UN GATE / FEDERAL COURT, Sept 15 –
Denmark's own government website describes its August
Security Council presidency in explicit terms: "Denmark
looks forward to presiding over the Security Council's
next phase of this important process, reflecting our
strong engagement in promoting a transparent and inclusive
selection process conducted in close cooperation with the
General Assembly."
The same page cites "Denmark's longstanding
commitment to a more transparent, inclusive and effective
Security Council" as a defining priority of Ambassador
Christina Markus Lassen's month at the gavel.
Denmark's presidency is now ending, and
that specific promise was never tested where it mattered.
On August 1, the first day of Denmark's
month, Inner City Press wrote to Ambassador Lassen asking
for access to the Council's August 3 press briefing and
asking Denmark to raise, with the UN's Media Accreditation
and Liaison Unit, an eight-year-old, unexplained press
exclusion. Denmark did not respond. Through the month, UN
Web TV repeatedly failed to carry the Council's own
readouts following straw polls in the Secretary-General
selection — the same process Denmark's own website says it
is "strongly engaged" in making transparent.
Inner City Press on August 29, 2026 filed a
formal legal request with Denmark's Mission under the
Offentlighedsloven, Denmark's own Freedom of Information
law, asking directly what, if anything, Denmark did during
its presidency to act on either request.
On September 10, Denmark's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs responded to Inner City Press's formal
records request, saying it cannot meet the required
seven-working-day deadline under Section 36(2) of the
Offentlighedsloven and seeking to unilaterally extend its
response time by 14 working days. Inner City Press wrote
back, and on September 15, nearing their own unilaterally
claimed deadline to respond, they came back with more
pretext:
"Dear Matthew The
Ministry can inform you that your request for access to
documents is currently being processed. In connection with
searches of our case management systems and other relevant
records, we have identified a large number of documents
that may be relevant to your request. It is therefore
assessed that processing all the material that is relevant
in light of the current scope of your request for access
to documents would entail a disproportionate expenditure
of resources, cf. Section 9(2)(1) of the Danish Access to
Public Administration Files Act
(Offentlighedsloven). We therefore
suggest that you specify in greater detail the documents
and information in respect of which you are seeking access
and that you limit your request to a specific period of
time. Please provide this information no later than
Thursday, 17 September 2026.
Saeideh Ghiasvand DKJUR MINISTRY OF
FOREIGN AFFAIRS"
Inner City Press immediately responded to
Denmark's claim that its records request is too burdensome
to process — agreeing to narrow the date range to August
1, 2026 through the present, but only that, and only under
protest. The reply states plainly that the Ministry's
invocation of Section 9(2)(1)'s disproportionate-burden
provision appears to be "an apparently attempt to provide
us none of the responsive documents it says it has
identified," and that the narrowing covers "the categories
you are apparently trying to avoid" — Denmark's access to
UN Security Council proceedings, the Secretary-General
straw poll process, peacekeeper corruption and abuse, and
retaliation against UN whistleblowers, all four preserved
in full, with only the time window shortened.
Inner City Press has also made a second, more pointed ask: since the Ministry's own letter admits it has already searched its systems and found "a large number of documents that may be relevant," Inner City Press is now asking Denmark to produce, immediately, simply the list or index of what it found — dates, senders, recipients, general subject matter — without waiting to review or release the documents themselves. That index, unlike the underlying records, is not something Denmark can plausibly claim is disproportionately burdensome to compile, since the Ministry's own letter confirms the search identifying those documents has already been done. The Ministry has until September 17 to respond — the same day as the Security Council's next Secretary-General straw poll. Watch this site.
Denmark is not a Council
veto-holder; as a non-permanent member, its vote counts
but does not carry a permanent member's weight. What it
did carry, for one month, was the gavel — and with it, the
specific, self-described responsibility to make this exact
selection process more transparent.
A government that put that commitment in writing, on its own website, has an opportunity, even after its presidency ends, to say what it actually did with it. Watch this site
