By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, October 31 -- The UN Spokesman ended his open statement at the October 29 UN noon briefing with this: “I have a bit of sad news. We have been informed that Haider Rizvi, who was, as you know, a reporter in the UN press corps for many years, died last night in Lahore, Pakistan. Our thoughts are with him and his family.”
Ours too. Haider began covering the UN in 1993; in recent years there were times he and Inner City Press were the only ones asking questions at press conferences onindigenous issues, on disarmament, decolonization and against the increasing corporatization of the UN.
Relatedly, when Inner City Press resisted attempts atcensorship and ejection by the honchos of the UN Correspondents Association, then co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access, Haider expressed support (“Bravo! I am with you) and said of UNCA, “That gang has become a king mafia.”
Now UNCA has been exposed taking money from indicted Ng Lap Seng's vehicle to which UNCA then have a “journalism” award while giving Ng a photo op with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. That is today's UN; Haider embodied or covered some of the better aspects of an earlier or Other UN.
Here are links to some of Haider's stories:
Police brutality (or in UN-speak, "Summary execution");
