Security
Institute, founded
by Alan
Cranston, to
hear UN
official
Angela Kane
speak in the
"elegant
Delegates'
Dining Room"
at the UN in
late October
-- for $100.
In
the past, for
example when
the Korea
Society
charged $10 to
hear
Ban's official
Robert Orr
speak,
Nesirky's
office said
that only
minimal
facilities
charges could
be passed on.
This
was repeated
to
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access @FUNCA_info by the UN
Development
Program when
people,
even children,
were charged
$5 to hear
UNDP
Administrator
Helen Clark
speak in New
Zealand.
But
$100? For
Ban's
negotiator
with Syria? Is
this
inflation? Or
decay? Nesirky
didn't say the
change
was any
problem,
rather tried
to turn the
question on
Inner City
Press and say
the question
might imply
that Kane was
keeping the
$100
per person.
Other UN
audits
exclusively
obtained and
reported
by Inner City
Press might
raise
questions -- but
that wasn't,
and isn't, the
question Inner
City Press
asked on
Monday.
At
the same noon
briefing,
Nesirky
confirmed that
while his
office
solicited
expression of
interest from
journalists to
cover the UN
Security
Council's trip
to Africa's
Great Lakes
region, France
was
allowed to
hand-pick
which
journalists
would go.
Then
Nesirky cut
off and did
not allow
Inner City
Press' follow
up
question on
the legitimacy
of this,
saying others
didn't want to
hear
about Inner
City Press'
travel plans.
(He later
refused
without
explanation to
take an Inner
City Press
question about
the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo.)
There's
more
to say, but
this is Ban's
UN. Watch this
site.
, 
