UNITED NATIONS, September 20 – The UN is limitingaccess passes during this UN General Assembly week to what it calls “resident correspondents,” many of whom rarely even come into the UN, some whom have never asked any questions. Not only access, but also "pooling" opportunities, are limited without disclosure to insider correspondents. This hit a new low on September 20, when Inner City Press' request to cover the meeting of Egypt's Sisi with Secretary General Antonio Guterres was denied - and a rarely present Egyptian state media was authorized by the UN to "pool" the meeting. Afterward, Inner City Press asked for Akhbar al Yom's pool report, and got this: "Evidently there was not much to report as the photo was in GA-200 and the meeting in another room. They welcomed each other, the president signed the guest book, they took hand shake photos and went to the other room." Even in GA-200, in which Inner City Press was previously allowed to cover bilateral meetings, there was more to observe. Inner City Press has asked: "why then was a print pool reporter given one of the few spots in G-200? Who decided that Egyptian state media would take one of the spots, as pool? And as pool, who was there on the Egyptian side, and on the Secretariat side? Feltman? UN Human Rights?" Did Akhbar al Yom, the "pool," even look for these things? Would they report them if they saw them? Their retiree is a former president of UNCA, which bragged to its dues paying members that the UN "has informed us that we have approval to send a pool reporter to the SG bi laterals/photo ops, where possible. If you are interested in pooling one of these events, please send an email to the UNCA office... Sherwin Bryce-Pease, President, United Nations Correspondents Association." Egypt, needless to say, has one of the worst press freedom records in the world - but its state media was on September 20 the UN's, and UNCA's, "pool" to covers Sisi's UNSG meeting.
Meanwhile the investigative Press asking the UN every day about UN reform and corruption, Cameroon, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Burundi and elsewhere, is banned from the passes, as are the many journalists working out of the UN Media Center (in which the handler of French President Emmanuel Macron took over a whole row, despite claims there are no assigned seats). The UN's holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric, when Inner City Press asked, said le Media Center, ce n'est pas moi. He also said, in a "background" briefing he tried to exclude Inner City Press from, that he would be sending around the "grid" of UNGA events. He never sent it to Inner City Press, nor presumably to the other journalists the UN denies the special "UNCA" passes to. But Inner City Press obtained the grid from a disgusted whistleblower elsewhere in the UN system and now in the spirit of the Free UN Coalition for Access puts it online here, for wider use. (If Scribd stops working, as it sometimes does, it is also on Patreon, here.) Open the UN. On September 15, as Inner City Press worked in the small booth it's confined to since being evicted from the UN Press Briefing Room and its UN office by UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, it saw some insider correspondents passing by and into the Briefing Room. To not fall into a trap, Inner City Press asked UN Media Accreditation what the event was, of which it was not informed. You can go in, it was told. Inside, three senior UN officials we'll leave unnamed were giving a background briefing about Secretary General Antonio Guterres' schedule for the General Assembly week. Inner City Press asked why there are no events about Yemen and Burundi, and told the officials to tell Guterres to ensure that all journalists are treated fairly. Dujarric cut that off and said, "You're here, aren't you?" Only because the other venue he'd tried to invite his friends to was too small and the event was moved. This is how today's UN is working - or not working. This too: Inner City Press has learned that last month, after it asked Dujarric how the UN had vetted a shadowy event co-sponsored as exposed in the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe trial by a business interest and two developing world countries, Dujarric told the Permanent Representative of one of the sponsors NOT to talk to Inner City Press, it would just write about it. The UN has arrived at the situation in which its holdover spokesman tells member states not to speak to the Press. Now those at the top of the UN know about it - what will they do? They are responsible. New DPI chief Alison Smale has as of yet changed nothing, has not even responded to a petition on the issues. Retaliation for coverage continues, and exclusion or attempted exclusion from UN "Communications." Reform was discussed and even, for once, asked about, but only vaguely. The UN and its affiliates were bribed by Ng Lap Seng, as shown in a trial this summer. No answers. Back last Friday an UNnamed UN speaker in what was declared a background briefing not made available to media coming to cover the GA week told Inner City Press that while it is not a “resident correspondent” - it was evicted while covering the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe corruption scandal - it could perhaps stakeout for example the Yemen meeting, but only with an “escort.” That is a UN minder, some of whom ask Inner City Press who it is trying to speak to. This is UNacceptable, the Free UN Coalition for Accesssays, as it the weakened wi-fi and lack of LAN lines for any but the insider correspondents of UNCA. The UNnamed speaker said that the limitation of the access passes was agreed to, or requested by, UN Security and this UNCA (UN Correspondents Association a/k/a UN Censorship Alliance). It was for seeking to cover this group's event in the UN Press Briefing Room, presumptively open to all journalists, to see if they would address having received funds from then indict, now convicted Ng Lap Seng that Inner City Press was evicted and still restricted. We'll have more on this, and access issues before, during and after #UNGA72.
UNITED NATIONS, August 4 -- At the UN, transparency and access are in decline, due to collusion. Rather than follow any semblance of a rule of law, the UN doles out information on a selective basis to those who support or don't critique it - some of whom then charge money for access to the "UN" information.
Inner City Press on July 31 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric why he had not informed all UN resident correspondents of Ban's August 4 visit to the White House.
Dujarric replied, "It was sent out to UNCA.. I think that UNCA, FUNCA, as I said in the statement, I would urge both parties to take all steps and solve this issue." Video here and see below.
On August 4 at the UN noon briefing, Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq said the UN would be issuing a read-out. But by 2:00 pm, an hour after the White House pool read-out, nothing from the UN. Or only to the UN Censorship Alliance?
Here's from the White House pool, annotated below:
"Ban followed the President's remarks by hailing an "extremely constructive meeting" and spoke to the President's recent "extraordinary diplomatic achievements", mentioning the Iran nuclear deal, the normalization of ties with Cuba, and the "successful visit to Africa".
Climate change: "I highly commend President Obama's strong commitment" to climate change and his "visionary and bold leadership".
"The Clean Power Plan powers economies and generates jobs. It generates huge dividends here at home."
On the Paris US climate summit at the end of the year: Ban says he is "working very closely with President Hollande" and with Chancellor Merkel (as the head of the G-7).
Also: "this is a top priority. We have agreed on a set 17 sustainable development goals." To the President: "We really count on your strong support."
More quotes:
"We are completely on the same page on Syrian issues."
"On Yemen, there is no military solution. There is only a solution by political way, by dialogue. 80% of the population is in need of urgent humanitarian assistance."
Ban also said he commends "President Obama's leadership on South Sudan." His meeting on South Sudan in Africa "made a big impact."
Also in the Oval Office today, the whole 8-person strong delegation from the SG's office:
Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor on Post-2015 Development Planning Susanna Malcorra, Chief of Staff (officially Chef de Cabinet) Janos Pasztor, special advisor on climate change (officially UN Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change) Robert Orr, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning Edmond Mulet, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Andrew Gilmour, Political Director Chang Wook-jin, Special Assistant Stéphane Dujarric, UN spokesperson."
Of the quotes, we note Ban's "We are completely on the same page on Syrian issues." This includes, of course, the US "arm and equip" program.
The attendees did NOT including Herve Ladsous (see below), but did include Robert Orr, who does not seem to be a UN official, at least full time, anymore. Chang Wook-jin is not much seen or known around the UN. We'll have more on this.
On August 3, another development-focused correspondent asked Dujarric:
Question: I was away last week. Can you describe what the decision is when information on Secretary-General’s visits or events are decided between MALU [Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit] and UNCA [United Nations Correspondents Association] and how it’s decided when to send the invites?
Spokesman: Sure, we try to send the information out as… when we’re able to send it out. We traditionally use the vector of the UN Correspondent’s Association or MALU. If some felt that the information was not spread accordingly, we will try to do a better job.
Question: Thanks.
Spokesman: Matthew.
Inner City Press: I second that.
UNCA is the UN Correspondents Association, now the UN Censorship Alliance. It is problematic for Dujarric to ever use the "vector" of UNCA, not only because not all resident correspondents aren't and dont' have to be members of UNCA, which has in fact tried to get media thrown out of the UN -- UNCA charges money to receive the information the UN gives it. We'll have more on this.
On July 30, when disgrunted "members" of UNCA who are strong-armed into paying money in order to get such information informed Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access of the inside game, Inner City Press immediately asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric:
"Please confirm or deny that the Secretary General is visiting the White House next week, and if confirm, say how and to whom this has already been announced or disclosed.
"Separately and not as pressing as the above, Inner City Press is multiply informed of DSS Security officer, more than twenty years in UN's employ, fired or separated from service for improperly removing a bottle of wine from a reception. Given among other things the individual's length of service, please state whether there were other charges, and any impact on pension."
While this was asked on the afternoon of July 30, the stated deadline for signing up to cover Ban's dutiful White House visit, there was no response that day. (The Spokesman was still working, for example at Morocco's Throne Day at the Waldorf Astoria's Starlight Roof.)
Instead, on July 31 Dujarric returned with this, modified only to pardon typos:
"We asked through UNCA if journalists would like to join the press gaggle at the White House. If you would like to join, please fill out the information requested in the form below before the noon briefing. Also, include a scanned copy of your press pass... The meeting will be around 10a. You will need to be at the WH gate about 90mns before. More details to come, if you tell me you will join.
"On the ofher issue, I have no information at this time."
Inner City Press for FUNCA immediately replied:
"UNCA does not represent all UN resident correspondents, as you know, so it was and is inappropriate to limit such information -- the Secretary General's meeting at the White House -- to UNCA. This is particularly but not only true in light of UNCA actions of which you are aware.
"This information should have been sent at least to all resident correspondents, as is is done even with information about the UN parking garage, on an e-mail list in the possession of MALU (and I assume your Office). Please confirm that this should have been and will be the practice."
Dujarric's response was merely this:
"We can have a longer discussion on this later. Let me know if you would like to join the group at the White House."
This was and is UNacceptable. Inner City Press went to the July 31 noon briefing and asked why all resident correspondents had not been informed so all would have equal access. Dujarric replied, "UNCA, FUNCA, I would urge both parties to take all steps and solve this issue." From the UN transcript:
Spokesman Dujarric: UNCA, FUNCA, I would… as I said in the statement, I would urge both parties to take bold steps and solve this issue once and for all.
Inner City Press: I would just say send it to all resident correspondents like you do things about the garage and everything else. It seems pretty straightforward.
Dujarric: I hear you.
First, whether or not FUNCA had come into existence after UNCA tried to silence reporting ranging from the Sri Lanka landlord conflicts of interest of its president to UN Peacekeeping's Herve Ladsous, UN correspondents are not required to pay allegiance to UNCA. So the notice should not be through them.
Second, it is UNseemly for the UN to try to steer business to UNCA, whose "leadership" not only hasn't criticized Ban's lack of transparency but has actively tried to get the investigative Press that does report on this thrown out. This is the UN's Alliance.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has not held a sit-down press conference in months. From an open meeting in which he gave a speech to UN Peacekeeping, embroiled in rape cover up scandals, Ban's security ejected Inner City Press, at the demand of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous.
But the UN tries to conceal this by partnering with an also in decay UN Correspondents Association, which does not complain about Ban or the ejection of the Press by Ladsous -- in fact, UNCA itself tried to eject the Press for reporting on its current president's conflict of interest, unilaterally granting a UN screening for a Sri Lanka government film denying war crimes after renting an apartment to Sri Lanka's ambassador, here.
"Dear Colleagues, The Secretary-General will be going to Washington for a meeting with President Obama on Wednesday 4 August. The meeting will take place around 10am.
There will be a photo-op/brief remarks by POTUS and the SG in the Oval Office after the meeting. If any UNCA members are interested in attending, as the White House said they could accommodate a few journalists, please contact Stephane Dujarric by tomorrow afternoon, Thursday. July 30th:
Stephane Dujarric (Mr.) Spokesman for the Secretary-General United Nations Headquarters | Room: S-233 New York, NY, 10017
Transportation to Washington is the correspondent's own responsibility.
Giampaolo Pioli, UNCA President"
This notice was given to Inner City Press by dissatisfied UNCA "members" who are strong-armed into paying money in order to get such information. (We note that August 4 is Tuesday, while Wednesday is August 5.) Inner City Press sought confirmation more than an hour before this publication -- "Please confirm or deny that the Secretary General is visiting the White House next week, and if confirm, say how and to whom this has already been announced or disclosed" -- but none was received.
Given these trends, discontent within UNCA rank and file led to the release of these [annotated] minutes of a July 13 meeting of UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance, below. These minutes state that
"Giampaolo Pioli announced dinner on Monday, December 14, at Cipriani Wall Street. Site was selected because of SG’s schedule and space availability. Honorees include Prince Albert of Monaco and most likely Leonardo DiCaprio whose final confirmation is expected in August."
DiCaprio may conflate the UN with this UN Censorship Alliance; it is unclear if he knows his inviter for example rented one of his apartments to an alleged war criminal, that used the organization to demand that an article reporting this be removed (censored) from the Internet or the investigative Press ejected from the UN.
An award at Cipriani sounds nice - but from whom? This is the sloppiness, much of it intentional, at the UN. We'll have more on this.
"Giampaolo Pioli (Chair), more proxies than present
"Giampaolo announced dinner at Cipriani Wall Street, "special discount price of $100." Site was selected because of SG’s schedule and space availability. Honorees include Prince Albert of Monaco and most likely Leonardo DiCaprio whose final confirmation is expected in August. UNCA members were encouraged to apply for the media awards [No conflict there, of course].
Security arrangements for the upcoming UNGA: Green Ps will not have to wait in the same line as those seeking accreditation... High speed internet issues: a possible solution is having a separate access code for media center reporters in the NLB. [UNCA seems most concerned with obtained more privileges than other journalists.]
UNSC stakeout: No access to the council when meetings are not being held, but reporters can move there before meetings once UN TV sets up. [UNCA "leaders" have tried to limit other journalists like this before: FUNCA resists it.]
Reporters will be able to pay for high speed internet and access to other Time Warner channels for a fee. Anyone who wants to subscribe to TW needs to inform Melanie by email in order to provide a list to the installers. [So UNCA is a middleman, purportedly for all journalists, for corporate Time Warner?]
Review of procedures for holding UNCA press conferences: It was decided that UNCA will be more selective in hosting press conferences and will focus on subjects and speakers that are a big draw. Meeting adjourned at 5:00 pm. It was followed by a wine and cheese reception."
The invitation, which even most UNCA members ignored, said "At the end of the meeting, we will have a glass of wine to wish everyone a good summer vacation."
Whether the Hamptons or the Amalfi coast, when UN press access is in decline, it time to share a glass of wine.
2015 opened with Ladsous openly refused to answer Press questions, video here.
"Leadership" of the UN Correspondents Association, far from questioning this, took advantage by grabbing two qeustions, just as UNCA demands and most often wastes side-aside first questions at UN press conferences.
The following day, January 23, there was a UN Security Council meeting about human rights and UN Peacekeeping missions, including MONUSCO. But the meeting was closed to the public and press. Inner City Press for theFree UN Coalition for Access asked and asks, Why? The old United Nations Correspondents Association, on the other hand, not only doesn't protest such closures - it scheduled its only "faux fighters" meeting for exactly the same time.
This decayed UN Correspondents Association, run by president Giampaolo Pioli who has himself demanded censorship, held its annual meeting on January 23, and even by its own account, not a work about access problems or lack of information.
Here was the agenda, annotated, now with "minutes" as provided by disgruntled members who say the UN "makes" them pay UNCA, added in italics:
Space, "including journalists on the waiting list for office space" -- on January 23, UNCA's "leadership" said that "that after meeting with DPI working space on the 4th floor willbecome available to 6-8 journalists beginning in February."
Even or especially if this representation is true, there is a problem: UNCA is essentially selling or trying to sell these UN spaces. UNCA tells correspondents that if they pay money to join it, they will be helped in getting office space from the UN. Is this proper?
Less than a quarter of those UNCA took $66,485 from attended this meeting; numerous Executive Committee members did not attend. Pioli bragged of "a larger number of sponsors," but the minutes did not list them. There'll be more on this.
Meanwhile, UNCA leadership is proposal to downgrade some with "white" UN passed to "green," requiring them to go through a separate entrance and metal detectors. UNCA is responsible for Banning many from entry into the UN.
Now UNCA brags that HRW will use or be used by its space. This is shameful - and we'll have more on it. Pioli sat in on the January 26 noon briefing, apparently to see if any of these outrages would be aired, typically asking no questions at all.
"Social media" - despite Ban's UN purporting to use UNCA to reach all journalists at the UN, the Press is blocked from UNCA's moribund social media presence. Is this attributable to all 15 Executive Committee members? Just Pioli?
On January 23, Pioli said that the Reuters correspondent who grabbed two questions after Ladsous said "I don't respond to your questions Mister" is in charge of UNCA tweets.
Similar to the claim that UN labor issues are handed in happy one-way meeting with staff during country visits, it is with this that it seems the UN will partner to say it has listened on media access issues.
After the September 2014 General Assembly week UNCA "minutes" and partial list of grievances were provided to FUNCA by one of UNCA's many disgruntled members. They are laughable. The ejection of non-French journalists from the UN Briefing Room was not mentioned, nor the physical blocking of filming.
Instead, UNCA complains that there is too much news during the General Assembly -- they want fewer side events -- and apparently too many journalists at the UN: they want a private wi-fi password leaving the current open wi-fi only for "guests and others."
Tellingly, one of the UNCA proposals is for a booklet co-signed by Ban Ki-moon and UNCA.
With this bogus list and presumably seeking that booklet, they say that the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit proposes to meet only with their Executive Committee. This is akin to a fake wrestling match, in which the two sides pretend to fight, for an audience.
The Free UN Coalition for Access has told MALU, but repeats: if they even aspire to legitimacy, the UN must reach out to all journalists, at the UN and ideally beyond, and not that subset which pay UNCA money. That is a decidedly partial subset: a fake wrestling match.
The UN while throwing out media from workspace gives its UN Censorship Alliance a large room, which it then limits to those that pay it money in dues. Here's how it works: a new media at the UN is told, from the pinnacle of the UN's Censorship Alliance, to pay UNCA $90 and UNCA will get the UN to give the media UN office space.
The Free UN Coalition for Access targeted these censorship practices in aSeptember 29 flier, online, in the UN including on the "open" bulletin board it got the UN to install (the flier was torn down, one can only imagine by whom, but has gone back up.)
UNITED NATIONS, December 9 -- Nearing the end of a year at the UN which featured one Under Secretary General who refuses to answer Press questions and several who refuse to hold press conferences at all, Sunday there was a small response from the UN.
Since the response promises that information will be made public, we make the response, and requests, public here.
The Free UN Coalition on Access, the day after its launch, raised a number of issues and reform proposals to the head of the UN's Department of Public Information.
One of the most concrete issues was a meeting he has scheduled for December 10 with some members of the UN Correspondents Association executive committee, about how media space will be allocated in the repaired UN headquarters.
Ignoring for now the other issues -- about chief UN Peacekeeper Herve Ladsous refusing to answer questions, and disparities in the treatment of media organizations covering the UN -- the delegated answer concerned only the December 10 meeting on space:
"rest assured that all resident correspondents, whether members of UNCA, FUNCA or of no organization, will be treated the same and offered the same services at the same rate."
Even this is a contested point. Wire services which are represented on the UNCA executive committee have gotten big private offices; other wire services have been given smaller, shared space.
Media from Korea, the Secretary General's home country, keep space they rarely use. Other correspondents have been ousted from their spaces. And on these and other issues, UNCA has done nothing.
Here are some of the other issues, excerpted from FUNCA's first but not last letter to Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, the Under-Secretary-General for Public Information:
During the General Debate in September, we were troubled to be told that the only way to get passes to cover events on the second floor of the North Lawn building was through UNCA. The UN should not be forcing correspondents to go through UNCA.
We are requesting that henceforth UN passes and other benefits not be distributed through UNCA, that first questions in press conferences not automatically go to UNCA (for now, we propose that one in four first question not go to UNCA), and that the "pool" for photo opportunities not be limited to UNCA members, much less UNCA executive committee members.
As it stands now, non-favored photographers, who have worked at the UN for eight years, are turned away from photo opportunities. This is not acceptable.
Given not only the UNCA executive committee's involvement in the June 20 letter from Voice of America seeking "review" of accreditation status but also a failure to defend other ousted correspondents, we ask that you inform FUNCA, and also otherwise make public, every withholding or limiting of accreditation...
We remain troubled and interested to discover who these UN officials were, as we believe you should be.
Longer term, we urge you to push for a UN Freedom of Information Act, an idea we previously discussed with then USG for Management Alicia Barcena but on which no progress has been made: quite the opposite.
We respectfully request -- as apparently the UNCA executive committee has not -- that you schedule and hold a Q&A press conference, and urge that USG Patricia O'Brien and all other USGs at headquarters do so. Many have been in office for some time without holding such Q&A.
Instead, it says the issues will be listened to and perhaps addressed soon -- not on December 10, Inner City Press has learned, but immediately thereafter -- by USG Launsky-Tieffenthal. It also states, providing more basis for this publication, that "DPI expects that UNCA will share information from that meeting with all Resident Correspondents whether or not they are members of UNCA."
This has not been happening, and it is unclear how it could. When Inner City Press asked for a list of accredited correspondents at the UN, it was told this information is private and would not be provided. Would the UN give it only to UNCA? There is no need or benefit in a one-party system. Watch this site.
