South Korean Month as UN Security Council President To Privatize Media Access Through UN's Censorship Alliance?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- Can media access to a country's monthly Presidency of the UN Security Council be privatized, to a sub-set of correspondents which has been engaged in censorship and trying to get investigative media thrown out of the UN?

  The question is raised by South Korea's upcoming May presidency and a notice sent out by the United Nations Correspondents Association, which has become Ban's UN's Censorship Alliance:

The U.N. Correspondents Association is pleased to extend an invitation to you, on behalf of H.E. Ambassador Oh Joon, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the U.N., to a roundtable discussion to introduce the Republic of Korea's Presidency of the Security Council in May and to commemorate the 10th Anniversary (April 28) of Security Council Resolution 1540. A reception will follow the roundtable discussion.

Where & When:

Tuesday, April 29th, 2014 at the Mission of the Republic of Korea, 335 E. 45th Street (1st & 2nd Avenue).

Program:

5:00 - 6:00pm - Panel Discussion followed by Q&A

Speakers include:

Ambassador Oh Joon, Chair of the 1540 Committee

Mr. Terence Taylor, Coordinator of the 1540 Group of Experts,

Introduction by Pamela Falk, President, U.N. Correspondents Association, CBS News

6:00 pm - Reception

Due to limited space, please RSVP to contactus@unca.com, and specify if you will be attending both the roundtable discussion and/or the reception. This invitation is not transferable.

Best regards,

Pamela S. Falk
President, U.N. Correspondents Association

    Angling for this privatization, Falk of CBS has been tweeting such gems as "#South Korea Amb. Oh Joon says #DPRK #NorthKorea will have to answer for crimes sooner or later." 

 Apparently, that type of "coverage" seeks reward, by contrast to public questions if provocations on the Peninsula run both ways, click here for March 27 UNTV video from Minute 1:17.

  This type of attempted privatization has not been seen before, certainly not under Kim Sook; it is contrary to a trend of increasing access, for example requested Q&A stakeouts after Council consultations by Luxembourg in February and Nigeria so far this month.

  The Republic of Korea's Mission to the UN, through the contact listed on its website which as separate pages for the UN noon briefing and also for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has been asked several questions. Watch this site.