By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 15, updated here –
What was
accomplished
by the UN
Correspondents
Association in
2012, or in
its annual
general
meeting
on Friday?
The move-back
to the UN
skyscraper,
where Ban
Ki-moon and
major
Departments
are already
was, was
delayed once
again, this
time
to May.
This
is due to
broadcasters,
who several
sources in the
meeting
complained
now want to
use UNCA to
collect and
pass money to
the UN for
fibers.
Wasn't
UNCA
supposed to be
defending
journalists --
rather than
trying to
get them
thrown out --
and fighting
for access?
What
about unfair
and archaic
accreditation
rules, the
lack of due
process for
journalists,
lack of
answers from
the UN? These
are not issued
addressed by
UNCA.
Now UNCA has
become a
club run by
the largest of
media. It was
typical that
they continued
their meeting
even past 2:45
pm, when the
UN Security
Council held a
meeting about
Yemen.
An hour after
that, the UN
announced that
the move-back,
already pushed
from February
to April, now
goes into May,
"to
accommodate
additional
construction
requested by
broadcasters
in their
future space."
How a few run
UNCA was reflected
in their
December 2012
meeting, the
last attended
by Inner City
Press, of
which a video
emerged, see
here.
Friday
until
leaving to
cover the
Council's
Yemen session,
Inner City
Press and
another
co-founder of
the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
occupied a
table --
sometimes used
as a bar -- in
front of the
Dag
Hammarskjold
Library
Auditorium.
Some UNCA
members left,
complaining
that no
written
financials
were provided
and saying the
meeting was
bogged down on
a single issue
the sudden
emergence of
which they
blamed on the
UNCA Executive
Committee's
inattention or
distraction
in 2012.
As
noted, most
UNCA meeting
in that year
were devoted
to trying to
censor then
expel the
investigative
Press. Even
this issue of
the
“fibers” and
how to pay for
them could
have been
addressed. Now
everyone,
including
non-UNCA
members, is
adversely
impacted.
UNCA
violated its
Constitution
by not holding
elections
before
December 15,
and by not
holding the
annual general
meeting by
January
15.
Now what was
called a
Constitutional
reform
committee
turns out,
an attendee
complained, to
center around
a lawyer found
by a retired
wire service
reporter. This
is reform?
UNCA has
decayed.
The
funniest or
most cynical
item on the
agenda was the
“Committee to
Expand Social
Media.”
This comes
after the UNCA
“leaders” have
set up at
least two
anonymous
social media
accounts
to try to
undermine the
new Free
UN Coalition
for Access
as well as
co-founder
Inner City
Press.
This follows a
year in which
it
was Voice
of America,
which said it
had the
support of Reuters'
Louis
Charbonneau
and AFP's
Tim
Witcher,
which made the
June 20, 2012
request to UN official
Stephane
Dujarric
to "review the
accreditation"
of Inner City
Press. The
UN has yet to
state what
it's rules for
due process
for
journalists on
such
complaints.
And while the
above-linked
documents
obtained under
the US Freedom
of Information
Act were sent
in October
2012 to UNCA
Executive
Committee
members for
comment or
explanation,
none was
provided.
In
the run-up to
UNCA's Friday
meeting, all
of FUNCA's
flyers calling
for reforms
were taken
down,
inlcuding
those between
UNCA's glassed
in bulletin
board and the
enclosed
office of this
year's UNCA
President
Pamela Falk of
CBS.
Meanwhile the
head of DPI
earlier on
Friday
genially told
FUNCA
that there is
good news
coming. We
are always
open.
“Separate but
equal” didn't
work, however,
under Jim Crow
in the
American
South, and we
don't think it
will work in
the UN. Update here. Watch
this site.
