Claimed UN Reforms are Sagging, High Flying Ban Oversees Raids on Press, Lawless

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- What is UN reform? For some it revolves primarily around air travel costs, with the intern in business class a sort of modern day welfare queen in a limousine.

  But in terms of accountability, when the UN Staff Union voted “no confidence” in Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Inner City Press asked repeatedly how much Ban spends on travel for himself and his entourage, no answer has been given.

  Doesn't transparency start at the top? 

  Similarly, while it was in the context of his “mobility” plan that Ban Ki-moon answered Inner City Press that his opponents in the UN Staff Union in New York were “selfish,” many point to Ban's closest adviser who merely move laterally, not out to the field.

  Shouldn't mobility begin at the top? It happened for Fink Haysom. It is happening for Michael Myer. Why not, say, Bob Orr?

  Oh we forgot, Ban's scribe Tom Plate, in belatedly launching his book “Conversations with Ban Ki-moon” at the Princeton Club, called Orr invaluable. All the more reason to share him with the world!

  There are claims of increased whisteblower protections. But just this week, James Wasserstrom decried the Sisyphusian processing of his retaliation claim.

  The focus on air travel mentioned above we attribute to US Ambassador for Management and Reform Joe Torsella. We have to say, we saw him in the North Lawn working it on the report of the Senior Advisory Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

  Friday as the General Assembly adopted the other reports of the Fifth (Budget) Committee, but not SAG, a well placed African ambassador told Inner City Press that Torsella, Miguel Berger of Germany as Fifth Committee chair, and the Permanent Representative of Fiji representing the Group of 77 had been charged with “cooking” a final SAG proposal.

  Apparently the dish was not ready: by close of business Friday it had not been adopted.

  So, is the UN being reformed? We think not. Down in the world of press relations, the new Free UN Coalition for Access has submitted twelve simple reforms to the top of the Department of Public Information. 

  Not a one has been implemented; there is not even a process. There are still no rules of due process for journalists.

  Hitting a new low, DPI conducted a raid on Inner City Press' office on March 18, and when the Spokesperson was asked by BuzzFeed about the raid, the photographs including of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf were immediately leaked to BuzzFeed through an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail account.

  Reform? We think not. But there are people trying. Watch this site.

At UN, Before Staff Walkout, Audio Shows Ban's War on Labor, No Confidence

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 -- How dysfunctional the UN's relations with its staff have become under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was shown Friday by staff's walkout of a meeting with Ban's departing chief of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management, Jean-Jacques Graisse.

  Inner City Press staked out the meeting, held in Conference Room 7 in the UN's North Lawn building, and published a story about it as the meeting broke up.

In the three hours since, Inner City Press has been provided with an audio recording of the meeting, and runs the 16 minutes question and answer session, here.

  As if in a dark comedy about layoffs and austerity, an official of the Office of Human Resources Management tells a 21 year UN veteran, I understand you are upset, but you need to market yourself.

Another participant reminds Graisse and his Assistant Secretary General Franz Baumann off the UN Staff Union wide vote of “no confidence” in Ban Ki-moon, and says it extends to those officials present.

They are mocked for earning $200,000 but still claiming they need housing subsidy, while 59 or 100 jobs are slated to be cut.

  Graisse is accused of mis-stating a UN dispute tribunal ruling on 19 posts. Graisse said only nine were in the Inspira computer system, 10 were “in the pipeline.”

The name of Ban's chief of staff Susana Malcorra, who many say got her former colleague Graisse the job as she has moved in so many others, is cited.

Who is running the show at the UN, while for example it conducted a raid on Inner City Press' office on March 18, as the president of its UN Censorship Alliance, Pamela Falk of CBS, took photographs? 

  Immediately after Ban's spokesperson was contacted by an outside journalist about the raid, photographs of Inner City Press' desk and bookshelf were leaked to BuzzFeed.com by an anonymous e-mail account “Concerned UN Reporter.”Who is behind this?

  Ban Ki-moon, typically, can been away all week, in San Marino, Andorra and Monaco. Now with a flourish he's confirmed he will stay away to meet President Barack Obama on April 11. 

  Could an elected politician act this way, leaving chaos at home, no confidence? No. But this is the UN. Watch this site.

In Lawless UN, CBS Pamela Falk's Trolls Akin to Racist EMT Supporters, But UNaccountable through UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 30 -- In the past week, an Emergency Medical Technician in New York City Timothy Dluhos was exposed for racist tweets. In response, using anonymous Twitter accounts, his supporters have “trolled” the New York Post reporter who wrote the story.

  By week's end, the New York Police Department issued guidelines about its personnel's use of social media, whether in their own name or anonymously.

  But in another corner of Manhattan not subject to any laws or rules, the UN raid Inner City Press' office on March 18. It allowed the president of the UN Correspondents Association, Pamela Falk of CBS, to take photographs. Neither she nor the UN has explained why.

  On March 22 photographs of Inner City Press' office and bookshelf appeared on BuzzFeed, sent in by an anonymous e-mail account “Concerned UN Reporter.” This same commented anonymously on the resulting story, as did what are obviously other UNCA “leaders.”

  The UN has refused to disclose who its Department of Public Information let into Inner City Press' office on March 18 without its knowledge or consent. 

  Pamela Falk from her CBSNews.com e-mail address has issued a legal threat to Inner City Press to not even ask why she took photographs, or UNCA's and her role in passing raid photographs to BuzzFeed.

  This followed Falk screaming at Inner City Press in front of DPI on February 22, saying that to even contact UNCA leaders' big media employers to ask about their policies “might constitute a crime.” Really? What crime?

  The UNCA leaders are now using at least six anonymoussocial media accounts to try to undermine Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access. This trolling is not acted on by UNCA president Pamela Falk -- hereinafter, Queen of the Trolls.

The big media employers of the trollers apparently have no rules, or don't enforce them. This is what happens in a lawless corner of New York -- for now. And it's getting worse. Watch this site.

Footnote: Over on BuzzFeed, the UNCA “leaders” continueanonymous posts (compared yesterday to statements from Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, Denis Fitzgerald of Saudi Press Agency and Bloomberg's UN reporter. 

  The Brazilian co-founder of the Free UN Coalition for Access Luiz Rampelotto, on the record as his media Europa Newswire and with his photograph, continued his manifesto: “even UNCA have more credability then you if you keep using a fake name to discredit someone! Put up or buzz off! I know! I know! The minute you put your real name, you will be representing your 'Big Media' company and they will fire you.” Watch this site.

On Photos of UN Raid on Inner City Press' Office, DPI Stonewalls On Who Was Let In, Fake UNCA Account, New Short Video

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 26, new short video -- When the UN refuses to answer a question that it both could and should answer, what is one to do? 

  The UN has admitted that it erred in entering Inner City Press' office, or at least part of the office, on March 18 without even notifying Inner City Press.

  The UN in this case is not only lawless, but also logic-less.

  Since photographs taken in the part of the office have since been given to BuzzFeed by an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail address, whose cowardly creator then spoke in defense of the UN Correspondents Association which has tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, Inner City Press has asked the UN who it let into its office, without its knowledge or consent.

  And despite its purported apology, the UN has refused to provide this basic information. Inner City Press requested it on March 22, and was given an evasive answer by the UN's Stephane Dujarric that “regarding the photos on BuzzFeed, they were not shared by the UN with the author and I can't very well ask her where she got them.”

  But that was obvious, unless it was a UN officials, and not as is more obvious an UNCA “leader,” who opened the nameless “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail account to send them to BuzzFeed.

  On March 26, the UNCA "leaders" create what is at minimum a fifth anonymous social media account to try to undermine Inner City Press with countries' missions to the UN. It's the UN Cowardice Association.

  Dujarric also demanded to know who in the UN had asked Inner City Press to remove from YouTube the post-raid video(s) it openly filmed in its own office. Inner City Press provided the name, but has heard nothing back from Dujarric on this. 

  Does the demand to remove the video stand?

  So Inner City Press on March 25 asked the head of the Department of Public Information, it is for “DPI to determine which UN personnel it had in Inner City Press' office on March 18, which of them took photographs, and with whom they shared these photographs.”

  The response, such as it was, came not from the head of DPI but from Stephane Dujarric again, who this time wrote, “I personally looked at our pictures and those posted on BuzzFeed and it's clear that they are not the same photographs.”

  But clearly the photographs were taken inside Inner City Press' office. So, by whom? 

   Inner City Pesss, beyond the short video uploaded today, has more post-raid video, and even some of the names. There is also the DPI staffer who actually "led" the raid, whose name Inner Cit Press purposely, in solidarity, hasn't yet published.

  But isn't it for the UN, especially after it admits that it was wrong, to identify who it let it, who took the photos, and with whom they shared them?

At Tuesday's noon briefing, Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: I asked you yesterday, you’d asked me to ask Stéphane [Dujarric] about this entry without consent or notice into the Inner City Press office on Monday. His answer now acknowledges that they should not have entered the Inner City Press portion of the office without providing notice. But they did; fine. He’s said that the photographs taken, he said, these are not our photographs that were given to Buzzfeed. I don’t know if that means DPI (Department of Public Information) or all of the UN individuals who went in. Pam Falk of UNCA (United Nations Correspondents Association) has said they were not her photographs; she did take photographs, but has made a legal threat not to write about that they may be her photographs. So I really, I just want very simple answers. Since the UN acknowledges that the entry was now improper, what individuals were allowed to enter that portion of the office, which of them took photographs and to where did they give those photographs since DPI is the one that allowed them to enter and acknowledges that it was wrong? I want to close this one off.

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: I know that you wrote to the Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and Communications yesterday, and that you received a reply from Stéphane Dujarric, I don’t have anything to add to that.

Inner City Press: One follow-up on that, my question is: he is saying it is not the UN’s photographs, so inevitably that makes me believe the only person I am aware that took photographs was Pamela Falk of UNCA, but she has made a legal threat that if I write that, I guess CBC News will sue. So I am asking you, it’s simple to clean it up; I didn’t take the photograph, the photographs were taken that day, clearly in an area that DPI invited individuals into. So I was limited to one question — who did they invite in?

Spokesperson Nesirky: I don’t have anything to add beyond what I have already said.

 Not only is the UN lawless -- it is also, on this, logic-less. Nesirky said, “ I know that you wrote to the Under-Secretary-General for Public Information and Communications yesterday, and that you received a reply from Stéphane Dujarric.”

  That's one of the problems. But regarding the USG for DPI to whom Inner City Press actually directed the question, and in light of Dujarric's refusal to address either a false letter he sent Inner City Press on February 27 in defense of UNCA and Falk or the outrageous demand by a UN “doctor” to remove from YouTube a video filmed in Inner City Press' own office, here is a short video, click here to view.

  It intends to reflect the intentions of the USG of DPI, and the disconnect with what his DPI and the UN are actually doing: threatening, raiding, handing photos to their favorites, stonewalling: click here to view.

We will have more on this. Watch this site.

UN Won't Do Simple Probe, Syria Chemical Weapons OR BuzzFeed UN Photos of Inner City Press Office Raid

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 -- The lawless cynicism of the current UN Secretariat was on display Monday, a week after the UN conducted a raid on Inner City Press' office without notice or consent, searched papers and took photographs.

  During the raid on March 18, Pamela Falk of CBS News who is also the president of the UN Correspondents Association also took pictures.

  Ever since three photographs taken inside Inner City Press office appeared on BuzzFeed on March 22, Inner City Press has asked: whose photographs are these, and who gave them to BuzzFeed through an anonymous “Concerned UN Reporter” e-mail account?

  Pam Falk replied on March 23 with a legal threat to “cease and desist,” sent from her CBSNews.com email address. 

  Inner City Press has asked CBS News whether this is in fact their legal threat -- which is contrary to freedom of the press -- or if it is consistent with the policies and standards. We will have more on that.

  The UN's Stephane Dujarric sent an evasive response on March 22, only that “regarding the photos on BuzzFeed. They were not shared by the UN with the author and I can't very well ask her where she got them.”

  But Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access were and are not telling the UN to ask author Rosie Gray who “Concerned UN Reporter” is.

Rather, it is for the UN to determine, simply, which UN personnel it had in Inner City Press' office on March 18, which of them took photographs, and with whom they shared these photographs.

If the UN can't do this how could they possibly investigate, say, chemical weapons in Syria?

Inner City Press went to the UN noon briefing on Monday and asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky three questions about Africa, one about the Syria chemical weapons investigation.

  Finally Inner City Press asked by why right the UN took and gave the photographs to known opponents of Inner City Press, who have previously asked the UN's Stephane Dujarric to throw Inner City Press out. Video here, from Minute 28:26.

(See Voice of America complaint procured by Margaret Besheer; see also, Louis Charbonneau of Reuters stealth complaint; Tim Witcher of AFP and Michelle Nichols of Reuters filed complaints earlier this month, based entirely on speech, that Inner City Press has not even been shown a copy of.)

  Nesirky's answer, repeated twice, was that the UN's Stephane Dujarric had “replied... apparently not to your satisfaction, but he replied.”

  But he replied with an obvious evasion. The questions remain: it is for the UN to determine, simply, which UN personnel it had in Inner City Press' office on March 18, which of them took photographs, and with whom they shared these photographs. Watch this site.

UN Refuses To Explain Searching Papers, Taking Photos and Passing Them to BuzzFeed, Anonymously

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNdisclosed Location, March 23 -- When the UN and its UN Censorship Alliance want to retaliate against and throw out a journalist, what do they do?

They raid the reporter's office without notice or consent, search papers and take photographs and give them out, anonymously, to BuzzFeed.

  

 Inner City Press has three times now asked the UN “to state its knowledge of how photographs taken during the non-consensual entry / search of Inner City Press' office on March 18 were then sent from a 'Concerned UN Reporter' account to BuzzFeed.”

  Specifically, “were these the photographs that the UN allowed UN Correspondents Association president Pamela Falk of CBS to take that day? Or were these the photographs the UN took?”

  If the UN took the photos ostensibly for health reasons, why did they give them out? (In terms of health, remember, this is the same UN that brought cholera to Haiti by pouring raw sewage into drinking water then denied all claims after more than 5000 were killed.)

  UN official Stephane Dujarric, who in 2012 on grounds having nothing to do with cleanliness but only content was asked by UNCA and Voice of America to “review” Inner City Press' accreditation, twice evaded and the third time not responded to the simple request.

  Dujarric replied, “Regarding the photos on BuzzFeed. they were not shared by the UN with the author and I can't very well ask her where she got them.”

The “her” is Rosie Gray, who beyond this story has been breaking ground exposing lobbying by Malaysia and others, and for example interviewing Susan Rice. It's fine to publish material given anonymous.

  But how can the UN explaining giving out these photographs? (Or, embedded Pam Falk of CBS and UNCA being allowed by the UN to take them?)

  Inner City Press has followed up, “aware that DPI shared photographs taken during their non-consensual search of Inner City Press office with other resident correspondents. That was inappropriate, especially now that digital copies of said photographs were sent to BuzzFeed -- anonymously, of course, in fine UNCA fashion -- by 'Concerned UN Reporter.' 

"This is a request that the UN explain why DPI shared these photographs, ostensibly taken for some UN safety and security purpose, with scribes known to have sought, and to seek, the expulsion of Inner City Press?”

 With some, the photos are having their intended or predictable effect. As simply one example, a Hayes Brown of "Think Progress" has opined that "I've had a problem with the tone of his posts for years" and "having seen the pictures in Gray's piece, if real, I'd have reported Lee, too."

  Reported? To whom -- the Tone Police?

  Some, titillated by photographs without asking their context or provenance, have mis-stated that UNCA, Voice of America, Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse and Louis Charbonneau of Reuters pushed to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN on cleanliness grounds (the UN Cleanliness Association?)

  This is false: they hadn't even been in the Inner City Press, never complained about it.

  

They didn't like the content of articles and speech -- like some UN officials. So when the chance came to enter Inner City Press' office without consent, search papers and take photographs and pass them out, anonymously, to BuzzFeed, they did.

This is how the UN's Censorship Alliance works. Watch this site.