Amid UN Scandal, NGO Web Links to Ashe Removed, UNCA Amnesia

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 10 -- The scandal unveiled in the corruption charges against former UN General Assembly President John Ashe, Francis Lorenzo of South South News and others continues to expand. This is in spite of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon trying to limit the UN's inquiry to only two groups, Sun Kian Ip and the Global Sustainability Foundation.

 Beyond those two the compromised positions of the others in the UN's orbit, including the South-South Steering Committee for Sustainable Development (SS-SCSD), the  International Organization for South-South Cooperation (IOSSC) and the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) have come to the fore.

  Both SS-SCSD and IOSSC have posted notices on their websites expressing shock at the charges against Ashe and Lorenzo.

 IOSSC says: "In light of recent events, Mr. Francis Lorenzo is suspended from his position as Executive President of IOSSC." (IOSSC is ostensibly an international organization with members like Sri Lanka, beyond Ashe's Antigua and Barbuda and Lorenzo's Dominican Republic; it echoes to IIMSAM, a group now in Dubai whose impermissible use of Diplomat passes Inner City Pressuncovered, even while as here there were attempts in the UN to cover up, here: IIMSAM with another former UN PGA.)

 On SS-SCSD's site, the link to John Ashe now says "The Page You Are Looking For Could Not Be Found."

 From other involved websites, compromising material is simply absent.  On UNCA's site, for example, there is nothing before 2013. But evidence remains on other groups' sites.

  Inner City Press yesterday published photographs from anUNCA award ceremony at which UNCA took Ban into a side room for photo-ops with the involved businessmen, after taking money from Lorenzo's South South News and giving SSN an award.

   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 on December 15, 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.

  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.

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.
   

As UN Hosts NGO Conference, Talk of Transparency for IMF But Not UN Itself, Pressed by Free UN Coalition for Access

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 29, updated September 2, below -- The UN hosted non-governmental organizations from all over the world from August 27 to 29 for the 65th Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference.

  After the Outcome Document was agreed to, Inner City Press asked if there had been discussion of the UN's transparency, given for example that unlike many governments the UN does not have any Freedom of Information law or procedure.

 Panelist Maruxa Cardama of Communitas said no written recommendation had been made on that; there were critiques of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

 As an issue of access, on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked about complaints FUNCA received from NGOs who waited up to five hours to register. It was explained that on August 26 the computer system had problems, but it was fixed after that.  The panel was not able to say what percentage of attendees came from the United States.

  The outcome document is here. FUNCA is still seeking answers to the question it asked two days before the conference started: what does the UN do to defend and ensure access for NGOs?

   On August 25, Inner City Press put these and other questions to Maher Nasser, the Acting Head of the UN Department of Public Information. Video here. Earlier this summer, for example, the government of Sri Lanka ordered NGOs to stop holding press conferences or otherwise interacting with the media. Click here for that.

  Inner City Press asked Nasser what the UN, whose UN Information Center in Colombo has been promoting this week's New York conference, actually does for NGOs in Sri Lanka amid this crackdown. Nasser cited UNESCO and the UN's human rights entities.

  Given the UN's troubling silence in Sri Lanka amid mass killings in 2009, which has given rise to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's “Rights Up Front” initiative, perhaps DPI where applicable should speak up on such restrictions put on NGOs.Background: After Sri Lanka's Minister of "Defense and Urban Development" issued an order banning all non-governmental organizations from press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases which is beyond their mandate," and the UN declined comment or passed the buck, the US and the human rights group FIDH has expressed concern.

   On July 7,  Inner City Press  asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq about it. Video here, on Inner City Press' YouTube channel.

  Inner City Press asked, since UN envoy Oscar Fernandez Taranco was recently in Sri Lanka, had he spoken to the Rajapaksa government about this crack-down, or did he have any comment now?

  Haq replied, "We'll have to study what this particular injunction was... we'll have to evaluate that."  Apparently the evaluation is still ongoing.

 Regarding Sri Lanka the UN has essentially stonewalled Press questions about the White Flag killings report and the light it sheds on current UN official Vijay Nambiar and former UN official, now Sri Lankan Ambassador Palitha Kohona.

  It was about a past financial relationship between Kohona and the president of the UN Correspondents Association, who then agreed to an UNCA screening of a Rajapaksa government movie denying war crimes that UNCA tried to censor.

When Inner City Press reported on the background to Kohona getting the Rajapaksa government's denial of war crimes, “Lies Agreed To,” screened in the Dag Hammarjkold Library auditorium, the reaction from the then-president and executive committee of the United Nations Correspondents Association are summarized here.

   Now starting September 3, this UNCA says it will use the large room the UN gives it to host "diplomats" and the journalists which pay it money.  The first guest, at the same time as a Press Briefing Room session about the Security Council's work for September, is not named or disclosed. Given the past, might it be Kohona, whose financial relationship with UNCA's president the UNCA Executive Committee tried to censor?

Update of September 2: After publication of the above, this year's president of the UN Censorship Alliance told those paying money that in deference to the briefing on the Security Council's program, the time would be pushed back to 1:30. So a half-hour schmooze-fest. But with whom? Kohona? 

  The new Free UN Coalition for Access opposes all of this, and attacks on media work both inside the UN both further afield and as close at 47th Street, west of First Avenue. Watch this site.

   

As UN Hosts NGOs, Need to Defend Them In The Field For Example in Sri Lanka, FUNCA For Access to UN, Oversight for UN's "Public-Private Partnerships"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 25 -- The UN will be hosting non-governmental organizations from all over the world this week, for the 65th Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference from August 27 to 29. But what does the UN do to defend and ensure access for NGOs?

  At a UN press conference on August 25, Inner City Press put these and other questions to Maher Nasser, the Acting Head of the UN Department of Public Information. Video here and embedded below.

  Earlier this summer, for example, the government of Sri Lanka ordered NGOs to stop holding press conferences or otherwise interacting with the media. Click here for that.

  Inner City Press asked Nasser what the UN, whose UN Information Center in Colombo has been promoting this week's New York conference, actually does for NGOs in Sri Lanka amid this crackdown. Nasser cited UNESCO and the UN's human rights entities.

  Given the UN's troubling silence in Sri Lanka amid mass killings in 2009, which has given rise to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's “Rights Up Front” initiative, perhaps DPI where applicable should speak up on such restrictions put on NGOs.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access, on whose behalf Inner City Press thanked Nasser and the other panelist for the briefing, has since its inception received complaints not only on media-related abuses but also restrictions on access for civil society. 

  Nasser said the upcoming conference is about the Post-2015 Development theme, but that a sub committee exists on NGO access issues. We hope to have more on this.

  Inner City Press asked panelist Galina Angarova to expound on her too-rare for the UN Press Briefing Room questioning of the public - private partnership in which the UN increasingly engages. She said oversight and accountability are necessary.

  An example we're raised is placing the chairperson of Bank of America, the number one funder of mountain-top removal coal mining, on the UN's Sustainable Energy for All initiative, and then refusing at times to even take questions about it. There are and will be other examples. We will be covering the DPI-NGO conference: watch this site.

Footnote: Nasser was asked about the UN eliminating, or consolidating, the post of the chief of the NGO section, a topic on which we've previously reported. Nasser cited the three percent budget cut, and the work of the new overseer of NGOs (and also of advocacy). We may have more on this as well.

   

At UN, Now Homosexuelle Initiative Wien Wins NGO Committee Vote 19 to 6, Syria Offers Evidence of Abuse

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 28 -- The working day after the Australian Lesbian Medical Association won a vote at the UN for recommendation as special consultative status to ECOSOC, Austria-based Homosexuelle Initative Wien (HOSI Wien) won, by exactly the same vote.

When ALMA's application came up on May 24, Pakistan sought to put it off, asking for a copy of a scientific paper mentioned in its application. Bulgaria took the floor to call this a delay tactic, and called for a vote.

On May 28, it was Belgium calling for the vote on HOSI Wien.

There are 19 members of the NGO Committee. Two were again listed as "absent" -- Burundi and Cuba. Of those listed as present, nine voted yes, six voted no, and two abstained.

The nine "Yes" votes as recorded by Inner City Press in the room were the USA, Venezuela, Belgium, India, Israel, Nicaragua, Peru and Turkey.

The six "No" votes were China, Morocco -- which has also opposed or questioned groups dealing with Western Sahara -- Pakistan, Russia, Senegal and Sudan.

The abstainers were Kyrgyzstan and Mozambique, which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon just visited.

Inner City Press has asked, does Ban's Secretariat monitor this NGO Committee, and try to assert leadership?

On the other hand, the US on May 24 alone blocked or delayed the Islamic African Relief Agency, saying it funded Osama Bin Laden, and asking for more information: which UN agencies funded it?

Sudan complained that while the US question blocked the groups, questions about ALMA did not. But ALMA had the votes. Did the Islamic African Relief Agency? Apparently not.

  In other May 28 morning action, Russia noted that the Assyrian National Congress "has no website," and asked for an update on its work. 

  Syria -- not "Assyria" -- spoke on another item, offering to provide evidence of abuse of refugees in camps in neighboring countries. And so it goes at the UN. Watch this site.

UN Allows Roller Blade Presser, Cracks Down on Critical Press, Haiti Under Rug

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 – In a surreal press conference at the UN on Thursday, Inner City Press asked a woman on roller blades on the UN stage about Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's dismissal of claims the Department of Peacekeeping Operations spread cholera to Haiti. Video here, from Minute 28:18.

  Inner City Press had been covering the Security Council when the press conference began, on UNTV, at 11 am. There was almost no one in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium; in the end, only two reporters asked questions, including Inner City Press.

  It was the statement by the president of the NGO Peace and Cooperation, Joaquín Antuña, that his group operates under the principles of the UN that made Inner City Press run through the garage to ask a question.

  The UN mention its principles a lot these days. It says only journalists who abide by its principles can be accredited, and if the principles are violated, a reporter can be thrown out.

  But the principles are not in writing, and as Inner City Press has exposed, and is trying to address through the Free UN Coalition for Access, there are no due process protections for reporters.

  When Inner City Press got to the press conference, Ms. Anuska Gil propped on the table where the spokesperson usually sits. She had a map of where she'd skated; she cried at people's kindness.

  When Inner City Press was called on, it thanked both on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access. But then it asked what this pro-UN NGO thought about the UN dismissing the Haiti cholera claim.

  Antuña replied, “there are many negative aspects, but there are also positive aspects. Amnesty International does its work, we try to emphasize the positive aspect. The world needs the UN organization... I'm am not saying UN is wonderful. We refer to common values. UN resolutions of General Assembly are something approved by all the countries.”

  Without getting into GA resolutions for example on the alleged attack on a Saudi diplomat in Washington, or other disputed votes, it wasn't a bad answer. 

  But some wondered, how could this NGO no matter how well meaning hold an hour long press conference for only two journalists?

  Especially when the UN Department of Public Information's Stephane Dujarric last year openly threatenedInner City Press for signing into the building the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Yemen, Tawakkul Karman, who later spoke substantively at the UNTV stakeout, including some criticism of the UN for accepting immunity for Ali Saleh?

Does the UN give preference to speakers who are pro-UN? Or, as it clear, does it for now give improper preference for an Astroturf UN Correspondents Association which rather than defend journalists who are investigating the UN instead tried to get them thrown out of the UN, operating as the UN's Censorship Alliance?

Last June, UNCA tried to get Inner City Press' UN accreditation “reviewed” through a request to Dujarric from Voice of America, which said it had the support of Agence France Presse and Reuters -- whose bureau chief Louis Charbonneau after refusing written requests to explain now seems to dispute this, essentially thereby calling the Voice of America bureau chief a liar.

  After Inner City Press exposed VOA's request and filed a Freedom of Information Act request, Charbonneau and UNCA's then-president asked Inner City Press to withdraw the FOIA request. 

  This, as a matter of investigative journalism principle, Inner City Press does not do.

  Inner City Press was summoned to meet with Dujarric and another UN staffer who we will leave unnamed. Before an accreditation to the end of the year was offered, Inner City Press has handed a formal letter of reprimand for having signed-in the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

 But verbally, not in writing, the conditioning of re-accreditation had to do with how to cover the UN, specifically not insulting Ban Ki-moon even inadvertently, nor UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous. This was and remains totally inappropriate.

  And only yesterday, on the eve of the permitted roller blade press conference, Dujarric sent Inner City Press another formalistic letter, now criticizing a story it published using UNCA quotes from a meeting which Inner City Press announced was on the record, and "new" UNCA President Pam Falk screamed back, "He's going to write this up." Yes. Here it is.

  Click here ("slander!"), here, here ("don't write about me!") and here for audio of Pam Falk; here for Charbonneau.  There is more.

   What's the basis of the letter? Inner City Press immediately asked, but 23 hours later there is no answer. Tick tick tock -- another form of reporting that Dujarric has felt free to tell Inner City Press it should not use. But here it is: tick tick tock, the questions should be answered. Watch this site.