UN's Censorship Alliance Seek to Ban New Media Reporting from Unused SC Space, Prohibit Free Speech Flyers Except Their Own

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 5 -- The UN and its partner still seek to ban UN Security Council new media access, even more specifically, as well as free speech, according to "Media Access Guidelines" which the old UN Correspondents Association belated sent Wednesday to some but not all of the journalists that would be impacted by the rules.

  Back on May 21, the new Free UN Coalition for Accesscommented to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) against a ban "media workspace" in front of the Security Council, a proposed ban on fliers and even for example a FUNCA sign on journalist's own office doors, and other absurdities.

  The president of UNCA for 2013 Pamela Falk told some she hadn't seen that draft. But on Wednesday her office sent out what was still called a "draft" rule -- with the ban on media workspace still in and made even more specific.

  On June 3 when Inner City Press sought to cover Security Council meetings on the program of work, it put in a small work table. DPI seized the table. 

  To cover the Security Council in blog-style, one needs to be present throughout meetings, speaking with all manner of diplomats on all topics and writing stories right there. It may be different for television station or some big wire services - but this is new media style, and there is no reason or right for UN, much less the UNCA board, to ban it.

On June 4 to cover the UK Presidency's horizon scanning briefing on Syria, the Sahel and Iraq - Kuwait, Inner City Press sat with laptop on a staircase leading to a door that is said to always be locked.

At least two UNCA Executive Committee members -- Louis Charbonneau of Reuters and Tim Witcher of AFP -- took note, as did the "lady from DPI" who seized the table on June 3. (Immediately after this, anonymous social media accounts associated with UNCA and Reuters, among others, began messages opposing any push for the same media access that used to exist.)

The rule UNCA put out June 5 prohibits using that area to work, that is, arguably blocking access to a door thatthat is always locked. 

  Only at the UN, is doing work prohibited. This remains in the rule sent by UNCA:

"f. The Security Council stakeout area, including the Turkish Lounge, is not to be used as a permanent workspace for the media."

Meanwhile while UNCA broadcasts its name on the door of a space given to it at the top of the third floor escalator, it proposes a rule to ban even a flier saying FUNCA -- on a journalist's office door. This is censorship, by the UN's Censorship Alliance, and an illegitimate attempt to impose what amount to a one-party system. To this has UNCA, and its partners among some in DPI, descended. We'll have more on this.

Lawless UN Has No Answer on Haiti, Threatens for Free Speech, Favors Sycophants

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 3 -- This UN has become lawless, in matters large and small. Big picture, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tersely denied 5,000 legal claims based on the UN bringing cholera to Haiti, and has yet to respond to a letter from 19 members of the US Congress about it.

  Smaller, but just today, Ban's UN imposed a new rule of "no media workspace" in front of the UN Security Council, going so far as to seize a small work table put there by Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access -- but refused to say whether the rule has gone into effect.

  The same rule would prohibit substantive FUNCA fliers about the reduction in media workspace and access -- but on Monday the UN Correspondents Association which has said nothing about the loss of a Security Council work table erected a large bulletin board. But it has nothing to say. That's just the way the UN likes it.

  From the transcript of Monday's UN noon briefing:

Inner City Press: There has been some back and forth about these media access guidelines or rules, but this morning, since there was no table, I put a small table there to work on in order to cover the bi-laterals. And returning there from the ATT [Arms Trade Treaty] stakeout, the table was gone and I was told the lady from DPI [Department of Public Information] took it. So, I am wanting to know: what are the rules? Did these rules which would seek to prohibit media workspace in front of the Security Council, have they gone into effect, or are they still being considered? And why was the small table actually used for work in covering the Council taken?

Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Well, I know you’ve had extensive exchanges both with my colleague Eduardo [del Buey], sitting here in the past couple of weeks; and also with Stéphane Dujarric. I don’t have anything to add on that at this point.

Inner City Press: the reason I ask that is just because it seems like the UN often talks about rules, and transparency and since it moved and since it was foreseeable, I wasn’t aware that there was already a ban in effect on work space. That’s why I put the table there. But it’s gone.

Spokesperson Nesirky: As I say, Matthew, I don’t have anything to add to the extensive exchanges you’ve had with a number of people, primarily with Eduardo and Stéphane. Any other questions?

Inner City Press: Would you tell us when the rules go into effect? I just wanna know when.

Spokesperson: Matthew, you can put the question any way you like; I don’t have anything further to add to the extensive exchanges you’ve already had, okay?

But these "exchanges" have not answered the basic question: have these rules gone into effect? Who agreed to them? Who drafted these paragraphs:

"f. The Security Council stakeout area, including the Turkish Lounge, is not to be used as a permanent workspace for the media. When the Council is not in session, correspondents should minimize the amount of time in the area, unless interviewing or conversing with a U.N. delegate or official."

and

"Posting of notices is restricted to the bulletin boards provided by DPI, including the UNCA bulletin board (by U.N. Correspondents Association officials), and the General Access Bulletin Board (by all accredited correspondents). Signs posted on doors are limited to entry restrictions, for example, 'do not disturb' or 'on air' or the identification of your organization. All other notices (e.g. announcement of meetings/event, press releases) are prohibited unless specifically authorized by Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit (MALU).

"Failure to adhere to guidelines in this document can be grounds for withdrawal or suspension of accreditation."

   So a journalist faces "withdrawal of accreditation" for free speech. The above has been edited to be less personal. But.. 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.

UN Censorship Alliance Leaders Fail on Vowed UNCA Presence at All UN Briefings, Tear Down Flyers

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 19 – The first item in an hour long February 15 meeting of UN Correspondents Association concerned the UNCA Executive Committee's vote to "be present at every noon briefing." Click here for audio of the meeting, Part 1.
  
  This was presumably to raise the profile or defend the place of the decaying organization, now called the UN's Censorship Alliance. Getting the first question at noon briefings, of course, involves invoking favoritism from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson's office.

  At the very next UN noon briefing on February 19, none of the 15 members of UNCA's Executive Committee was present. Had the decay proceeded even further over the three day weekend?

  It's not that the UNCA "leaders" weren't present elsewhere in the UN on Tuesday morning. They ripped down substantive flyers of the Free UN Coalition for Access which critiqued by the UN's accreditation rules and UNCA's capture by the largest media.

  A flyer was torn down right next to the door of UNCA's president Pamela Falk of CBS. She has written that a non-UNCA "open" bulletin board will be permitted: but it has not been in the 12 days since. This is UN-itis.

  Financial opacity, too: though no written UNCA  financial statements were provided, total cash of $237,940 was alluded to at Friday's meeting, the vast majority of it collected at UNCA's $250 a plate annual dinner. A member asked for a written report; this was referred to “Other Matters” but was never addressed.

   It was said that the 15 members of the Security Council and their spouses are let in for free.  Members were urged to now lobby the Council members about the layout of the Security Council stakeout, an issue on which UNCA apparently fell asleep in 2012 while they focused on trying to expel the investigative Press, first from UNCA then from the UN as a whole.

   A “leader” of that drive, Reuters' Louis Charbonneau, bragged in Friday's meeting that French Ambassador Gerard Araud supports the tearing down of a wall near the so-called Turkish lounge; “we need more countries like that,” Charbonneau said.

   He also said, “we need a few people with sledgehammers - then problem solved.” This is the approach he and UNCA have taken to the FUNCA flyers. Charbonneau's twist is to also suggest to the UN that it charge money for “a new paint job” after the flyers are torn down. 

   This passive-aggressive approach was on display Friday when as soon as an UNCA member objected to a financial proposal, Charbonneau immediately called for a vote, like the last President of the General Assembly from Qatar used to it.

  On the question of UNCA presence at noon briefings, Charbonneau perhaps to make it easier on himself and his 14 peers said it didn't have to be an Executive Committee member. So anyone that pays the UNCA annual dues gets a question before those who choose not to be part of UNCA? Pay to play?

   One of those actually witnessed tearing flyers down has been Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, who at Friday's meeting spoke only once, to urge members to send “e-mail and letters” to member states. 

  One wonder if the regurgitation of fawning coverage might be part of the plan to get the support of some member states? Watch this site.

Tearing Down Flyers, UNCA Late on “Open Access” Board; What's Next, UNCA Book Burnings?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 12 – At the UN more than elsewhere, people say one thing and do quite another. Take for example the UN Correspondents Association.

  After a 2012 in which several UNCA Executive Committee members including Reuters' Louis Charbonneau and AFP's Tim Witcher tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, on December 7 a new Free UN Coalition for Access was launched.

  Beyond its founding raison d'etre of defending the rights of journalists to enter, cover and get answers from the UN, already FUNCA has successfully advocating for equality for those being treated unfairly, for example a wire service forced to share office space when others aren't, a journalist denied accreditation in 2008 (who is back in) and fair treatment at photo ops.

  These issues, and now a critique of the UN's accreditation rules and Media Access Guidelines, FUNCA has put on flyers and taped them on the wall next to UNCA's glassed-in bulletin board and the adjacent office of UNCA president Pamela Falk.

   These flyers have been torn down every night. In many cases they have been defaced and then partially torn -- while the UN is willing to censor, it doesn't tear HALF a flyer down. 

  This is UNCA, which also tore flyers off Inner City Press' cubicle door, and posted one mocking an alleged victim of sexual harassment.

  It is shameful, leading some to ask: what's next, an UNCA book burning?

  But here is where the UN-ese comes in. In the midst of this particularly censorship campaign, the UNCA Executive Committee, or at least eight of its fifteen members, got together on February 7 and claim to have approved a proposal for an “open access bulletin board.”

  How novel. But how hypocritical, after weeks of tearing down FUNCA flyers. 

  And why should this UNCA, after trying to throw journalists out of the UN, using its bulletin board for post a letter for months denouncing Inner City Press, and now mocking an alleged victim of sexual harassment, have its own glassed-in board?

  To have a protected board for one decaying group, then another “open access” board for everyone else, is not the right solution. And UNCA is too late on this. 

Does the next step or next new low involve UNCA doing book burnings? Watch this site.