By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 29 -- Tomorrow morning on Syria, the UN Security Council will hold a “private meeting” with Jordan, at Amman's request which also included an invitation for the Council to visit Jordan.
A Permanent Five member of the Council asked by Inner City Press said such a visit is unlikely. But why not give the meeting?
Meanwhile on the staged circus of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chemical weapons probe press “encounter” without questions or answers, stories were nevertheless written, making it appear the UN is doing something.
Inner City Press submitted to the UN Department of Public Information “a complaint on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access on the way this morning's press 'encounter' by the Secretary General was conducted. Substantively, the Secretary General took no questions, and that is a problem. It is better for the press to be able to ask questions; in furtherance of that, we dispute that it can legitimately be called a “press encounter” if it is entirely one-way.
"Procedurally, correspondents' time was wasted. We appeared at MALU at 9:15 am, only to be told to go down to the lobby. There was a disorganized (and FUNCA says unnecessary) screening including of print journalists. Then once up on the 38th floor we were told to go down to the lobby. There, and this is another FUNCA complaint now via DPI, there was no UN wi-fi working, making it difficult to report.
