By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, February 3 -- The UN Spokesman ended his open statement at the October 29, 2015 UN noon briefing with this: “I have a bit of sad news. We have been informed that Haider Rizvi, who was, as you know, a reporter in the UN press corps for many years, died last night in Lahore, Pakistan. Our thoughts are with him and his family.”
Ours too. Haider began covering the UN in 1993; in recent years there were times he and Inner City Press were the only ones asking questions at press conferences on indigenous issues, on disarmament, decolonization and against the increasing corporatization of the UN.
Relatedly, when Inner City Press resisted attempts at censorship and ejection by the honchos of the UN Correspondents Association, then co-founded the Free UN Coalition for Access, Haider expressed support (“Bravo! I am with you) and said of UNCA, “That gang has become a king mafia.”
There is more, and now we will tell it, as we have on video to help a forthcoming film about Haider. WhileUNCA bigwigs tried in their stealth way to get Haider thrown out, ostensibly for drinking, UNCA's then and now chief Giampaolo Pioli in fact poured Haider a full tumbler of straight vodka.
Pioli was trying to get an (accurate) article about himself taken off the Internet, and Haider came into what was then UNCA's room, in the UN Library building, trying to promote peace. But Pioli was having none of it. He poured Haider a large glass of (UNCA) vodka and handed it to him.
Later, UNCA tried to get Haider thrown out for drinking. This is how UNCA operates, and what makes its belated posting of Haider's photograph on their glassed-in bulletin board so cynical. Even that has been taken down, as UNCA should be.
UNCA has been exposed taking money from indicted Ng Lap Seng's vehicle to which UNCA then have a “journalism” award while giving Ng a photo op with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. That is today's UN; Haider embodied or covered some of the better aspects of an earlier or Other UN.
Here are links to some of Haider's stories:
Police brutality (or in UN-speak, "Summary execution");
