UNITED
NATIONS, June
19 -- On a day
when the UN
was belatedly
criticized
by
WorldVision
and WatchList
for moving to
include an
army on its
own
list of child
soldier
recruiters in
its
peacekeeping
mission in
Mali,
and had no
convincing
response, the
UN spent more
than an hour
telling Inner
City Press why
it should remove a
simple sign
from its
office door,
for the Free
UN Coalition
for Access.
The UN tries
to ban dissent
as it accepts,
for years,
corruption as
exposed
tonight
regarding its
"UMOJA"
program, here.
Even
on the issue
of media
access, the UN
is failing: it
has banned
reporters
and the public
from the
General
Assembly,
has made
covering
the Security
Council more
difficult, and
has left many
journalists
without work
space while
giving its UN
Censorship
Alliance UNCA
three
rooms, one of
which is
locked up with
only UNCA's
wine glasses
inside
it.
Some
call it the
personal wine
cellar of
UNCA's 2013
president, Pamela
Falk of CBS,
who has
presided over
UNCA's descent
into
vindictive
attempts to
use the UN to
outlaw any
more active
entity
advocating
for access for
all, not just
insiders.
Meanwhile,
promised
intra-UN
telephones on
which
reporters in
the past could
speak to staff
at UN
peacekeeping
missions were
first not put
where
promised and
now, FUNCA is
told, will be
put out in the
open in a
"no-whistleblower"
zone.
But
instead of
addressing any
of this, the
UN remains
focused on
trying
to ban the
sign of FUNCA,
which had
advocated to
try to turn
around
this decay.
Wednesday
morning
at the
Security
Council
stakeout, the
UN told Inner
City
Press that it
will only deal
with UNCA,
because "it
has been
around 70
years," since
the League of
Nations.
That is
hardly a
good
reference.
FUNCA never
asked the UN
for an inch of
office space,
or even for a
minute of
meeting time.
It collects
and puts
forward
problems of
access, and
advocates for
solutions.
That
is apparently
not what the
UN wants. Amid
insistence
that the FUNCA
sign came
down, Inner
City Press
asked: is the
UN going to
break the
glass to do
it, as the UN
Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit raided
Inner City
Press' office
on March 18,
2013? Portion of raid video here.
Then,
MALU staff
took
photographs
including of
Inner City
Press' desk
and
bookshelf
which they
shared beyond
the Department
of Public
Information
and which were
then leaked
to BuzzFeed
immediately
after
that
publication
called
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
to ask about
the raid.
On
Wednesday
morning, the
UN's answer
was "we
have other
ways to do
it."
What -
to throw Inner
City Press
out, as was
requested in
June 2012 by
UNCA Executive
Committee
members from
Reuters (Louis
Charbonneau)
and Voice
of America,
which said it
also has the support
of
Agence France
Presse?
DPI
has been shown
documentary
evidence that
some of these
complaints
were sent to
the non-UN
email account
of
Accreditation
boss Stephane
Dujarric, who
solicited
more
complaints and
refused a subsequent
request by the
New York
Civil
Liberties
Union to state
what due
process rules,
if any, the UN
has for
journalists.
Now
the UN is
seeking to ban
even a single
sign of
dissent, while
favoring with
three offices,
two signs and
the first
question its
UN
Censorship
Alliance.
FUNCA
voluntarily at
MALU's request
took down
substantive
fliers but has
said: the UN
cannot outlaw
FUNCA. Nor
does
FUNCA have to
suck up to the
UN or its DPI.
Any entity
which does so
as UNCA has
done is
suspect -- as
recent history
shows. There
is more
to be said,
but we will
leave it there
for now. Watch
this site.
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