Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/un1retaliation051609.html
UNITED NATIONS, May 16 – Three weeks after an expose by this publication that at the United Nations “a group of largely unlicensed doctors and nurses are dispensing and in some cases taking and self-medicating with Valium, Diazepam, Demerol, Ambien and other controlled narcotics,” the UN has responded, and retaliated, demanding the removal of evidence from the public record.
A UN Medical Service staff member, a licensed nurse whom UN Management apparently believe to have been the whistleblower for the expose, has been told to “surrender your grounds pass” and has been barred from entering the UN by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a May 15 letter from the head of the UN's Office of Human Resource Management, Catherine Pollard. See copy of letter, obtained by Inner City Press and placed online here.
As the retaliated-against nurse points out, where narcotics are being dispensed illegally and without license, there is no confidentiality. In fact, issues might now arise whether the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services, or even Ethics Office, have lived up to their applicable pledges of confidentiality.
The UN purports to have a policy of protecting whistleblowers against retaliation, but the policy seems to have been ignored in this case, by the very head of OHRM. The policy, about which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has been questioned including by Inner City Press, is ostensibly enforced by the UN Ethics Office. Inner City Press asked Ethics Office director Robert Benson about the irregularities and retaliation in the UN Medical Services, which had been raised to Susan John of his office, but without yet receiving a response.
This extreme case of retaliation will be a test for the UN Ethics Office, which was discredited earlier by having its recommendations that back-pay be awarded for violating a whistleblower's due process rights ignored by the UN Development Program. Mr. Benson has told Inner City Press he is spending more of his time in Africa, giving trainings in such locations as Nairobi. Meanwhile, retaliation and the threat of retaliation have become routine at UN Headquarters in New York.
Relatedly, there is retaliation or attempted retaliation against the press at the UN. At 11 am on Saturday, May 16, the head of the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit Gary Fowlie wrote to this reporter, three weeks after the article at issue
Subj: Medical record photograph
From: [Chief, Media Liaison and Accreditation at] un.org
To: Inner City Press
Sent: 5/16/2009 11:10:42 A.M. Eastern Standard Time
Dear Matthew
I see that you have republished a photograph containing confidential medical records of UN staff on your website. See the link below to the story and photo of a 'sample sign-out sheet'. I ask that you please remove this photograph out of respect for the confidentiality of all staff concerned.
Gary Fowlie
Chief, Media Liaison and Accreditation,
United Nations, S-250, New York, NY 10017
As the retaliated-against nurse points out, where narcotics are being dispensed illegally and without license, there is no confidentiality. In fact, issues might arise whether the UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services, or even Ethics Office, have lived up to their applicable pledges of confidentiality. Nevertheless, Inner City Press responded the same (weekend) morning, less that one hour later, that it had
“received your email about an article Inner City Press published on April 23, three weeks ago, which gave rise to coverage in other media and, we understand, an inquiry by the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
"While troubled by your request that evidence in this matter be removed from the public record – and troubled by the timing of your request and its possible relation to other coverage by Inner City Press of the UN's performance, including in Asia and Africa – nevertheless in an abundance of caution, the photograph you refer to has been taken down less than an hour after your request.
"You are reminded that covering-up by the UN not only violates the Organization's stated principles, but has other repercussions. I would like to know who raised this matter to your office and when, and for a description of all communications.”
The background and reason for this counter-request is that Ms. Pollard's superior, the director of the Department of Management Angela Kane, is known to have send her staff to the Office of Media Accreditation and Liaison to inquire into the accreditation (or, Ms. Kane apparently hoped, dis-accreditation) of Inner City Press. Click here for May 7, 2009 article, "The Wrath of Kane."
Inner City Press was asked to “write nicely about Angela Kane.” It was not at the time spelled out what would be attempted if the coverage ended up not being positive.
The inquiry came in the context of a series of stories about matters under Ms. Kane's control, from procurement and hiring irregularities through asbestos and failure to do required Security Risk Assessments in connection with the UN's planned billion dollar renovations to allegations, widespread among UN staff, that Ms. Kane acts for the benefit of her country, Germany, in the cancellation (now, postponement) of the UN's National Competitive Exam, in the demotion of Tanzanian Anna Tibaijuka as head of the UN in Nairobi in favor of the German Aichim Steiner, etc..
Ms. Kane previously responded to questions Inner City Press had been directed to pose to her by saying she had no time to answer questions, that everything should be asked at the UN's noon briefing. From the transcript of Friday May 15, the day before the demand to remove evidence from the public record
Inner City Press: I had asked before about the contract with VSG that runs UNTV. Can you confirm that now the UN is actually paying their salary rather than VSG, but that neither pension nor health benefits are being paid by the UN? That the people that work in the UN and UN Television are now without pension payments and without health insurance, and what the UN’s plan is to deal with this now nearly bankrupt UN contractor.
Spokesperson Michele Montas: You can address your question directly to the people involved…
Inner City Press: Who are those? I had written to Ms. Kane in the past and she said ask at the noon briefing, so that’s why I am asking here.
Spokesperson Montas: Oh, she said ask at the noon briefing?
Inner City Press: She did.
Spokesperson: Okay. As soon as I get the answer for you, I’ll find out what the new situation is at this point.
Inner City Press is told by sources inside Ms. Kane's office that a desire to “set up” Inner City Press arose, and that the UN Medical Services story was belatedly viewed as providing such an opportunity. It appears shameful, certainly. But this is how the UN, or at least some at the top of the UN, work. [Click here for another continuing strand of retaliation for reporting on the UN's failure to discipline those involved, on UN time, in pornography, including an implicated staff member's crack down on and now stalking of the Press.]
Troublingly, these belated retaliation attempts take places in the context of persistent reporting by Inner City Press about the UN Secretariat's inaction as civilians have been killed in Northern Sri Lanka. A week ago, Inner City Press wrote an article noting that while Ban Ki-moon said he would accept the invitation to go to Sri Lanka if he thought it would have a single life, he stayed in New York to meet with China's deputy foreign minister and to celebrate the stealth wedding of his son.
Inner City Press has received numerous complaints about this article from senior Ban Administration advisers. Perhaps they will ask their Office of Media Accreditation and Liaison to take action, to demand the removal of any criticism of the UN from the public record. Watch this site.
