While Dutch Foreign Minister for EU and Lithuania Talks Blogger Rights, Ban Ki-moon Ejected Press, His Trolls Cheer

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 29 -- After Inner City Press was summarily ejected from the UN, which it has covered for ten years, on February 19, the ostensibly deciding official Cristina Gallach told no less than Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta that Inner City Press would still be able to cover the UN.

  But when Inner City Press came to the UN on morning of February 22, with another journalist there to sign Inner City Press in as a guest, UN Security said, “You are Banned from the UN.”  Audio here.

  Jump cut to February 29, when at the Human Rights Council in Geneva there were speeches about the protection of journalists and bloggers. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, himself a former UN official, spoke for the EU in favor of the protection of bloggers, as did Lithuania's Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius.

  Inner City Press tweeted audio of the UN's forcible ejection of it to them; tellingly, an anonymous troll Twitter account that has among its few followers Gallach and UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric and UNCA board members from DPA, Reuters and SABC insisted to both that all is well in the UN, that this time of physical ejection of a journalist without any due process or appeal right is fine. This is Ban Ki-moon's UN Censorship Alliance.

  Back on February 22, Inner City Press left the UN pass office, and set up shop in the Isaiah plowshares park across from the UN. Several Permanent Representatives, at least two Under Secretaries General (the same rank as Gallach) and many staff came to express outrage at the UN's censorship.

 But in the UN Press Briefing Room, which was "lent" to the UN Correspondents (or Corruption) Association back on January 29, the reaction was different.

 In an embarrassing colloquy, long time UNCA board member Masood Haider asked Spokesman Dujarric about "the blogger Matthew Lee" who has been "spewing on the Internet reports whether false or not."Video here, from Minute 27:27.

  Bloggers are, of course, hacked to death in Bangladesh, a country on whose free press record USG Gallach never even replied to a detailed email from the Free UN Coalition for Access, for protection for a Bangladeshi journalist then in the UN. Spewing indeed.

 Dujarric took the opportunity to deny that the UN had seized Inner City Press' files -- the reality is, when Inner City Press asked on February 19 to take the most important of them, and its passport, it was denied by UN Security. On February 22, UN Security said Inner City Press is Banned from all UN premises.

  Dujarric said, as if it's ok, that Inner City Press is being "offered" much reduced access, for four months. But Inner City Press did nothing wrong, and the "investigation" by Gallach which led to its ouster did not involve a single conversation with or reaching out to Inner City Press.

  Any reduced access to loss of office space -- which Masood Haider, who hardly writes articles, has, and UNCA President Giampaolo Pioli has, a private office, while writing about Morgan Freeman -- is unfair and is to cast a chill of freedom of the press. No staged colloquy can hide that. We'll have more on this.

  Later, after being told to leave even the UN Pass office, a UN Under Secretary General told Inner City Press Gallach had told other USGs that Inner City Press was in fact in the building - that AFTER Inner City Press was told by UN Security, twice, that it is banned from all UN premises and was told to leave the UN Pass office.

  Now Gallach, and Ban Ki-moon and his chief of staff Edmond Mulet to whom Inner City Press wrote on February 19, still without response, has received a legal letter with a

"demand that Mr. Lee be immediately reissued with the resident correspondent accreditation that he has enjoyed for many years.  I request these remedies pending an examination of the entire matter by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression or by any other mutually agreed and independent review mechanism.

In reaching the decision to perfunctorily revoke Mr. Lee’s resident correspondent accreditation, a number of accepted principles of natural justice and rules of administrative law were breached. These principles include, inter alia, the right to be informed before the imposition of administrative measures, the right to make representations before being subjected to those measures and the right to appellate review of such measures. Mr. Lee was denied all of these procedural safeguards which are commonplace in most democratic societies and which are routinely
vaunted by the United Nations itself."

 As Inner City Press sits in the park across from the UN using its phone as a hot spot -- hence no Periscope -- there has been no response.

 Ban Ki-moon's Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who'd also told those who questioned him that Inner City Press could end and cover “his” briefing on Monday.

  False. UN Security then said, you cannot wait in the pass office, you are banned from all UN premises. Trying to cover the UN Security Council meeting on Syria from the Isaiah plowshares park across from the UN, various Ambassadors came to say they were appalled. But Gallach's office has told then, nothing will be done.

  This is disgusting censorship by an increasingly corrupt UN.

As Inner City Press at the UN pursues unfolding stories of corruption, peacekeepers committing rapes in the Central African Republic, UN inaction in Burundi, South Sudan and Yemen, on February 19 with two hours notice UN Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach ordered Inner City Press to be ousted. Letter here.

   On the evening of February 19, UN Security Deputy Chief Michael McNulty, who refused to provide his name (audio), pushed Inner City Press out onto First Avenue (audio), having cut off its Periscope video livestream (video) and not allowed it to get its files, coat or passport from its longtime shared office. Gallach wants the office back, to retaliate and so the UN Correspondents Association can, in essence, sell the UN space just as it sells access to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

  On February 20, Inner City Press posed four questions to Dujarric and his deputy Farhan Haq, with a copy to Gallach --which 24 hours later have not been answered or even acknowledged (while both Dujarric and Gallach were wildly spinning to those who contacted them, includingNobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, see here, who was told there was no problem taking over Inner City Press' office and undermining its ability to report, edit videos, conduct interviews. There is a big problem. Here are the questions:

"Please state the status and condition of all of my papers and property in my office, Room S-303A, including investigative papers, communications from sources including whistleblowers and my passport and when I will have the access to them that I was denied on February 19 and since.

Please state when the Resident Correspondent UN pass I have had for years, but which was torn off my neck on Feb 19, will be returned, in connection with 1, above, and the UNSC meeting(s) and UN Noon Briefing on Monday February 22.

Please state and explain the role of the Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary General in the deprivations in 1 and 2, above.

Finally, for now, please state the Secretary-General's position on UN Security Deputy McNulty on February 19 threatening twice to have me “handed over to NYPD” (including the concomitant acceptance by the UN of the NYPD's jurisdiction), of UN Security officers grabbing my phone which was live-broadcasting Periscope video at the UN Security Council stakeout and turning it off.

I have other questions but these are most pressing, for immediate answer."

  And as yet, 42 hours later, no answer. Watch this site.

  While Inner City Press was writing up a UN Security Council meeting on Syria that went into the evening, and Periscope broadcasting, UN Security guards walked up, grabbed Inner City Press' laptop, blocked its Periscope camera and turned off the livestream. Video here.

  Then eight UN Security officers led by Deputy Chief McNulty tore off Inner City Press' UN ID badge and carted off Inner City Press' laptop and camera, returning these by throwing them on the sidewalk of First Avenue. Audio here.

 They did not allow Inner City Press to get coat or sweater, or the files in its office. No provision was made for this.

  The ejection letter was signed by the Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Galach of Spain but ultimately Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in charge. Ban and his chief of staff Edmond Mulet and Deputy SG Jan Eliasson were all written to with details as this took place.

  USG Gallach's office, Darrin Farrant in charge, merely "took note" of questions about and criticism of the lack of due process. Gallach did not respond to email, even from Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta, here.

  When Inner City Press was thrown out onto First Avenue, standing waiting, laughing and filming, was Voice of America's Margaret Besheer and another board member of the UN Correspondents Association, whose president Giampaoli Pioli told Inner City Press if it didn't remove a (truthful) article about his screening of a war crimes denial film for a tenant of his, Sri Lanka's then ambassador Palitha Kohona, he would get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.

  But who is running this asylum? Ban Ki-moon, his spokesman also involved Stephane Dujarric (who threw Inner City Press out of the UN Press Briefing Room on January 29, also trying to turn off ICP's Periscoping phone), and, some surmise, some who don't like Inner City Press' questions. We'll have more on this.

  The pretext was Inner City Press three weeks earlier seeking to cover a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room by an organization which has taken money from now indicted Ng Lap Seng and Frank Lorenzo's South SOuth News, then gave Ng Lap Seng a photo op with Ban.

(As Inner City Press reported, Gallach attended the South South Awards with Frank Lorenzo, photo here, just before his indictment.  She should have been recused from any decision-making on this.)

  UN Security demanded ICP's pass - and later tore it off.

Amid Bangladesh Blogger Slaughter, UN's Double Message, of Ashe & DPKO

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 5 -- Three days after an impassioned speech at the UN by the widow of murdered Bangladeshi blogger Avijit Roy in a UN event about but not for journalists, on November 5 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement in part calling for the Government to take action.

  UNsaid is that the last time UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was belatedly focusing on rights violations in Bangladesh, he backed off because new Bangladeshi "peacekeepers" for South Sudan were suddenly more important. Since then, the Bangladeshi government has been shown by Inner City Press to be involved in the John Ashe / South South UN scandal (in which, more recently, the UN's correspondents association is selling seats with Ban for $6,000).

 Here is HCHR Zeid's statement:

"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein today strongly condemned the continuing violent attacks against bloggers and publishers in Bangladesh, and called on the Government to take urgent, concerted measures to ensure the protection of all those who are being threatened by extremists operating in the country.

“At least five Bangladeshi writers and publishers as well as two foreign aid workers have been violently murdered this year in Dhaka and many more attacked and threatened, apparently by groups that believe they have the right to impose their views on others through wanton violence,” the High Commissioner said.

“There is an urgent need for a concerted response to prevent more killings by promptly bringing the perpetrators to justice, and by taking effective measures to protect writers, publishers and any other people in Bangladesh who are being threatened with violence. The State must not allow extremist groups to take matters into their own hands.”

In the latest attacks last Saturday, publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan was hacked to death in his office in Dhaka and, in a separate incident, three people at another publishing house in the city were reported wounded. Dipan had published the work of a prominent blogger, Avjit Roy, who himself was hacked to death in February this year. Three other bloggers have been murdered this year, all of whom had written about sensitive social, political and religious issues. Many others have received threats on social media and there are hit-lists published on Facebook targeting the writers. Some of those threatened have gone into hiding or fled the country.

“I urge political and religious leaders to consistently and unequivocally condemn this spate of vicious killings and threats against writers and publishers and anyone else who may be targeted by these takfiri groups,” Zeid said.

Zeid stressed that the State must ensure that journalists, civil society actors and human rights defenders are able to exercise their rights to freedom of expression and opinion without fear for their safety.

“When people have been explicitly threatened with violence or murder, it is the duty of the State to provide them with effective protection,” the High Commissioner said."

For the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2, there were events at UNESCO in Paris, in London and at the UN in New York, sponsored by Greece and Lithuania, on “Ending impunity for crimes against journalists: putting resolutions into practice."

  At the event Rafida Bonya Ahmed, the widow of Avijit Roy, one of the bloggers hacked to death in Bangladesh, said that the government in Dhaka stands by amid the murders, most recently of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan.

  Inner City Press, assuming there would be a question and answer period, waited to ask her about the UN unquestioningly continuing to use Bangladeshi peacekeepers despite those and other human rights violations.

 But this UN event ABOUT journalists did not allow any questions from journalists. Photo here.  It ended with statements by three states -- Costa Rica, Tunisia and Latvia -- then a second round of comments from the panelist, listed as:

AMBASSADOR CATHERINE BOURA, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF GREECE TO THE UN

AMBASSADOR RAIMONDA MURMOKAITE, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF LITHUANIA TO THE UN

MR EDRIC SELOUS, DIRECTOR, RULE OF LAW UNIT, EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL

MR VERAN MATIC, CHAIR OF SERBIA’S COMMISSION FOR INVESTIGATING KILLINGS OF JOURNALISTS

MS DELPHINE HALGAND, DIRECTOR OF WASHINGTON BUREAU, REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

  And that was it.

 There is a lot of talk at the UN about protecting journalists and about the right to information, but what does it really come to? On the latter, the UN still has no Freedom of Information Act or procedure, as we have repeatedly noted and advocated for. On protection of journalists, the UN and its partners are selective and too often silent.

  When from Burundi, Radio Publique Africaine journalist Egide Mwemero was forced to flee into the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he was banned from broadcasting and then arrested, the UN said nothing. Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Accessasked about his plight at the October 20, 2015 noon briefing. But the UN, and Herve Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping which has a mission in DRC, have said nothing.

   Likewise on the continued detention of Vice News translator Mohammed Ismael Rasool, when Inner City Press asked the UN about it on September 14, the response was that the UN was looking into Turkey's reasoning for the detention.

 Inner City Press for FUNCA asked Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu about Rasool during General Debate week and was told that “support of terrorism” is illegal. Meanwhile Ban Ki-moon's “partner” the UN Correspondents Association has said nothing about Rasool. Its vice president is from TRT (and was present at the now infamous Macau conference paid for by indicted Macau businessman David Ng Lap Seng). So what does it all come down to?

 Money and the sale of access.

 As the scandal unveiled in the corruption charges against former UN General Assembly President John Ashe, Ng Lap Seng, Francis Lorenzo of South South News and others continues to expand, the compromised position of this UN Correspondents Association has come to the fore.

 In 2011 until now, Inner City Press has exposed UNCA for taking funds from Ng Lap Seng vehicles, to which it gave awards, and arranging Ng Lap Seng photo op(s) with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. UNCA has not provided any explanation; the UN through Ban's spokesman has said for example that many people get photographs with Ban. But people like Ng previously found in US Senate reports to have made irregular campaign contributions, and co-owning hotels links to prostitution?

  UNCA's first vice president went to Ng's Macau conference in late August 2015, for which numerous other attendees have told Inner City Press Ng paid for all travel and hotel, iPads, etc. Again, no answer from UNCA.

  Outrageously, after UNCA has been exposed as delivering photo ops to indictees Ng Lap Seng and Frank Lorenzo with Ban Ki-moon and others in previous UNCA "Balls," here is UNCA's new pitch to "Ambassadors" -- one question is, given the history, should Ban be going to such $12,000 a table events? What is being sold? Here is UNCA's recent pitch:

"Dear Ambassador,

The United Nations Correspondents Association is honored to invite you to participate and contribute to the 20th annual UNCA Awards event with guest of honor U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, recipient of the 2015 Global Advocate of the Year Award for climate change.  Exclusive raffle prizes include business class airline tickets around the world with hotel accommodations and a grand prize FIAT 500X car. As your esteemed presence will ensure the success of this event, we are pleased to send you the below opportunities to attend the gala dinner:

Mission Table Special Price / $6000 (half-table) 5 seats at VIP table at the gala event
                                       
Special Ambassador Contribution / $2,000 -1 VIP ticket for Ambassador with premium seating to dinner + 1 complimentary VIP ticket for spouse or guest -Special acknowledgement of the Ambassador and the Mission in the UNCA Awards Journal of the evening -Additional tickets for UN Diplomats of the Mission can be purchased at the special price of $750 each

Giampaolo Pioli, UNCA President
Please make all checks payable to 'UNCA Awards Committee'
Contributions to the UNCA Awards Committee are tax deductible.
The UNCA Awards Committee is a 501-c(3)"

  What - to sell photo ops with Ban Ki-moon to businessness / brothel owners indicted for corruption and out on $50 million bail, the same money used to make contributions and then get UNCA "journalism" awards?

  These UNCA prices, though elevated, are less than what UNCA took from Ng Lap Seng's vehicles.

  Ng Lap Seng was found to have brought the same bags of cash later deployed at the UN into the US earlier, in the late 90s, when his Fortuna hotel was linked to organized crime and even human trafficking.  From the WSJ:

“Who is Ng Lap Seng, and what did he want? According to several well-informed sources in Hong Kong and Macau, Mr. Ng is a mysterious figure with extensive business in China, where he also held a minor post as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in his hometown of Nan Hai in Guangdong province. In Macau, his most visible interest is his ownership of the Fortuna Hotel, a garish high-rise in the gambling district, featuring a 20,000-square-foot nightclub with 'table dancing' by strippers, as well as a massage parlor and, according to its brochure, 'over 30 independent karaoke rooms, all luxuriously decorated with the most advanced sound system for any one interested in performing his favorite songs.' The brochure also boasts 'attractive and attentive hostesses from China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Burma together with erotic girls from Europe and Russia, certainly offer you an exciting and unforgettable evening with friends or business associates.'”

 Just as UNCA "leaders" from Voice of America and Reuters(censorship bid here) tried to use the UN to get the investigative Press out, now the UN responds to questions about UNCA selling Secretary General Ban Ki-moon photo ops to Ng Lap Seng by suggesting that the questioner, because present, "condoned" the sale.

  Now, with UNCA still silent on its links with South South News and other Ng Lap Seng vehicles, here is video Inner City Press published in December 2011 of UNCA's murky photo ops for Ban at Cipriani, which UNCA seeks to reproduce this coming December.

  
  Even then in December 2011, Inner City Press' accompanying story reported that it

"filmed what it could of the photo op -- those arranging it kept telling the Press it had to leave -- and afterward several in Ban's circle said they had no idea who the businessmen had been. There was dark talk about one David Ng, a businessman who has bankrolled 'vanity' media projects given awards that night -- people funded by Ng used the word "vanity," so we use it here."

 Inner City Press published that in December 2011 about Ng and South South News; it quit UNCA and with another Executive Committee member who quit in disgust co-founded FUNCA, the Free UN Coalition for Access. UNCA continued taking funds from South South News. We'll have more on this.

While UNCA does not represent all journalists accredited to cover the UN -- Inner City Press for example quit the group in 2012 with another Executive Committee member and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access -- the UN gives it a privileged position, a large clubhouse on the third floor of the UN and, automatically, the first question at press conferences.

  But is that appropriate, given that UNCA received money from South South News, “NGO 1” in the filing against Ashe? Not only did UNCA receive money from South South News: it gave the group an “UNCA award” at a ceremony at the high-ceilinged Cipriani's restaurant on December 15, 2011.

  Inner City Press, which did not quit UNCA in fully ripened disgust in 2012, was present in December 2011 and witnessed, when Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came into Cipriani's, him being shepherded into a side room for photographs with Asian men in business suits who Inner City Press did not then recognize -- but now does.

 UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, when Inner City Press asked on October 13 about what it had seen, said perhaps Inner City Press had "condoned" it. Video here. But Inner City Press quit UNCA afterfinding conflicts of interest in it, and being "ordered" to not report on this. 
Inner City Press:  I guess I just want to be more specific.  If an event… and there's one that actually, as it turns out, I witnessed in Cipriani.  If the Secretary-General enters a large space and is then taken to a smaller space for such photographs, what's the basis for that, as opposed to people with selfies?  I mean, I understand what you're saying…

Spokesman:  I think, you know, if you were there, then maybe you condoned the event as well. 

  While Inner City Press' answer to the spokesman's "if you were there, then maybe you condoned the event as well," is that Inner City Press quit UNCA
 after finding conflicts of interest in it, and being "ordered" to not report on this, we'll have more on this.


On October 13, Inner City Press asked this follow up:

Inner City Press: I just want to directly ask you about the idea that it's sort of people struggling to get photos with the UN officials.  There was a… there was a peacekeeping day concert that was… for which solicitation of… you know, sponsorship was sought by a group called World Harmony Alliance, and it had nothing… the group has nothing to do with peacekeeping, but they paid for day.  They… they… in fact, the funder complained that he didn't get the promised photograph with Ban Ki-moon, but I wonder, what was… what's the UN's understanding when they take outside financial sponsorship for such a day?  I mean, former UN official [Ibrahim] Gambari was seen with the same group taking photographs on the fourth floor in the Millennium Hotel.  What's it all about?  What’s happening?

Spokesman:  What former officials do in hotels is really not of my purview.

Inner City Press:  Sure.  What about UN peacekeeping?

Spokesman:  I would take a look at that actual programme, but I would expect every part of the UN to do due diligence when it partners with an outside organization.  And just…  I'll leave it at that.


Inner City Press:  But, given that Mr. Frank Lorenzo has been charged and he's now out on $2 million bail, he was head of South-South News, which spread $12 million, according to the documents, throughout the UN system.  So, what was, how, what was the criteria used to choose these two NGOs and not either South-South News or International Organization for South-South Cooperation or South South Steering Committee on Sustainable Development?  It seems like it's a very limited inquiry and…

Deputy Spokesman:  It's not really an inquiry.  It's an audit, and this is initial step.  If OIOS feels like there is something… there's a direction which they need to go as a result of these initial results, they're certainly free to do that, but we needed to get the ball rolling and have an initial step forward so that we can look into what exactly is the impact of the monies and the relationship with these groups.


John Ashe at UNCA with former president, after and before Pioli
click photo for source / credit

  Back in December 2011, shepherding Ban for this (compensated) photo op with dubious businessmen was Giampaolo Pioli, then as now the president of UNCA. South South News interviewed Pioli that night, bragging of the UNCA award it got / paid for, screenshot from video here.

    (For context it must be noted too that Pioli rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Palitha Kohona then granted Kohona's request as Sri Lanka's Ambassador to screen his government's war crimes denial film “Lies Agreed To” in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium: this precipitated Inner City Press quitting UNCA, in full disclosure.)

   How can UNCA be given first questions to ask about a scandal involving South South News, from which UNCA took more then to which it gave an award? And what are the other implications?

  (In terms of Mr. Ng's desire for photo ops, Inner City Press is informed that he separately wanted a photo with US President Obama, and paid six figures to a middleman - who disappeared with the money. UNCA on the other hand, one wag noted, delivered Ban Ki-moon for photos at Cipriani's.)

  UNCA, it should be noted, has been and is open to business interested beyond Mr. Ng and South South News. Another UNCA awards ceremony was sponsored by a company called “Acoona;” the Italian oil company ENI pays the group money.

But UNCA's South South News connection, given what has been disclosed and charged this week, should at a minimum and as a first step disqualify UNCA from first questions from the UN, and from the continuation of its role.

 Consider: if it gave rise to criminal charges that South South News paid Ashe to get a GA document for Ng to show off in Macau, who about South South News paying UNCA, and UNCA delivering Ban for a photo op with Ng, that Ng could use for related purposes? We'll have more on this.

Wider, and going forward in this series, limiting UN investigation to OIOS - whose director of investigations Stefanovic has resigned, Inner City Press hereby exclusively reported on October 9 - looking at only two NGOs is laughable. The scandal is expanding: there is a pattern here, pattern and practice. Watch this site.

In Saudi Arabia, UN's Ban Ki-moon Didn't Raise Flogged Blogger Raif Badawi to New King Salman -- But Now UK Prince Charles Did

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 10 -- At the UN, transparency and access are in decline, due to collusion. On February 6, Inner City Press for theFree UN Coalition for Access asked, video here, asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric whether in the trip to Saudi Arabia Ban had announced only to the UN's Censorship Alliance Ban would raise the case of flogged blogger Raif Badawi.

  Dujarric said wait and see, but when Ban spoke at the end he said no individual cases were raised; he did not mention freedom of expression.

 By contrast, even the UK's Prince Charles did raise Badawi's case to King Salman. Ban's excuse was that, after flying all the way to Saudi Arabia, there was no time to raise individual cases. Prince Charles had more time?

From the UN's transcript:

Inner City Press / FUNCA: You said about the Secretary-General and freedom of expression.  So I wanted to ask you, on this upcoming trip beginning today to Saudi Arabia, is the situation of the blogger, Raif Badawi, who’s been in prison and scheduled to be flogged, is that something that the Secretary-General intends to bring up?  I wanted to ask because I saw the announcement was made in a way where it was sort of, things then went off the record.  It seems you were there; I saw what was put out by your office.  Was this answered in that context?  If so, was that asked even in that context?  And finally, who’s paying for the travel on this trip?  Is he flying commercial, paid by the UN?  Or is he--

Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:  He’s flying commercial, paid by the United Nations.  The issue of freedom of the press is something the Secretary-General routinely raises, and I think we will give you a readout of the meeting with His Majesty after it happens and the Secretary-General also has a press encounter scheduled following his encounter with the King, and those remarks will be made public.  But you know, the issue of freedom of expression and freedom of the press is raised in many different contexts and many different countries. 

  On February 5 the UN's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said

"You might be aware of this already, but I have a trip announcement for you; I believe the Secretary-General mentioned this to some of you yesterday.  The Secretary-General will depart for Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Friday, 6 February, to convey his condolences to the people of Saudi Arabia, who had recently lost their leader, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud.  During his two-day stay in Saudi Arabia, the Secretary-General will also meet with country’s new leader, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud."

  The "some of you" referred to the Executive Committee of the UN Correspondents Association, which released no transcript of the spoon-feeding session, merely tweeting from the session, at 1:42 pm, "#UNSG Ban tells UNCA committee he will travel to #SaudiArabia on Friday to meet King Salman to talk Mideast challenges, then on to #UAE."

 No mention for example of Saudi flogged blogger Raif Badawi, from an organization which claims to care about freedom of the press - actually, it doesn't -- now any other questions. A mere pass-through. 

   

Stewart Stogel, Who Asked UN UNcomfortable Questions, Dead at 60, Questions Continue

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 24 -- In the small world of journalists covering the UN from within, Stewart Stogel stood out as combative, dogged, critical, unique. He staked out Kofi Annan outside his UN-provided Sutton Place townhouse; he shouted questions at diplomats entering the Security Council while others mouthed, “Hello, Ambassador.”

On November 24 the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit announced:

“It is with great sadness that my office just learned that U.N. correspondent Stewart Stogel passed away from complications of diabetes. Stew was a veteran journalist who had been covering the United Nations, its Secretaries-General and the activities of the Member States for many years. He worked for several media outfits and his stories appeared on ABC News, Press TV and NBC News but also in Newsweek, The Miami Herald, The Washington Times and World Net Daily. He was 60 years old.”

  Often, those Stogel was covering including in Mount Vernon where he lived, would try to undermine his connections to the above-listed publications. The UN itself made Stogel re-apply for credentials and, according to him, did not make his work easier. Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access offers a few anecdotes, links and Rest in Peace wishes.

  In 2008 UNICEF's Ann Veneman agreed to essentially rent out the UN's North Lawn to an event by Madonna, or really, Gucci. Stogel registered to cover it; Inner City Press investigated it from outside. Ultimately many in the UN stepped away from the flawed event. But Stogel kept digging, even as a public relations firm tried to complain against him. His story is here.  Stew Stogel was a working journalist. He will be missed.

  Stogel in his reporting on the UN had a love - hate relationship with some in UN Security: some were sources, others went after him. 

  He reported critically on UN Security official Bruno Henn - who, Inner City Press today reports in Stogel's spirit, has been acted in the most recent Department of Safety and Security promotion / demotion exercise - and was known for his reporting on a so-called “riot” last time the UN changed catering contractors, as it is slated to do again on December 31, click here for that. Stogel likewise had a love - hate relations with the Accreditation unit: he liked and was liked by some.

  Another Stogel story, in 2010, involved the reduction in journalists' access at the UN Security Council, citing then “French ambassador Gerard Araud, who had been growing increasingly frustrated with unwelcomed ambush interviews.” 

  Precisely the kind of blacklisting which BuzzFeed faced this year from the UN World Health Organization, and which when the Free UN Coalition for Access asked UN spokesman Dujarric about, Dujarric said the UN doesn't do, Stogel faced from Dujarric's predecessor.

Also in 2010, even while accredited through other media, Stogel joined the campaign for bloggers' rights at the UN, writing to the same UN office which eulogized him that

“ICP is reporting that the media/accreditation status of bloggers is still being debated within DPI. Why? Ban Ki-moon is now in office more than three years and this question still remains? The White House addressed the issue of bloggers more than 6 years ago, yet at the UN it is still debated? Why?

“It becomes an important issue because of the repeated confrontational positions DPI has taken with press especially since Ban Ki-moon arrived. DPI has taken the outrageous position of contacting various news organizations and occasionally 'advising' them on who to assign to cover the United Nations. It is tradition going back more than 50 years of accrediting news organizations, not individuals. The Organization has often used credential accreditation as a "political" pressure tactic to retaliate for news coverage it took exception to. This is a department that is quite literally spinning out of control. How long will this continue?”

  In the spirit of Stew Stogel, these questions will continue to be asked. Watch this site.

   

Press & Public Banned from UN Communications Group, Accreditation Mulled

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- A group of UN spokespeople which considers such issues as media accreditation is meeting in New York today and tomorrow, and Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access asked to observe or at least get a summary.

  On May 20, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said no, it is internal, and declined to take a follow up question. But previous UNCG Annual Principals Meetings have come out with statements like that it is "important for the United Nations family to engage with all forms of new media, but that some, such as blogs, present particular challenges for accreditation."

   Even today, the UN lags behind the OSCE in raising concerns about the detention by Ukraine authorities of journalists like those of Life News, which put on YouTube video of “UN” marked helicopters in Ukraine. Inner City Press asked Dujarric about this on May 20 and was told that no one in the UN system has even raised the issue to Kyiv, unlike the OSCE. Video here.

   Inner City Press wrote to UNICEF to asked to attend or get access to a webcast of the UNCG meeting but was told: “The UN Communications Group meeting is co-hosted by UN DPI and UNICEF. It’s an internal meeting so isn’t open via webcast or otherwise.”

   But if it concerns topics like accreditation, shouldn't it be open or summarized? Watch this site.

   

As Ethiopia Jails Bloggers, US Talks Free Press Elsewhere, Files Risen Brief, Kerry on the Way

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 26 -- Ethiopia has conducted a sweep and arrest of journalists including Tesfalem Woldeyes and six bloggers from the Zone 9 collective. Next week, US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Addis Ababa. Will he be raising the issue? We'll see. 

   New US Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowsi on April 25 spoke about the US defending bloggers; the examples he gave were in Russia and Vietnam: "Dieu Cay," Ta Phong Tan and Phan Thanh Hai.  How now about Ethiopia?

   As Press Freedom seasons heats up, some were surprised not only by this brief filed in the Supreme Court but also by this week's US announcement of renewed military aid to Egypt, including 10 Apache helicopters. Isn't Egypt the country with journalists including but not limited to those of Al Jazeera locked up?

After questions, the State Department clarified the specifics of aid to Egypt on April 24:

"The Egypt bilateral foreign assistance budget for FY2014 is approximately $1.5 billion and includes $1.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) – $200 million in Economic Support Funds; and over $7 million for other security assistance programs, including International Military Education and Training, International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement, and Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Programs. The $650 million from FY2014 FMF will be the first of this funding to move forward, pending Congressional notification and approval."

  The next day new US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski was asked about the detained Al Jazeera journalists. He replied that withholding of one additional certification is in part due to the Al Jazeera case, and therefore the case has consequences.

  But here is how US Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby explained the certification:

Secretary Hagel told General Sobhy that we are not yet able to certify that Egypt is taking steps to support a democratic transition, and he urged the Egyptian government to demonstrate progress on a more inclusive transition that respects the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Egyptians.

Secretary Hagel also informed Minister Sobhy of President Obama's decision to deliver ten Apache helicopters in support of Egypt’s counterterrorism operations in the Sinai. The secretary noted that we believe these new helicopters will help the Egyptian government counter extremists who threaten U.S., Egyptian, and Israeli security.

  While some say "safe and free," the above shows the relationship between "U.S., Egyptian, and Israeli security" and the freedom of the press issues at stake in Egypt. Watch this site.

Footnote: Freedom of the press issues have arisen at the UN with respect to Voice of America, on whose Broadcasting Board of Governors John Kerry serves. Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed with the BBG - andwith the State Department, including with regard to South Sudan and the US Atrocities Prevention Board. The issues are being pursued by the new Free UN Coalition for Access. Watch this site.

   

At UN, NBC's Richard Engel Tells Inner City Press He Doesn't "Know Enough about Glenn Greenwald,” AP Silent on Spying

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- When NBC's Richard Engel exited the UN Security Council on Wednesday after advising Council members to distinguish between journalists who deserve their protection and activists, “Tweeters” and state broadcasters who don't, Inner City Press asked him a question.

  Referring to whistleblower Edward Snowden's disclosure of surveillance programs to the Guardian as well as Washington Post, Inner City Press asked Engel, “Glenn Greenwald, is he a journalist or not a journalist?”

  "I don't know enough about Glenn Greenwald,” Engel said. “Somebody has to make a judgment call someday of when you stop being a journalist and and when you are fully an activist.”

  And then Engel was gone, as Security Council members continued “debating” the matter. South Korea and Australia urged more protection for bloggers, for example.

  But another of the initial speakers, Kathleen Carroll of Associated Press, neglected to make an obvious point: that the US government, which holds the UN Security Council presidency for July and scheduled this debate, spied on AP. 

  Doesn't this bring up another form of protection that journalists need?

  Engel said that state broadcasters were not journalists, given the example of state TV in Syria. When asked about Voice of America he said that is somehow different. Inner City Press has recently covered that debate, here -- but note that Voice of America's editor Steve Redisch wrote to the UN asking it to “review” the accreditation of Inner City Press.

  Documents begrudgingly obtained by Inner City Press under the US Freedom of Information Act -- since VOA is a state broadcaster -- show that VOA said it had support for this request from Reuters, Agence France Presse(represented Wednesday in the Council) and even the UN Correspondents Association, click here for more on that.

  French Ambassador Gerard Araud scheduled and then un-scheduled a question and answer session at 11:30; the new Free UN Coalition for Access (FUNCA) asked his missionwhat France has done on the case of Chadian blogger Makaila, so far without answer.

 FUNCA was established to protect journalists, defined more broadly than Richard Engel proposed, from these type of attacks. The UN's response? To threaten to suspend or withdraw the accreditation of Inner City Press for merely hanging a FUNCA sign on the door of Room S-303, a story up from the Security Council.

  One form of protection of journalists was discussed in the UN Security Council Wednesday morning. But many other forms were not. Watch this site.

    

UAE Lent UN's Ban a Private Jet, Now Disclosed, No Comment on Web Censorship

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 19 -- The United Arab Emirates provided UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon with a private jet this week, Ban's office belated disclosed on Thursday after Inner City Press had three times asked for disclosure. The UN Spokesperson sent this to Inner City Press

From: UN Spokesperson - Do Not Reply [at] un.org
Subject: Your questions
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com
Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 3:00 PM

On aircraft, in case you did not see the noon briefing:

- The UAE Government provided an aircraft to fly the Secretary-General from Beirut to Abu Dhabi because of time constraints.

- National governments have provided similar assistance in the past to this Secretary-General and to his predecessors.

- As you well know, most of the Secretary-General's official travel is on commercial flights or peacekeeping aircraft.

On SOPA/PIPA: This is a national legislative matter. We don't have a comment.

On Yemen elections: You will have seen there are also reports that the Foreign Minister has said the elections are on track. We continue to watch this closely.

These last two answers are internally inconsistent: Ban will not comment on "national legislative matters" in the United States, even when they implicate censorship of the Internet -- but the UN has commented on "national legislation" in Yemen, albeit belatedly.

When Ban Ki-moon spoke with Yemen strongman Ali Saleh on November 23, Inner City Press asked him if he had raised to Saleh his push for the immunity he is now in the process of obtaining. Ban replied that "I have not discussed in detail on that matter." If he opposed amnesties, that was the time to say it. Because now the law is passing, with full immunity for Saleh, and "political" immunity for his allies.

While minimizing the possible conflict of interest in accepting private jets and other assistance from member states, Ban and his office have yet to explain how they decide when and from whom to accept assistance. Would they take a plane from Syria's Bashar al Assad?

Sources close to Ban Ki-moon talk about Saudi assistance to a length trip by Ban and his entourage. Does that make it more difficult for Ban to criticize the lack of women's rights in Saudi Arabia, or its crackdown on protesters and opponents?

During the UAE blogger prosecution, when Inner City Press asked for any UN or Ban comment, none was given. Could this free plane represent a conflict of interest?

In the past, at least one member state provided air transport -- then sent the UN a bill. Has Ban offered to reimburse the UAE? Should he? We'll have more on this.