At UN, Staff Union Office Space Dispute, Wiring in Censors' Club, 2014 Banifesto of the Free UN Coalition for Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 5 -- While the UN preaches democracy and even lack of censorship around the world, in two elections held last month inside the UN, disputes and decay were the rule.

  In the UN Staff Union election, in which an incumbent sought to stay on despite term limits, there were charges of illegal polling, and an attempt to stop paying the Elections Services Company.

  Now the incumbent - no longer in power - has implicitly asked the UN Secretariat to take back the Staff Union office, see below.

  When the results came out, and were posted on the UN's i-Seek intranet site, the losing ticket wrote December 20 that it intended to simply take over the Staff Union office. 

  Back on December 20, Inner City Press asked the UN's acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq:

Inner City Press: On the staff union election that just took place, given that it’s budget crunch time, according to the Secretariat, who is its interlocutor? Who is the head of the staff union, the previous incumbent or the team that was announced as the winner on iSeek?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: Regarding the staff representatives, it’s ultimately up to them members of the staff to determine who their leadership is. It would not, you know, I don’t think it’s appropriate for this Office to intervene in their affairs.

Inner City Press: So, who do you speak to now? If you had to talk to the staff union, which of the two would you call?

Acting Deputy Spokesperson Haq: They will have, like I said, they’ll have to resolve it. I’m not going to say anything prejudicial to their process, nor do I think that they would appreciate that.

Then the losing ticket said it would just occupy the (UN given) office on January 6. So the now out of power incumbent wrote on the UN snow day on January 3, hoping that

"our Administration colleagues decide to fully dirty their hands and mandate in writing that the Union premises are vacated (it hasn't happened yet and I am not sure if it will since the 44th Staff Council authorized and paid in advance for a legal case to be brought to UNDT and such an action by the Administration would be the legal icing on the cake)."

  On December 17 Inner City Press published the results,putting the document online here:

Winner with 430 votes: Ticket 1 [They have thanked voters]

President Stephen Kisambira (DESA/PD)

First Vice-President Emad Hassanin (DGACM/MPD/PS)

Second Vice-President Leonid Dolgopolov (DSS/DSSS/SSS)

2d place with 231 votes: Ticket 2

President Nadir A. Dirar Bashir (DGACM/MPD/PS/DTPU)...

  We will cover that showdown, which is at least competitive. Even more decayed is the UN's Censorship Alliance, which while not even asking the UN to hold a briefing or answer questions about the crisis in South Sudan, re-emerged on December 22 through once and future president Pamela Falk of CBS hyping fashion photographs of herself with Ban Ki-moon.

 
  The "premises" the UN gives them saw the installation of wiring by the UN on December 31, even as Falk on January 2 used the UN noon briefing to deny ever accepting a donated Samsung TV through the South Korea mission and the UN,despite her own November 25 minutes, and the UN's December 10 answer to Inner City Press. See the 2014 "Banifesto" of the new Free UN Coalition for Access,@FUNCA_info, here.

   Technically they're called the United Nations Correspondents Association, and in 2012 its leaders tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, pointing at a factual article Inner City Press published about Sri Lanka, the UN and conflicts of interest.

  Ban's Secretariat now admits on Sri Lanka a "systemic failure" - his Deputy Jan Eliasson repeatedly says that -- but UNCA, which still has no rules against trying to throw journalists out of the UN, nor apparently any conflict of interest rules, makes no admission, no reforms.

  It demands the first question at press conferences even if it has nothing to ask, or the answers will never be published.

  Not surprisingly it is in decay. Even as to its annual overly expensive ball, its draw Richard Roth of CNN was replaced by BBC's Laura Trevelyan who during a 2009 trip to Sri Lanka with Ban Ki-moon and UK humanitarian chief Sir John Holmes not only didn't report Holmes on the record comment that he deleted all complaining emails from Tamils -- she said the Press reporting this "ruined" relations with Holmes for her and, for example, Reuters. 

 Though over 2000 journalists are accredited at the UN, in December 2013 only 111 even tried to vote in the three days of polling -- and door to door demands to vote for -- the United Nations Correspondents Association. Seven of these ballots failed. The incumbent Pamela Falk of CBS, running unopposed, still managed to not get 26 of the 104 votes cast.

  But as a result of UNCA's "Ball" with Ban, she got herfashion photo in the NYT Styles section and made sure to hype it up, online and in the briefing room before being handed, only to waste, the first of four questions on the South Sudan crisis on December 23.

  Falk's vote total of 78 was lower than the 85 obtained in December 2011 by her predecessor, who was the one who first demanded that Inner City Press remove an article about Sri Lanka from the Internet, click here for that.

 The article UNCA "leaders" tries to censor reported on the previous financial relationship of Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative with UNCA's then president, in the context of this president screening in the UN the Sri Lankan government's war crimes denial film, without asking or the consent of Inner City Press then on the Executive Committee of UNCA.

  No reforms in UNCA were ever instituted after this.

  Now as Inner City Press exclusively reported on December 16, picked up in Sri Lanka in English and Tamil, Sri Lanka's defense secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was in New York. Some in Sri Lanka hasked: would he attend UNCA's $250 a plate event with Ban Ki-moon?

 Will the leaders of UNCA, an association of correspondents, make public who attended their ball, who paid and how much?

(Inner City Press after withstanding a kangaroo court UNCA proceeding quit the organization and co-founded the newFree UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, to actually defend the right of free press and free inquiry in and about the UN system.)

   UNCA is an organization in continued decline. In 2012 many of its "leaders" tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, as documented by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Voice of America asked the UN to "review" Inner City Press' accreditation; VOA said it had the support of Agence France Presse and Reuters, click here for that.

The Reuters first vice president of UNCA spied for the UN, giving them an internal anti Press UNCA document three minutes after promising not to (story here, document here,audio here). 

 While he has stepped off, the Reuters reporter he supervised (and who also tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN) campaigned to get on UNCA's board, demanding in Friday's noon briefing to all present, "Have you voted?" It's as if Reuters has a Permanent seat on UNCA's 15-member Executive Committee, like the P5 in the Security Council.

Here are the December 2103 results, compared to votes in December 2011 for the "candidate" or their predecessor

Dec '13 Dec '11

Prez: * 78 [85] Pamela Falk, CBS News TV and Radio

1st VP * 74 [79] Kahraman Haliscelik, TRT Turkish Radio & TV

2d VP * 48 71 Masood Haider, Dawn, Pakistan

* 48 [71] Sylviane Zehil, L’Orient Le Jour

3d VP * 55 [62] Erol Avdovic, Webpublicapress

38 Ali Barada, An-Nahar/France 24

Trez * 81 [71] Bouchra Benyoussef, Maghreb Arab Press

Sect * 79 [81] Seana Magee, Kyodo News

Members at Large (9)

* 57  Nabil Abi Saab , Alhurra TV

* 57  Talal Al-Haj ,Al-Arabiya News channel

22  George Baumgarten , Jewish Newspapers, Nation Media

* 50 Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcasting (SABC)

* 51  Zhenqiu Gu, Xinhua News Agency

* 69  Melissa Kent, CBC/Radio Canada

* 56  Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post Contributor

49 J. Tuyet Nguyen, German Press Agency DPA

* 67  Michelle Nichols, Reuters

41  Edwin Nwanchukwu, News Agency of Nigeria

27  Cia Pak, Scannews

*54  Valeria Robecco, ANSA

* 54  Sangwon Yoon , Bloomberg

  Some of the elected are new and their positions on UNCA Executive Committee members trying to get other (investigative) media thrown out of the UN, and the need to preclude this and UNCA leaders' anonymous social media trolling, are not yet known. (Some not elected were among the better / more diverse candidates.)

 They honored Ban Ki-moon, whose spokesperson's office squawked on December 13, immediately after a briefing on Syria chemical weapons, that wine would be served in the UNCA room and that election results were out: to UN, newsworthy.

When the UN Correspondents Association leaders tried stealthy to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and have failed to institute any reform since, it became the UN's Censorship Alliance. Party on. Watch this site.

   

After Exposure, UNCA Tells Inner City Press It Reversed Its Decision to Accept a Samsung TV from the UN / South Korean Mission: But Dec 31 Wiring?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 2 -- On December 10, Inner City Press asked the UN about a donation of Samsung televisions.

  Inner City Press had been sent by a whistleblower, and published, the following from the November 25 minutes of the United Nations Correspondents Association, with which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon exclusively partners (and leaders of which tried to expel Inner City Press, including for its reporting on Sri Lanka and conflicts of interest)

"There was discussion about whether or not UNCA should receive a donation from Samsung and whether or not a Mission was involved. DPI was able to clarify the donation information, which does not involve a mission. This note was received: This is to confirm that once we get the donations from Samsung to the UN, DPI will loan a TV screen to UNCA to replace one of your old ones."

  This turned out not to be accurate, specifically the statement that the donation "does not involve a mission."

  In fact, as the UN put in its written answer 26 hours later to Inner City Press' December 9 question:

"The new Samsung sets in the UNCA room were donated by Samsung to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations. The Mission then donated them to the Department of Public Information (DPI) and DPI is loaning them to UNCA."

  It was false, then, to state that the donation does not "involve" a mission. And note the tense of the UN's response to Inner City Press: "the Samsung sets IN the UNCA room WERE donated."

   On December 31, Inner City Press witnessed workmen inside the room the UN gives to its UN Censorship Alliance, working on wiring, and saw a large screen TV. Inner City Press mentioned this in a story.

  Now, on the first work day of 2014 -- perhaps the first move of the "new" UNCA Executive Committee? -- this email arrived, which is published here in full:

From: Contact UNCA
Date: Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 10:43 AM
Subject: Correction
To: Inner City Press

Mr. Lee:

Please be advised that there are no “new Samsung TV sets” in the UNCA room (and have never been) and the U.N Correspondents Association has not accepted a donation or loan of new Samsung TVs.

THE UNCA OFFICE

  We publish this in full, despite what the UN formally responded, despite UNCA previous e-mail, and what was witnessed on December 31.  Watch this site.

Update: at the January 2 noon briefing, UNCA's 2013-14 president Pamela Falk essentially read the email above into the record, and acting deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said he had received a similar letter and would check on the language his office got. Video here and embedded below. Whatever he comes back with, the UN answered as it did, and UNCA's minutes (and subsequent defender's correspondence) is what it is. Watch this site.

Background: Previously, a defender of the dubious deal had written to Inner City Press claiming that despite the minutes not reflecting any vote, one was in fact taken. But was it based on the false information included in the minutes? Who voted how? Even the list of those voting is not included in the minutes.

Here is what Inner City Press asked the UN on December 9:

Inner City Press: is there a comprehensive place to go to see what donations the UN receives from corporations? In particular, I’m asking about what I understand to be a donation of television screens or sets from Samsung and I wanted to know, what are the rule applicable to these donations? Is the UN aware of pretty serious organizing drive in South Korea about occupational diseases at Samsung? What are the rules applicable and is there a database of such contributions?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: I’ll check, Matthew.

Twenty six hours later, after insisting to Inner City Press that even the amount it pays to France in Mali under a letter of assist it now acknowledges but will not make public, the UN sent this to Inner City Press:

Subject: In response to your question yesterday on corporate donations to the UN
From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Date: Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 2:55 PM
To: Matthew.Lee [at] innercitypress.com

In response to your question yesterday on corporate donations to the UN, here is what the Office of Legal Affairs and Controller's Office can say:

In accordance with the Financial Regulations and Rules of the United Nations, the UN can and does accept voluntary contributions, in cash and in kind, from governments, from non-governmental entities (e.g., associations, corporations, including those for-profit and not-for-profit), and individuals, provided that the purposes for which the contributions are made are consistent with the policies, aims and activities of the United Nations, and provided further that the acceptance of voluntary contributions that directly or indirectly involve additional financial liability for the United Nations require approval of the General Assembly (see Financial Regulation 3.12 and Financial Rule 103.4).

Normally, the Controller signs all the agreements for voluntary contributions after ensuring that there is no additional financial liability and that the envisaged activity to be funded from the contribution is in line with the programmatic mandated activity of the Organization. However, this authority is also delegated to several responsible officials in offices away from Headquarters, for their respective jurisdictions, subject to adherence to the financial regulations and rules.

Direct cash contributions to the United Nations from corporations are extremely rare. In-kind contributions of goods and services are more prevalent and are usually made in response to a natural disaster, such as in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. The new Samsung sets in the UNCA room were donated by Samsung to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations. The Mission then donated them to the Department of Public Information (DPI) and DPI is loaning them to UNCA.

The United Nations is not in a position to disclose information on the contribution of individual donors in view of confidentiality requirements provided in some of the contribution agreements. However, the volume of contributions, including contributions for specified and non-specified purposes, are reported on the website of the UN System Chief Executives Board. The following link http://www.unsceb.org/content/statistics provides very useful information not only for the United Nations but also the entire UN system organizations.

  The answer is appreciated and we will report on it more. But we highlight: "The new Samsung sets in the UNCA room were donated by Samsung to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations. The Mission then donated them to the Department of Public Information (DPI) and DPI is loaning them to UNCA."

What then of UNCA's leadership's claim that the donation "does not involve a mission"?

  A second midnight defense was mounted, that Falk has not "done anything" to anyone, or even spoken badly. Well, the UNCA trolls are attributable to her, including under command responsibility.  In 2013, she was asked to reign in those UNCA "leaders" who used the organization to try to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, as they descended into anonymous trolling social media accounts, counterfeiting the new Free UN Coalition for Access and then Inner City Press.

  Falk's reaction in an on the record meeting was to demand that she not be written about, despite having sought this position, and putting herself forward at every opportunity to ask softball questions the answers to which are most often not published anywhere. Audio here, here and here.

  The United Nations Correspondents Association election also involves indicters and purported judges, and the Reuters successor to the scribe who spied (click here for that). That spying for the UN was done by UNCA first vice president and has not been addressed or acted on in any way. Such an organization is in no position to preach on ethics, journalistic or any other kind. And this is another way that senior UN officials remain unaccountable. Watch this site.

Watch this site.

Updated:  Here are the December 2013 UNCA results, compared to votes in December 2011 for the "candidate" or their predecessor

Dec '13 Dec '11

Prez: * 78 [85] Pamela Falk, CBS News TV and Radio

1st VP * 74 [79] Kahraman Haliscelik, TRT Turkish Radio & TV

2d VP * 48 71 Masood Haider, Dawn, Pakistan

* 48 [71] Sylviane Zehil, L’Orient Le Jour

3d VP * 55 [62] Erol Avdovic, Webpublicapress

38 Ali Barada, An-Nahar/France 24

Trez * 81 [71] Bouchra Benyoussef, Maghreb Arab Press

Sect * 79 [81] Seana Magee, Kyodo News

Members at Large (9)

* 57  Nabil Abi Saab , Alhurra TV

* 57  Talal Al-Haj ,Al-Arabiya News channel

22  George Baumgarten , Jewish Newspapers, Nation Media

* 50 Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcasting (SABC)

* 51  Zhenqiu Gu, Xinhua News Agency

* 69  Melissa Kent, CBC/Radio Canada

* 56  Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post Contributor

49 J. Tuyet Nguyen, German Press Agency DPA

* 67  Michelle Nichols, Reuters

41  Edwin Nwanchukwu, News Agency of Nigeria

27  Cia Pak, Scannews

*54  Valeria Robecco, ANSA

* 54  Sangwon Yoon , Bloomberg

  Some of the elected are new and their positions on UNCA Executive Committee members trying to get other (investigative) media thrown out of the UN, and the need to preclude this and UNCA leaders' anonymous social media trolling, are not yet known. (Some not elected were among the better / more diverse candidates.)

    

On Syria at UN, Ban Ki-moon Holds UNbalanced 5-Question Presser With Jarba's Host & Little New: Bid for TV, Race for Relevance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 9 -- When the UN announced Ban Ki-moon would hold a press conference Monday at 11:30 am, some understandably assumed that he had news on Syria.

But with the room full of correspondents, Ban said "I have not yet received the report from Dr. Sellstrom, nor do I know what it will contain."

  Someone softly asked, then why are we here? The breaking news of the morning was Russia's Sergey Lavrov proposing that Syria give its chemical weapons stockpiles to the UN. But Ban's statement had nothing on that.

  After Ban's canned statement, he took a total of five questions. This was more than the two questions he took last Tuesday, also canceling the day's UN noon briefing on places the UN actually has an impact, like in Eastern Congo where the UN is selectively targeting some armed groups (M23) and not others (FDLR).

  Inner City Press had put its name on the question list. But only five were taken, and it was far from balance. The first question, by some unwritten and now archaic and indefensible rule, went to Pamela Falk of CBS, as the president of the UN Correspondents Association.

  One problem here is that under Falk, UNCA sponsored a faux "UN briefing" in late July by Saudi sponsored Syria rebel boss Jarba. The UN has refused to clarify on what basis it gives UNCA the big room it was held in, publicized only to those who pay money, and if it was a "UN briefing."

  Next was an UNCA Executive Committee member from L'Orient le Jour on whom we will not comment. Then Al Jazeera, which alongside excellent reporting on Haiti and the like totes the Qatari royal family's line on most things Middle East. Then two US media, Fox and Associated Press. And that was it.

  What was the goal of this exercise? It seems to have been to get Ban Ki-moon some face time on television, on the day Obama goes on six times, and Charlie Rose' interview with Assad (reviewed here by Inner City Press) goes on PBS. 

  It was like the UN's Saturday briefing on August 31 - because it was an hour and a half before Obama spoke, or was scheduled to start, in the Rose Garden, it was picked up all over. The UN has a built-in bully pulpit. But how is it being used? Watch this site.

   

Silent on Murder of Peacekeepers, UN's Herve Ladsous Resurfaces in Lebanon, Feted by UNCA's L'Orient Le Jour

By Matthew Russell Lee, Media Critique

UNITED NATIONS, May 11 -- After refusing to answer Press questions about the murder of UN peacekeepers he is responsible for in Abyei and the Congo, where in the worldis French Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous?

  From L'Orient Le Jour we learn, in a gushing article, that Ladsous in is Lebanon, inspecting the troops. The article, while dated May 13 (that is, Monday) does not even mention the belated freeing of four UN peacekeepers kidnapped by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, after the intervention of Qatar, said to have great influence with the kidnappers.

  Ladsous routinely refuses to answer Press questions. Video here. After the two recent peacekeeper deaths in Abyei and Congo he did not even do a question and answer stakeout as his predecessor Alain Le Roy invariably did in such situations.

  No mention of that in L'Oriente Le Jour: it's a pure spin article, making Ladsous look artificially good as for example Agence France Presse does.

  And there's a connection: L'Orient Le Jour, like AFP, is represented on and uses the UN Correspondents Association Executive Board.

  In fact, it was L'Orient Le Jour's representative on the UNCA board who, when shown Sri Lanka state media articles saying that UNCA's charges would result in jail time for Inner City Press' reporter, and then threats to said reporter to "float like a brick," said "this has nothing to do with me." Doesn't it?

Footnote: Since the campaign involving UNCA Executive Committee and its officer from L'Orient Le Jour has evolved into ever more frequent use of anonymous social media posts that UNCA's "new" president Pamela Falk of CBS has done nothing about, audio here, and apparently cheers on, it's worth noting the above. That's it for now.

UN Quote of Mediapart Seized by UNCA Trolls, As Ladsous Seized Dujarric's Mic

By Matthew Russell Lee, Social Media Watch

UNITED NATIONS, April 12 -- In a sign of how intertwined the UN and its UN Censorship Alliance have become, even in the unseemly world of corporate trolling, the anonymous social media account linked this week to Reuters has taken today to re-tweeting UN official Stephane Dujarric.

  The point, if there is one, is to cite Dujarric's quoted definition of journalist as disqualifying Inner City Press as a journalist.

  Notably, it was to Dujarric that Voice of America directed its June 20, 2012 request to dis-accredit Inner City Press, and to whom Louis Charbonneau of Reuters directed an earlier request.

  US Freedom of Information Act requests on Voice of America and its affiliates, ongoing, continue to reveal a lot.

  Now we can begin reporting that, troublingly, Dujarric took to directing and fielding such requests on a separate, non-UN e-mail account. Can this be consistent with the rules of the UN Department of Public Information?

  Oh we forgot - there ARE no rules, at Dujarric's insistence in July 2012 to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

  As is relevant here, on February 22, 2013 Dujarric was made of aware of the counterfeit social media accounts linked to the UN Correspondents Association. 

 At the meeting, UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS News claimed loudly that she had no idea who was behind the accounts.

Dujarric, of course, has had at least since then to figure this out.

  But similar to his inaction or too-silent work after UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous had his spokesman try to avoid Inner City Press' questions on the Minova rapes by seize the UN Television microphone, which Dujarric is in charge of, nothing as been done. To put it diplomatically.

  Tellingly, Dujarric response was to criticize Inner City Press for reporting on the February 22 meeting, and on Falk's denials.

  The links, however, are eminently clear: photos for the account were taken by the UN Security Council stakeout, where only those with accreditation and ground passes can go; the posts openly defend UNCA.

  While Inner City Press is increasingly critical of UN correspondents who try to abuse their or their media organization's power by trying to get competitors thrown out, what Inner City Press does is in its name. It's UNCA and its affiliates which troll anonymously, like corporate cowards.

  If necessary, we will now report that the account as issue follows nearly all UNCA Executive Committee members, no matter how few other followers they have, from Sylviane Zehil of L'Orient le Jour (700 tweets, 104 followers) through Tim Witcher of AFP (139 followers), and Falk and yes, Michelle “The Troll” Nichols. There are more.

The irony is that today's UNCA trolls' re-tweet of Dujarric is from a speech by the founder of Mediapart. Back in February, Inner City Press pointed out how the pro-power attacked on Mediapart by AFP and Reuters were similar to the two wire service's servile approach to coverage of the UN, for example UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.

What responsibility do Dujarric and the UN have in all this? Watch this site.