By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 14 --
At the UN in
2012,
alongside
what's called
the Arab
Spring of
democratization,
the UN trend
has been quite
the
opposite.
The head of UN
Peacekeeping
Herve Ladsous
has taken to
openly not
answering
questions from
Press whose
critical
coverage he
doesn't like.
The
so-called UN
Correspondents
Association
executive
committee, far
from
opposing this
content-based
stonewalling,
piled on and
itself sought
censorship and
expulsion.
This began
after Press
articles about
Ladsous and
the
conflicted
giving of
space in the
UN to
General
Shavenda Silva
of the
Sri Lankan
Army, depicted
in the UN's
own report
engaged in war
crimes.
Now
on December
14, another
new low: the
UNCA Executive
Committee has
unilaterally
waved its own
stated
Constitution,
which says
they must
hold elections
by December 15
and leave
office by
January 1.
The
term has been
extended -- in
the style of
Ben Ali or
Mubarak, some
might say.
Inner
City Press
asked for a
response,
including from
the President
of UNCA
who was
extending his
own term:
"as
you must know,
this violates
the UNCA
Constitution:
Article 3,
Section 3 and
would be
impermissible.
Even to try to
override the
Constitution
would require
General
Membership
action.
You might try
to amend the
Constitution
-- but before
December 31?
This requires
a response, as
was not given
to the below,
for the
record."
But
no response
came, as
before to a
request for
UNCA Executive
Committee
comment on documents
showing the
involvement of
at least three
of its
members, from
Voice of
America,
Reuters and
AFP, in
seeking to get
the UN to
"review" the
accreditation
of Inner City
Press,
due to
articles it
published.
(These
same three on
November 27
left a
Security
Council
stakeout where
Ladsous
refused to
answer the
Press about
DPKO's action
on rape in
the Congo, in
order to be privately "briefed" by Ladsous and
his spokesman
in the
hallway, video
here).
And
so at the
December 14
noon briefing,
after asking
about the
Congo,
the failed
telecommunications
talks in
Dubai, and
elections in
Egypt,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
spokesman
Martin Nesirky
about the
unilateral
suspension of
the
constitution
of
UNCA. Video
here from
Minute 10:40.
The basis of
the question
is that the UN
openly
"partners"
with UNCA, for
example
on the UN
Media Access
Guidelines,
violation of
which can
result in
expulsion.
Since
the UN has in
the past
refused to
answer if
journalists
have a right
to be informed
of complaints
failed against
them --
apparently not
--
Inner City
Press prefaced
its question
to Nesirky by
summarizing
some
of the ways in
which the UN
grants special
status to
UNCA, as to a
company union:
The
UN grants UNCA
the first
question at
press
conferences,
consults with
it and no one
else about
space of
correspondent
-- under
UNCA's watch
under the
Capital Master
Plan, reduced
by 40% --
gives out
passes to
cover parts of
the General
Debate only
through UNCA
and even,
which
seemed to
bother
Nesirky,
announced UNCA
executive
committee
meetings
over the UN's
loudspeaker or
"squawk"
system.
Nesirky
retorted
that the
announcements
are only for
convenience,
and said
that he
"indulges" and
tries to
answer Inner
City Press'
questions.
As
to the
Department of
Peacekeeping
Operations,
Inner City
Press has
three times
asked what
reforms it has
implemented
after it
brought
cholera into
Haiti to make
sure it
doesn't happen
again.
Again on
Friday,
Nesirky said
he had no
answer --
while moments
later a senior
peacekeeping
official, not
Herve Ladsous,
did give Inner
City Press
an answer. So
there was
an answer: why
didn't DPKO
give it? Inner
City Press
before 2 pm on
Friday asked
Nesirky four
more
questions.
At
Friday's noon
briefing,
Nesirky
refused to
answer about
the suspension
of the voting
and leaving
office
provisions of
the UNCA
constitution.
Video
here from
Minute 10:40.
And so Inner
City Press
informed him
that the beta
Free
UN Coalition
for Access,
FUNCA, has
formally
petitioned the
Department of
Public
Information
on the
topics of
undue
favoritism for
its company
union, and the
need to
share first
questions,
pooling
arrangements,
and the like.
(Earlier on
Friday, German
Ambassador
Peter Wittig
was thanked on
behalf of
FUNCA, then by
the
late-arriving,
Constitution-suspending
president of
UNCA. Video
here, from
Minute 25.)
Now DPI
and the UN
should have to
opine on the
suspension of
the
Constitution
of its
"partner."
Nesirky
said,
if you were
asking about
the UN
Charter, I
might answer.
Inner
City Press
pointed out
the UN logo on
UNCA's
"Directory"
and
Constitution
and Nesirky
scoffed. But
when a company
union "goes
rogue," the
company must
answer, no?
But
having refused
to answer,
look for
Nesirky to
nevertheless
on
December 19
give the first
question
directed to
Ban Ki-moon to
the
aforesaid
UNCA.
Later that
day, the
company union
which
suspended its
constitution
after a year
of attempted
censorship
will honor,
who
else, Arnold
Schwarzenegger,
at a $250 a
plate dinner.
It
will give
awards to
members of its
own executive
committee, and
to
media
organizations
which have
paid for full
page
advertisements.
Conflicts of
interest? What
conflicts of
interest? UNCA
has no rules.
Constitution?
What
Constitution?
Watch this
site.
