At UNSC After 3 Week FUNCA Fight, UN Installs 2 Benches, Sign and Issues Remain, Including Banning of Press & Public from GA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 21 – Two press benches were put in front of the UN Security Council on Friday morning, after three weeks of journalists having to stand all day or sit on the floor, and a month of advocacy by the Free UN Coalition for Access for a media worktable and electrical outlets.

  While certainly better than nothing, the two benches seat five reporters. It's strange, because the Department of Public Information's response to FUNCA's request that the media worktable be restored has been that DPI would not serve only five journalists, but rather the entire resident press corps.

  Since not all journalists want to cover all Security Council consultations, having a table that sat five or six was never a problem. It should be restored, and FUNCA will continue to push for it, having already delivered a full page of signatures on a petition on just this issue to DPI.

  The problem has been a new set of Media Access Guidelines that DPI agreed with the old UN Correspondents Association's Executive Committee this month. FUNCAcommented against the Guidelines on May 21 and since: the draft tried to say that reporters should only be at the stakeout when there was a formal Council meeting.

  FUNCA pointed out that there are bilateral meetings at the beginning of the month, and meetings by the Council president with non-Council members. Inner City Press reports and will continue to report on these.

  That line was dropped, but UNCA agreed or obtained other provisions it wanted, including trying to outlaw FUNCA fliers and even, it seems or seemed, the single FUNCA sign in the third floor press floor. Photo here, by FUNCA co-founder Luiz Rampelotto. 

   On this floor, UNCA has two signs, a big meeting room, a separate office and even a locked pantry in which it stores its wine glasses. All this while journalists don't have a space to work, and while the press and public have been banned, other than a few photographers, from covering the General Assembly.  FUNCA will continue fighting. Watch this site.

Footnote: Confronted with an inordinate DPI focus on a simple Free UN Coalition for Access sign, after voluntarily making concessions on the posting of fliers, FUNCA has expanded its advocacy for greater access at and openness by the UN. 

  This now includes on the record social media / Twitter (@FUNCA_info, click here), at UN Peacekeeping missions like that in Liberia, and UN entities like the Alliance of Civilizations and even “Greening the Blue,” which has been asked to disclose the carbon footprint of Ban Ki-moon's entourage and its traveling. Now, Ban's deputy spokesperson has been asked. We'll see.

On North Korea, Ban Ki-moon's Two Fast & Different Comments, On Golan Kidnaps, Slow & No Comment: Double Speak?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 19 -- With North Korea firing short-range missiles into the sea again, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made targeted and then bland comments, back to back, to RIA Novosti and then in writing, through his spokesperson.

  In Moscow to RIA Novosti, Ban said "We are very worried over North Korea's provocative action. I hope North Korea will refrain from further such actions. They must soon return to talks and lower tensions."

  Three sentences, three pronouns. Who the "we" in the first sentence is meant to be is not clear: the UN Secretariat? Those traveling with Ban? The entire international community?

  Then the following was e-mailed out:

The Secretary-General is aware of reports that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) yesterday (18 May) launched short-range guided missiles into the sea off the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The Secretary-General remains concerned about provocations and tensions on the Korean Peninsula, particularly given the risks of miscalculation and dangerous escalation.

He stands ready to help facilitate the process of peace and trust-building on the Korean Peninsula.

Three separate paragraph (well, each one a sentence), less finger-pointing, more offering.

By contrast to this fast double comment on missile that hit only water, when UN Peacekeepers were kidnapped for the third time in the Golan Heights on May 15, Ban said... nothing.

The news was left to be "announced," if it can be called that, to small group of sympathetic reporters or sycophantic scribes by Herve Ladsous, whom Ban accepted without question from France as that country's fourth Peacekeeping boss in a row.

  When Inner City Press asked for confirmation and comment from Ban's three top spokespeople as well as Ladsous' three, the response came more than three hours later, from Ladsous' team, not Ban's.

  Then eight hours after that, Ban's office finally e-mailed out a confirmation of the kidnapping. Unlike on North Korea, it had no comment from Ban.

  On Friday at the UN, two countries' diplomats told Inner City Press it was "strange" and "inappropriate" for Ban to have waited so long, and then had no comment on the kidnapping of UN Peacekeepers.

  One opined it is because of the allegation in the General Assembly of the involvement in the kidnapping of Qatar, whose former Ambassador Ban has named the High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations.

  In any event there are two comparisons: on North Korea between what Ban told RIA Novosti then what his spokesperson said, and between those two and his Office's delay and then no-Ban-comment on the kidnapping of UN Peacekeepers.

  We'll have more on this -- for now, here is video of Ban's deputy spokesman telling Inner City Press he wouldn't explain even when Ban's Office knew of the kidnapping, nor why it was left to the reclusive Ladsous to "announce" to scribes. The Free UN Coalition for Access protested this. Watch this site.

As Qatari Chairs Alliance of Civilization, Outsiders Come Last, Saudis Say 110 Plus Votes on Syria in UNGA May 15

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 13 -- Back in March, Inner City Press asked Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser if the UN Alliance of Civilizations, which he now heads, could or would do anything about the destruction of religious sites in Syria. 

  He replied that the "situation in Syria is very complicated. Our mission, it will come as soon as we end this conflict... we have first to bring the situation under control."

  But how? As Inner City Press noted at the time, Qatar for which Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser served as Permanent Representative to the UN has been funding armed rebels in Syria.

  Jump-cut to May 13. At noon, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky why Ban specifically thanked Qatar for its role in the release of four UN peacekeepers by the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade. Nesirky replied that unnamed "others" helped as well.

  At 3:30 pm, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser was set to chair a meeting of the Group of Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations. Milling around on the podium were long time UN official Iqbal Riza, and the Permanent Representatives of Spain and Turkey. But where was Ban Ki-moon?

When Ban arrived, he launched into a speech. The list of speakers ran through six pm, ending with "Q&A Session with Media and Civil Society Representatives, time permitting."

To make a long story short, time did NOT permit. Despite statements for example from the United States that civil society should be allowed to be more involved, there was no time. (Corporations like BMW, on the other hand, are allowed co-sponsorships).

The speeches were long winded, with at least two delegations joking about being invisible behind the load-bearing pillars in Conference Room 1.

Then right before Iran began to speak, Qatar's Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser said, only three minutes per speaker.

Saudi Arabia began with praise of Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser -- in Arabic. Some wondered if the the "others" Ban was thanking for their connections with the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade include Saudis.

Saudi Arabia's Permanent Representative, meanwhile, earlier on Monday told Inner City Press the vote on the Syria resolution in the General Assembly will be May 15. Inner City Press asked, 110 votes? He replied, "plus or minus, probably plus." We'll be there. Watch this site.

Alliance of Civilization Can't Act on Ruin of Syrian Religious Sites Until It's Over

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 14 -- When Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser was President of the General Assembly last year, and Qatar's Ambassador before that, he was strongly and openly critical of Syria's government, overriding General Assembly rules and turning off UNTV cameras.

Now UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has named him UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations. 

  On Thursday Inner City Press asked Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser about Syria's recent letter to Ban and to the Security Council alleging targeting of mosques, a cathedral and synagogue by the Syrian armed opposition, including the Al Nusra Front. The letter is now S/2013/138.

  What can or will AoC do? Video here, from Minute 25:42.

   Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser said the “situation in Syria is very complicated. Our mission, it will come as soon as we end this conflict... we have first to bring the situation under control.”

  But how? Qatar supports the armed opposition. Is the idea that until they win militarily, the Alliance of Civilization will do nothing?

  Inner City Press asked Syrian's Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari about this later on Thursday in front of the Security Council. He re-named the AoC the “Alliance Against Civilization” and recounted how a looted valuable statue was recently sold “in Lebanon for fifty dollars, not even enough for an AK-47.”

  In his AoC press conference Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser did not express hope for a non-military solution. He said, “I don't know how successful the UN through the sub-region or Arab League or Security Council or P5 can do in this moment... It is very difficult today to even help the Syrian from the humanitarian side.”

   He then again said, when the fighting is over, perhaps the AoC can help.

   One wondered the whereabouts of the very able "slayer of Ruperez" -- click here for that Inner City Press story.

    Afterward some wondered if Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser receives a salary from the Alliance of Civilizations, if he need it, or Qatar picks it up. At a recent press conference sponsored by UNCA, known as the UN Censorship Alliance, AoC repeatedly promoted the German car company BMW. Are they paying?

   UNCA at Thursday's press conference made much of getting the first question -- president Pamela Falk of CBS asked about the new Pope, then wanted to get a second question before others even got a first. But Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser's spokeswoman Nihal Saad at least finished a first round before calling again on Falk, to ask again about the Vatican.

  Inner City Press, when called on, spoke for the new Free UN Coalition for Access then asked about the Syrian opposition's alleged destruction of religious sites. This is an issue one might expect an Alliance of Civilizations to work on -- but in what way? On which side? Watch this site.

Free Speech, UN Style, Extends to Press Bulletin Boards, Single Standard Urged by FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 22 – For some weeks, alongside Mali, Syria and Sri Lanka, Sudan, UN corruption and the Congo, Inner City Press has been reporting on a free speech issue inside the UN itself.

  Flyers posted by the Free UN Coalition for Access calling for reforms of UN accreditation rules and Media Access Guidelines have repeatedly by torn down, counterfeited, defaced with slogans like “Looney Club" and worse.

  FUNCA held a number of meetings with officials of the Department of Public Information, mostly to push for its top ten reforms (including for example eliminating the requirement that a journalist must agree with the unspecified “principles of the UN” in order to be admitted to cover it) but also about free speech.

 After first on January 24, the UN itself threatened to tear down FUNCA's flyers. Then after advocacy, sometimes more heated that it might have been - those deserving an apology got one, in fine FUNCA fashion -- this tear-down was postponed.

  UNCA "leaders" continued with the campaign, expanding it.

  While the simplest solution would have been to open up the glassed-in bulletin board maintained by the UN Correspondents Association, on which without naming any UNCA officials a letter denouncing Inner City Press was displayed behind glass for five months in 2012, the UN has proposed another solution.

 Late on the afternoon of Friday, February 22 (four weeks after the ostensible postponement of tear-downs) the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit (MALU) announced:

A board will be installed at MALU square most likely next week. In the meantime, correspondents can start putting information up in the designated area (look for the press board sign across from the mailboxes). The board is for all correspondents who have a valid accreditation and want to share information about their activities or issues related to the media at the United Nations Headquarters.

RULES FOR POSTING FLYERS ON ALL BOARDS IN THE PRESS AREA

-Only correspondents with a valid accreditation can put up a flyer.

-All flyers must be related to press events or issues related to the press at the United Nations Headquarters.

-Insulting language, attacks on other correspondents or groups of correspondents or any information that violates UN principles will not be permitted.

-All flyers must include contact information (name, telephone and/or email) of the person who posts it.

-Only one copy of each flyer can be posted on the board.

The Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit will remove any flyers that are not complying with these rules.

  This last should, of course, apply to the glassed-in UNCA bulletin board, on which they displayed a five page letter attacking the investigative Press for five months in 2012. A problem remains with "separate but (un) equal," with the UNCA glassed-in board.

As we reported earlier this afternoon in connection with a UN Alliance of Civilizations press conference that turned into an advertisement for the German car company BMW,who partnered with the UN AoC, sponsoring and promoting their UN press conference on Friday? 

  Without mentioning the name of any officials, it was the UN Correspondents Association. To be diplomatic we'll will only for now note that there has been more serious controversy about UNCA sponsoring events in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium -- click here for one example -- and more recently, this week, demanding the first question from Bolivia's president Evo Morales, even when he repeatedly said no, he had recognized another (Latina) journalist first.

   There has been no mea culpa about this fiasco, even after the next day's doubling-down. What about this sponsorship of what became, in essence, an attempted advertisement for BMW? 

  Without naming the names of officials -- there seems to be some sensitivity about this -- the question is raised, like the question of documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act like this one. And the questions should be answered. Watch this site.

For BMW, UN Alliance of Civilizations Shills, Press Grills, Sponsor UNCA Lunches

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 22 – When the UN Alliance of Civilization held a press conference at the UN in New York on Friday, one expected to hear of issues such as the amateur video on religion, subsequent rioting and cut-off of YouTube in several countries.

   After all, the last AoC representative Jorge Sampaio said “there is a balance to be found between freedom of expression and respect for religion and for religious feelings and principles.”

  Inner City Press went to the press conference and asked about just this. But the majority of the hour long session was about the corporate sponsor of the UNAOC “Intercultural Innovation Award,” the German car company BMW.

 BMW was extensively praised by the panelists before any questions were allowed. Once they were, Inner City Press asked about the propriety of a UN program like AoC so openly promoting a corporation.

 Jean-Christophe Bas, listed as Senior Adviser of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, said that BMW held helped design the UN program; he said that as a member of the UN Global Compact, BMW “complies with... ten or twelve principles.”

 Inner City Press pointed out that the Global Compact, when Pressed, says it is about reporting, not compliance. Companies are thrown out for not reporting, not for substantive non-compliance with the principles.

 As to BMW, Inner City Press asked about criticism by Greenpeace and others of BMW's role in lobbying against CO2 emission rules in Brussels.

 Again Jean-Christophe Bas launched into praise of BMW, finally saying he is no expert on the environment and that Inner City Press should ask BMW directly.

  But isn't it the UN, through its Alliance of Civilizations, that chose to partner with BMW?

  When asked to cite another UN partnership -- by the New York Times, which can apparently be named -- the answer was UNESCO's arrangement with L'Oreal. 

  And who partnered with the Alliance of Civilizations, sponsoring and promoting their UN press conference on Friday? 

 Without mentioning the name of any officials, it was the UN Correspondents Association. To be diplomatic we'll will only for now note that there has been more serious controversy about UNCA sponsoring events in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium -- click here for one example -- and more recently, this week, demanding the first question from Bolivia's president Evo Morales, even when he repeatedly said no, he had recognized another (Latina) journalist first.

   There has been no mea culpa about this fiasco, even after the next day's doubling-down. What about this sponsorship of what became, in essence, an attempted advertisement for BMW? 

  Without naming the names of officials -- there seems to be some sensitivity about this -- the question is raised, like the question of documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act like this one. And the questions should be answered. Watch this site.

Footnote: Ironically, the Director of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, Matthew Hodes, gave the answer of the afternoon, telling Inner City Press in response to the YouTube video question that there is an absolute right to free speech, it's just a question of how to deal with it. Hear, hear. The Free UN Coalition for Access agrees on the primacy of free speech and freedom of the press. If we omit names in this report, it is entirely by choice and not required. Watch this site.

UNCA Uses Noon Briefing to Demand 1st Question for Those Who Pay, Despite Evo Fiasco

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 21 – Yesterday Bolivia's president Evo Morales was repeatedly cut off and urged to cede the first question in his quinoa press conference to an unelected representative of the UN Correspondents Association.

 Today UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS came to claim that even at the UN's daily noon briefing, it is “tradition” that UNCA should always get the first question.

[February 21 video here, from Minute 15:22; the February 20 Evo Morales fiasco video is here, from Minute 4:55 to 6:05.]

  Inner City Press on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access objected, and asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky if he had called on Falk first the past two days as a journalists or as a representative of UNCA. Video here, from Minute 13.

   The basis of the objection was not only that UNCA had created a “fiasco” during the Evo Morales press conference, drawing negative comments to the UN from all over the world -- click here for sample complaint against UNCA from Germany.

  Also, since UNCA charges nearly $100 a year for dues giving its members the first question would constitute conditioning this access to the UN to the payment of money.

   This point was raised by UNCA's own annual meeting on February 15, when Falk's first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters said that the UNCA seat for the first question was not limited to the Executive Committee but was for any UNCA member. Audio here, Part 1. 

  The only requirement, as for the UNCA representative who heckled Evo Morales, is the payment of the nearly $100 in dues. Pay to play.

   It is Falk, who agreed to run without any competition for UNCA presidency after a year in which the organization spend most of its meetings trying to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, who has brought this on.

   Contrary to her claim, a simple review of webcast archives of UN noon briefings over the past six years will show that it is not at all the tradition for UNCA to get the first question at regular noon briefings. In fact, when Falk earlier this year cited UNCA in a first question to Nesirky's deputy Eduardo Del Buey, even Del Buey had to laugh. It was unheard of.

  But UNCA is under fire -- its “leaders” have been tearing down substantive flyers by the Free UN Coalition for Access and starting anonymous social media accounts to try to undermine FUNCA and Inner City Press by sending false messages to countries' mission to the UN.

  This is Falk's UNCA, and it seems clear it cannot have the first question at UN noon briefings. 

  In mid 2012, according to documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act from Voice of America, UNCA “met with UN officials (very quietly)" to get Inner City Press thrown out. 

  Voice of America, saying it had the support of Reuters and Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, made therequest on June 20, 2012. 

   The UN confirmed receipt - but once the request was exposed and VOA got calls from Congress, the process stopped.

   On Thursday, Falk insisted on making a “right to reply” to what had been Inner City Press' question, and pontificatd that “for almost six decades” UNCA has been having a first question because it supposedly represents the vast majority of media covering the UN.

  In fact, UNCA represents less than ten percent of the journalists accredited to cover the UN, and an even smaller percentage of reporters worldwide who cover the UN. 

  In recent years, UNCA has become a plaything of a small number of big media, to get themselves big offices and, as happened in 2012, to try to throw other media who dare stand up to them out of the UN.

   All of this has been raised to the UN. The Free UN Coalion for Access has met with the head of the Department of Public Information, who has most recently confirmed receipt of FUNCA's list of ten reforms needed to the UN accreditation and Media Access Guidelines.

   After weeks of UNCA “leaders” tearing down, defacing and counterfeiting Free UN Coalition for Access flyers while maintaining their own glassed-in bulletin board (on which they posted a letter denouncing Inner City Press for five months in 2012), FUNCA has been told that a new “open” bulletin board had been ordered. 

   It has been suggested that even before its arrival, space be made for non-UNCA postings which UNCA “leaders” will be directed not to deface. Watch this site.

Footnote: Perhaps Falk is unaware that it is NOT a “tradition” for UNCA to have the first question at noon briefings because she has so infrequently attended the briefings.

   It was notable on Thursday that after in the lead announcement, which delayed the briefing one hour, Nesirky said the UN dismissed the claim it introduced cholera to Haiti as “not receivable,” Falk even with the first question -- for the last time, it is hoped -- did not ask about Haiti, but about the status of her own letter to the UN, then about the Alliance of Civilizations. 

  (UNCA is promoting to its members a “private luncheon” on Friday with the Alliance of Civilizations.) That's UNCA: quite the nose for news...

From the UN's February 21, 2013 transcript:

Inner City Press: I have some other stuff as a question, but I wanted to make sure to be able to ask this one. It's a very simple one, it has to do with how these briefings are conducted, and I just want to say for the last couple of days, each time you’ve called on Pam, I don’t know if this is in the context of [United Nations Correspondents Association], and the reason that I ask it is that yesterday there was a briefing here by the President of Bolivia, and there was something of a minute-long — I would call it a fiasco — in which it was said it is a tradition that UNCA [United Nations Correspondents Association] get the first question; he [Evo Morales] continued to call on somebody else, it went around and around, so I just wanted to be sure, is it a tradition in the noon briefing to give UNCA the first question? Because, if so, I object because they have said that the same seat will be given to any UNCA member who are, in fact, paying dues and it creates a situation in which, basically, people are required to pay money to get the first question, and I would encourage the UN not to create, allow or permit such a tradition.

Spokesperson Nesirky: Thank you for your statement. What’s your question? Any other questions?

Inner City Press: Thank you, it has to do with Brahimi. There have been these various reports that Mr. Brahimi has agreed to extend his contract for six months, and it was said that it was going to expire on Friday. Is that the case?

Spokesperson: I can confirm that the contract of the Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has been extended through to the end of this year — so not six months. Through to the end of this year. The contracts for his Deputy, Nasser al-Kidwa, and the head of his Damascus office, Mokhtar Lamani, have been extended for a similar length of time.

Spain's Gonzalo de Benito Comes to UN to Cut Costs, Meets Malcorra, Answers on Gibraltar

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 22 -- When Spain's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Gonzalo de Benito came to the UN on Thursday, it was at least in part to cut Spain's commitment to the Alliance of Civilizations. It was a Zapatero initiative; not only is he out of power, the country's finances are in shambles.

Inner City Press asked Benito if Spain's closing of its embassy in Syria should also be viewed as a budget cut, and if his country sees the UK's position on Gibraltar as similar to that on the Malvinas or Falkland Islands. Benito did not answer on the embassy but said that while Gibraltar had not been raised in New York -- the UK is the president of the Security Council this month -- Spain only wants to discuss sovereignty issues with the UK.

Benito while at the UN met with Argentina's Susana Malcorra, "current head of Field Support but soon to be Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff." Was this so she could speak in Spanish? Or might Spain while cutting voluntary economic support to the UN boost up its contribution of peacekeepers?

Western Sahara was asked about, in Spanish then translation. Benito said there will be no change in position under the new government, that Spain will support Ross and is heartened by recent rapprochement between Morocco and Algeria. We'll see.

Asked about the Alliance of Civilization, Benito mentioned an alliance for the Balkans. Based on its coverage of the ongoing race of Serbia versus Lithuania to be the next President of the General Assembly, sources told Inner City Press that Serbia's Vuk Jeremic was in town "using" the Alliance meetings to push his candidacy. There is also already a discussion of who would be PGA after the Eastern European group -- watch this site.