UN GATE, August 3 – Of the UN
missions Inner City Press wrote to this week, including
Security Council elected members, permanent members and UN
Committee on Information members, asking each to raise a
simple question with MALU and the Secretary-General's
office about an eight-year-old, unexplained press ban, one
has written back with an actual answer.
It is Ghana.
"We have noted the concerns raised
regarding your application for UN media accreditation and
the questions concerning the applicable review
procedures," Nuong Faalong, head of information and public
affairs at the the Ghanaian Mission wrote. "The matter has
been referred to the appropriate UN authorities for
consideration. We will revert as appropriate should there
be any further information to convey."
That is not a grant of accreditation. It is
not even a promise of one. But it is a government
confirming it received the letter, read it, and did
something with it, which puts Ghana, as of this week,
ahead of a long list of missions that pride themselves,
loudly and often, on defending press freedom and UN
institutional credibility, and that have so far managed
neither a form letter nor an acknowledgment.
Several of the Committee on Information's
own European members, a body whose actual mandate is
examining UN public information policy, have said nothing
at all, eight days after being asked directly and given
specific, current news pegs (the straw poll, the
accreditation application, MALU's own auto-reply) to hang
a response on. Committee membership, it turns out, is
easier to hold than to use. (Notably, UN Security
Council member Liberia has also confirmed receipt; we hope
to have more on their action - and on the inaction of Denmark,
written to as UNSC President for August: nothing).
Then there is the inaction and worse of
USUN and Mike Waltz. We'll have more on that - we will not
cease.
Inner City Press take this as it comes: on
to the next letter, the next straw poll, the next UNGA
session. The coverage does not wait for an accreditation
decision, and neither does the argument for restoring it —
which remains what it always was. Not gratitude for a form
letter. Immediate restoration, a written reason if there
is one, and a functioning appeal if there is not. Ghana
noticed. The rest of the building should too. Watch this
site.
