UNITED
NATIONS, June
26 -- As the
UN Security
Council's
first month
back in
its historic
home comes to
a close,
conditions to
cover it could
be
quite a bit
better, but
threaten to
get worse.
Despite
there
being a media
worktable in
front of the
Council before
and
during the
relocation,
the Department
of Public
Information
and its
UN Censorship
Alliance
issued a rule
saying there
could be no
“permanent
workspace”
there now.
This has been
implemented to
mean, no table
to type on.
The
Free
UN Coalition
for Access
commented
against the
rule as soon
as it
saw a draft,
on May 21.
Based on
FUNCA's
comment, a
proposal
telling
journalists
not to be at
the stakeout
when there was
not a formal
Council
meeting going
on -- but
during, say,
bilateral
meetings --
was dropped.
But
when Inner
City Press brought a
table to the
stakeout, it
was seized
by DPI.
Eventually,
after FUNCA
collected
signatures on
a petition,
two
small benches
were installed.
But they are
too small, not
allow
for typing,
and there are
few to no
electrical
outlets even
after a
$2 billion
renovation.
On
June 26 a
journalist was
told, for the
first time,
that they
could
not bring a
guest they had
signed in onto
the second
floor where
the
Security
Council is. @FUNCA_info asked
@UNMediaLiaison
and its
supervisor
Stephane
Dujarric why
this was.
It
was not
@UNMediaLiaison
which replied,
but Dujarric,
saying
“@FUNCA_info:
2nd floor
stakeout is 4
journos but
not their
"guests.". If
u have
specific need,
walk over 2
@UNMediaLiaison.
They r :) 2
help.”
Really?
It
was this
office, MALU,
which seized
the table
Inner City
Press
brought, and
which passed
on DPI's or
Dujarric's
threats to
suspend
or withdraw
Inner City
Press'
accreditation
for
maintaining a
single
FUNCA
sign on its
office door,
while UNCA
has two signs,
a big
meeting room,
a separate
office and
even a locked
pantry it
stores it
wine glasses
in.
FUNCA
replied
to Dujarric
asking who
then the
people who
stop and take
photographs of
themselves at
the stakeout microphone
are? They have
on white
stickers,
meaning they
are guests. So
some guests
can come
in, for
tourism, but
others can't,
even for work?
Dujarric did
not
answer.
As
noted
@UNMediaLiaison
did not reply
at all,
despite
churning out
notices all
day. In fact,
@UNMediaLiaison
has replied to
other more
softball
questions,
including to
UNCA's first
vice president
recently
shown
to have sent
an internal
UNCA document
to Dujarric's
private
email address
three minutes
after it was
produced.
So
UNCA spies for
the UN, then
gets its
softball
questions
answered,
while FUNCA
which is
advocating is
not replied
to, and is
threatened
with
dis-accreditation?
That's Ban's
UN.
Also
typical of Ban's
anti-labor UN,
many of the TV
broadcast and
conferencing
engineers are
slated to lose
their jobs on
Friday.
Meanwhile new
contractor
TeamPeople
says it will
hold trainings
--
over the
weekend -- for
the fewer
non-union
workers
replacing them
as
a skeleton
crew.
This
would, of
course, make
it harder to
cover the
UN. But whose
pressing for
that? Watch
this site.
Footnote:
at
the June 26
noon briefing
something
similar
happened --
Inner City
Press pushed
to get an
additional
question, then
deferred when
one of
UNCA's
Executive
Committee
members
indicated they
had one too.
It was
a softball -
and then UN
spokesperson
Eduardo Del
Buey said that
it
had replaced
the question
Inner City
Press had
pushed to
asked. Duly
noted.
, 
