UNITED NATIONS, September 19 -- Finnish president Tarja Halonen predicted more UN Panel of Global Sustainability meetings than Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd had, when he was accused of two timing by the Press.
In the first media stakeout of this heavy UN week, Inner City Press asked President Halonen how the panel she co-chairs with the absent Jacob Zuma will accomplish much, if it only meets three times in the next two years, as Kevin Rudd described it.
President Halonen responded that there should be a meeting this Fall in New York, another next Spring, and more after that -- that is, more than Rudd had said. She acknowledged her co-chair's absence but said the panel members are committed.
Only two questions were taken, both directed at Halonen, during which UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stood seeming uncomfortable. “I will see you later,” he told the Press after the two questions, referring to his upcoming stakeout after a meeting on Pakistan to which Richard Holbrooke and others were seen streaming at 5 pm.
For today, Sunday, reporters are allowed to roam on the second floor of the UN's Temporary North Lawn Building. But starting tomorrow, journalists will largely be confined to a media room on the first floor, with only twenty “free range” passes to share amongst them.
What in previous years was a stakeout microphone in front of the General Assembly Hall is gone. Many have remarked that under Ban Ki-moon, there is less and less press access. But will the member states notice and complain? Watch this site.
