As UN Cites Sandy & To Delay Media Move-Back, UNCA's Counterfeit Rejected by FUNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 12 -- One impact of Hurricane Sandy on the UN was disclosed to Inner City Press on Friday: the high pay for construction workers for post-storm repairs is the UN's excuse for delaying the press corps' move-back into the UN's 38 story tower from February until April.

  The delay was announced Friday afternoon, without any explanation, that "the press will now move in April" and "UN phone, we will no longer be able to provide such lines."

  Inner City Press, also on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, immediately protested to the UN's Department of Public Information, "please provide an explanation of the further delay to April of the move back to the renovated building" and "FUNCA objects to the elimination of the UN phone lines."

   On the delay of the move back, Inner City Press was told to ask the UN Capital Master Plan and did, again on behalf of FUNCA. This answer came back from the Public Information Officer of the CMP, Werner Schmidt:

"Hi Matthew, The decision to change the move-back date to April was caused by collateral impacts of Hurricane Sandy, especially by a lack of adequate labor due to increased demand for overtime-paying construction repair jobs. This affects the new Permanent Broadcast Facility in the Conference Building, whose completion is necessary for the new press offices to function."

   The UN now cites Hurricane Sandy's impact on construction worker pay to explain delay; the UN has been much less forthcoming about Sandy's direct impact on the building, especially its still damaged (and some say moldy) third sub basement.

   Speaking of moldy, the decaying UN Correspondents Association which in 2012 allowed the UN to reduce media space by 40% in the move-back has done nothing to oppose or even explain this new delay, and the elimination of UN phones and phone numbers for the media.

   Rather, responding to FUNCA's critique of its overdue elections with no competition for the top six spots, which saw a 14% decline in turn-out after a year of attempted censorship and dis-accreditation, an UNCA official on January 11 posted a counterfeit flier pretending that FUNCA "congratulates" UNCA.

   Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only did the 2012 UNCA Executive Committee try to expel Inner City Press and get it thrown out of the UN for its investigative coverage, including of UNCA conflicts of interest -- they also encouraged the involuntary reduction of other correspondents to "emeritus" status with reduced rights.

   This followed them allowing a cameraman to be thrown out of the UN for a single mistake, and an UNCA official piling one with an inaccurate wire story written without even trying to speak to the expelled journalist.

Despite this, UNCA's counterfeit flier purports to have FUNCA members saying they "will no longer attack UNCA members on our websites and in our Tweets."

   Is it "attacking" to publish US government records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that show that Lou Charbonneau of Reuters, re "elected" as UNCA First Vice President with no competition but with 30% fewer votes that the previous year, along with Tim Witcher of Agence France-Presse told Voice of America that Reuters and AFP would support throwing Inner City Pressout of the UN?

   Or is the counterfeit flier an attempt, as before, to stop truthful coverage which calls into question the free press credibility of these two and any organization they "lead" or control?

   There has been no coverage much less attack on the majority of UNCA members. But these two, and other involved in the attempted censorship and dis-accreditation, try to use the others figuratively as human shields. 

   Will they succeed in this with the new president, who has said nothing about the 2012 censorship and dis-accreditation bids? It is not yet known.

   It was these restriction on coverage and media critique that Inner City Press rejected when demanded by the UNCA Executive Committee in 2012, and it rejects it still. It is pathetic that a supposed media freedom organization would think it appropriate to tell journalists what they can and cannot cover. Watch this site.

At UN, Meeting on Billion-Dollar Rehab Plan Closed to the Press, Safety Questions

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/cmp1uncovered050709.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 7 -- As the UN spends billions of dollars on renovations with a general contractor Skanska embroiled in litigation about mishandling asbestos, its Capital Master Plan director Michael Adlerstein through his spokesman on Monday ordered security officers to eject a reporter from a “Town Hall Meeting” about the CMP. Adlerstein is under fire for having claimed that the litigation against Skanska doesn't exist, and for the claim that required Security Risk Assessments were either not required or were already done. In a letter delivered May 5, but dated April 23, Adlerstein acknowledged that the Security Risk Assessment are belatedly being done, to be finished, he wrote, by the end of June.

At Thursday meeting, senior UN Security officials arrived late at 1:45 pm. They are waiting for you, another officer told them. It is said that Adlerstein is trying to explain his own mis-statement by laying the entire blame on the UN Safety and Security Service, specifically on Bruno Henn.

In the brief portion of the meeting observed by this reporter prior to the ejection directed by Adlerstein's spokesman Werner Schmidt, Adlerstein narrated a slide about the reduction in service in the UN cafeteria. Monday, workers in the cafeteria complained to Inner City Press that they that day received notice of layoffs starting on August 2, with no relocation or retraining. They contrasts this treatment at the UN to what governments around the world are going during the financial crisis.

These issues, and the CMP, are overseen by the UN Department of Management, headed by Angela Kane, who is being questioned by staff and even member states these days on issues ranging from irregularities in the UN Medical Service she oversees through now triple confirmed attempts to keep her unit inside the UN compound during the CMP and force other units to move twice, to the suspension of the National Competitive Exam, one of the few merit-based ways that applicants from under-represented countries can work for the UN.

A well-placed UN staff member on Thursday told Inner City Press that since Germany is over-represented, it and Angela Kane, who he called a German national, favor the suspension of the NCE. Another said that when Germans took the test, their over-representation led to throwing out of some results. Another has chimed in noting that there are over 400 people "on the roster." But the reality is, hirings and "regularization" are being done for those hired outside the NCE, from the field.

Ms. Kane has said she has no time to answer questions, that all these should be asked at the UN's noon briefing. There, however, a limitation on the number of questions that can be asked appears to be in place.

Even so, at the noon briefing of May 6, Inner City Press asked

Inner City Press: a letter has emerged from Mr. Adlerstein of the Capital Master Plan confirming something that had been earlier, I think, denied by the Secretariat that these security risk assessments that were supposed to be produced for the swing spaces and for this building, in fact have not been produced. But now they claim they will be done by the end of June. What’s the explanation of the earlier statement that these were either done or were not necessary? And there is a reference to the CEB meeting of 4 April in one of the letters. Can you confirm that this issue came up and how does this impact...[interrupted]?

Spokesperson: I cannot confirm it at this point. I can ask, of course, Mr. Adlerstein to answer your question.

More than 24 hours later, no answer had been provided. And then Adlerstein through his spokesman had UN Security eject the Press from covering his "Town Hall" meeting.

News analysis: While Adlerstein, Kane and the UN's Ban Ki-moon administration have claimed to be transparent, the ejection of Press trying to cover essentially public comments about the billions of dollars the UN is proposing to spend is a new low. Watch this site.

Update of 1:58 p.m. -- as another UN correspondent has said, since the Capital Master Plan impacts everyone who works here, including the press, it is particularly inappropriate to close the CMP "town hall" meeting to the press who work here....

Update of 2:16 p.m., still outside the meeting room -- given his CMP chief's exclusion of the Press from a meeting the sign for which didn't even say "Closed," it seems more than a little ironic that earlier on May 7 -- and May 6 on Park Avenue -- Ban Ki-moon praised the press, and even "bloggers," for "holding authorities to account."

Update of 2:29 p.m. -- it emerges that even though the UN has not done the Security Risk Assessments, it has already moved staff to 380 Madison Avenue, starting on April 27...

Update of 2:59 p.m. -- While SSS's Bruno Henn, leaving the meeting, said "no comment" to Inner City Press, after another wait Inner City Press spoke with both Werner Schmidt and Michael Adlerstein. The former maintained that the press had to be excluded, saying "you wouldn't want staff in the press briefing room, would you?" Inner City Press said it had no problem with that, and asked when Adlerstein would hold a press conference. While that wasn't answered, Adlerstein said, "you are invited to the next town hall meeting." We will continue to follow this story, short- and long-term.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/cmp1uncovered050709.html