By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 30 -- When is a “press encounter” not a press encounter? When the UN claims that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon held one, but the press corps which covers the UN is not informed and is not present.
But those ostensibly speaking for the UN press corps make no complaint, instead bragging about Ban kicking a (soft) ball with them. This is UN decay, and what the Free UN Coalition for Access is challenging.
On Sunday, June 29 Ban's spokesperson's office sent out a transcript of what it called Ban's “Remarks at Press Encounter with H.E. Mr. Shimon Peres, President of Israel.” What was sent out did not say when it had occurred, nor where, other than “New York.”
No notice was sent out by the UN's Media Liaison and Accreditation Unit, nor by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric. When Dujarric was in charge of MALU, FUNCA formally asked him to begin providing notice of Ban events even if held outside of the UN headquarters.
On June 30, Inner City Press for FUNCA asked, where did the "press encounter" take place and why were the press not told? Dujarric said it was the Israeli mission which made the arrangements -- if true, that is abnormal, as the UN is supposed to announce to the media it accredits when Ban will be taking questions on UN relevant issues.
Dujarric bragged when he gave notice of Ban meeting New York City Mayor De Blasio - but gave no notice of the "press availability" regarding Israel's Peres. FUNCA says this is UNacceptable.
The old UN Correspondents Association on the other hand, whose head Pamela Falk was present on June 30 if only to take the first set-aside question to Hilde Johnson on South Sudan, made no complaint.
Instead, they are bragging about a "journalists and diplomats" game of football or soccer this week, even that Ban Ki-moon will be present at the kick-off. Softballs, indeed.
If Netherlands' Ambassador goes, he might want to answer about donor countries refusing to follow the recommendation of the UN Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations that peacekeepers be paid $1700 a month, offering only $1250. This question wasn't answered - but ones about the World Cup were. When Inner City Press asked Dujarric on June 30, he wouldn't express any position on peacekeeper reimbursement either. To this is the UN coming -- softballs.
The UNCA Executive Committee didn't even give their own members a transcript of Ban's spoonfed lunch quotes to them this year, on which they wrote (largely fawning) stories.
One of UNCA's dues-paying members was told by outgoing French Ambassador Gerard Araud, "You are not a journalist, you are an agent" -- and UNCA is still dragging its feet. Hey, that's no way to kick a ball.
Of Ban's Peres remarks the coverage, in a style echoing state media, was by the UN's own UN News Centre, which ran a photograph by UN Photo and “reported” that Ban was “speaking at the beginning of a meeting with President Shimon Peres of Israel at the UN Headquarters in New York.”
But the photo appears to show Ban's own residence, blocks away from UN Headquarters. It was on the door of Ban's UN-provided residence that legal papers in the first case against hisUN bringing cholera to Haiti were taped -- but the UN refused to confirm that.
Last Friday June 20 Dujarric and his deputy Farhan Haq refused to answer Inner City Press' written request for confirmation or denial of the service on Ban of yet more Haiti cholera papers.
And from June 26 to June 27 Dujarric would not even confirm receipt of Inner City Press' questions about UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous flying the UN-sanctioned leader of the FDLR militia in a UN helicopter without any approval from the UN Security Council.
The Free UN Coalition for Access is opposing selective answering, failure to answer, and here, failure to notify.
So when IS a “press encounter” not a press encounter, but a scam? How long can this go on, and how much lower can they go? Watch this site.
