Saturday, April 19, 2008
Cannes Confidential, UN TV Show "21st Century" Refuses to Disclose Payments to Host Daljit Dhaliwal
UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- The UN hired a television reporter, Daljit Dahliwal, to host its new television series, 21st Century, but refuses to disclose how much it paying Ms. Dhaliwal, nor how much it spent flying two UN staffer to Cannes, France, to offer the show for free to TV networks. The show's trailer does not mention any UN connection, and Inner City Press' sources describe filming session in which UN photos and logos are covered up to not be shown.
Questions have arisen about what benefit the UN and its paying member states receive from the money spent on such a show, and why the amount of the expenditure is confidential, as the head of UN TV and Radio Susan Farkas on April 15 told Inner City Press.
Ms. Farkas was one of the two UN staffers who flew this month to Cannes, for the MIP TV convention. Describing it to Inner City Press as a junket, sources suggested that the cost of the trip, how it differed from previous years, and the amount paid to Ms. Dahliwal to host it be inquired into. On April 11, Inner City Press sent written questions to the UN Spokesperson's office, and received a response that same day from Ms. Farkas, who confirmed that she "travelled to France for MIP TV, the international television production market held twice yearly in Cannes."
While not stating how many other UN people traveled there, Ms. Farkas wrote that "some other UN agencies also attended and very useful meetings about cross-agency coproduction and cooperation were held...I am referring to UNifeed, our daily satellite feed of news material, the feature series, UN in Action, and the monthly magazine program 21st Century."
Ms. Farkas came to UN TV from stints at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and then from NBC. The UN-hired host of 21st Century is the BBC and CNN journalist Daljit Dhaliwal. On April 15, asked how much the UN is paying Ms. Dahliwal, Ms. Farkas said simply, "that is confidential." But the UN has procurement and hiring rules, and what it pays outside contractors, particularly for work such as this, is presumptively public.
Following questions about the Cannes venture and the budget of the 21st Century show, a breezy description of the trip was put on the UN's intra-net. But this did not say how much the outside contractor is getting paid.
In fact, there has already been controversy in the UN system regarding whether it is ethical for the UN to pay journalists who might (otherwise) cover the UN. In a memo this decade to the UN Communications Group, former spokesman of the UN Development Program William Orme proposed among other things that the UN not hire journalists, or at a minimum make full disclosure of all sums paid. Either this proposal was never accepted, or it never reached UN TV. We will have more on this.
And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1cannes041508.html
