At UN, Ban Ki-moon Takes Three Softball Questions on Climate, No Answer to Inner City Press on Burundi

By Matthew Russell Lee 

UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- Amid self-congratulations about the Paris Agreement on climate change, several environmental groups even inside the conference site on December 12 were critical. But when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took three softball questions from correspondents at the UN on December 14, it was another stage in Ban and his enablers' use of the UN to campaign for a Nobel Prize. The first question was, by CBS, to ask Ban about his legacy. 

The next, by the outgoing vice president of the UN Correspondents Association -- selling seats with Ban for $6000 on Wall Street -- was, There is criticism, what is your response? But not a single criticism was listed: the easiest question possible. The last was, from UNCA's earlier in the day question, was What should be do?

  Inner City Press asked loudly about corpses dumped in the streets over the weekend in Burundi, where several UN member states are warning of a new genocide, and on which Ban and his office have yet to comment. Ban had no response - he returned to say he will brief the General Assembly; his spokesman said he will take more questions on December 16: also pre-selected?

  Later in the day, Ban and his UN Censorship Alliance which sells access with him will be reviving and re-establishing UN corruption in the wake of the indictments of former President of the General Assembly John Ash, Sheri Yan, the founder of South South News and Ng Lap Seng. Watch this site.

On COP 21, earlier on December 14, Inner City Press asked at the UN climate change press conference which replaced the noon briefing and all other topics about developed countries skirting responsibility and liability, and of the Trans Pacific Partnership undercuts efforts on climate. The answer was of a Twitter feed nearly uniformily positive. The UN, apparently, hears and answers only what it wants.

An NGO from the United States pointed out that President Barack Obama is pushing the Trans Pacific Partnership, which will undercut climate change efforts; Obama's “climate change hiatus” after the failure of the Waxman Markey bill failed in 2009. 

  An NGO from the Philippines called the agreement less concrete than in the past; another called it a “huge disappointment” on human rights. But there was Ban Ki-moon, talking about all his travel in the past nine years (and, one surmised, campaigning of a Nobel Peace Prize, with an eye on the Korean peninsula). A stream of press releases ensued; we'll have more on this.

  Back on November 20 in the run-up to the talks, Inner City Press asked UN official Janos Pasztor if commitments on adaptation funding will be increased, about corporations making sometimes dubious pledges in connection with CoP21 and specifically about requests that the Green Climate Fund not accredit HSBC or Credit Agricole, given their track records.

  Pasztor earnestly answered the questions, though he said he was unaware of the request to the GCF about the two banks (see here); he also said that while the march planned in Paris for November 29 has been canceled by the government, marches can be held elsewhere - in other countries.

   Agence France Presse, before other journalists got even one question, cut in with repeated “follow-ups.” France is branding CoP21, while now limited civil society participation - except for corporations.

  Relatedly, when the UNFCCC held a press conference in Bonn earlier in the week, the corporate media in the room had no questions, then few questions. But the selection of questions submitted by social media trended toward Thomson Reuters Foundation and the Climate Group; press questions submitted by Twitter and email were never answered. We'll have more on this.

On October 13 Inner City Press asked Pasztor about criticism of the OECD's claims about developed countries' progress toward $100 billion in 2020, and about the IMF's or Christine Lagarde's call for a carbon tax.Video here.

  Pasztor replied that at the meeting in Peru, finance ministers had raised questions about the OECD's methodology, which he said the OECD Secretary General had responded to. He called Lagarde's proposals “an important way that countries can address this issue.”

  Back on September 21 the 2015 Equator Prize winners were announced at a UN press conference featuring Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin, UNDP's Helen Clark and UNFCCC's Christiana Figueres, about whose 3 degree Celsius prediction Inner City Press asked last week.

 Inner City Press asked Figueres about her fellow UN official Janos Pasztor's prediction that current Intended Nationally Determined Contributions would equate to 3.5 degrees. She did not disagree; UNDP's Helen Clark said the INDCs are not ambitious enough yet.  

  Given UNDP's direct work with governments, Inner City Press asked Helen Clark about, for example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo being accuses of going soft on illegal logging, for example on Lebanese-owned firm Cotrefor. Video here.

  Alec Baldwin cited Canadian tar sands, and also ExxonMobil (earlier on September 21, Inner City Press asked about BNP Paribas funding coal power plants). Climate Week began... 

  Inner City Press on September 17 asked UN's Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Janos Pasztor whether INDCs to date would raised temperatures by 3 degrees Celsius, as Christiana Figueres has said, or 2.5 degree as the Guardian has an unnamed UK official saying.Video here.

  Pasztor's answer to Inner City Press included "3.5 degrees;" Figueres' spokesperson chimes in this is the difference between frying and cooking. But who was the Guardian's anonymous "merely warming" source?

  Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning, spoke about financing issues, on which Inner City Press asked about how to count if the $100 billion goal is reached by 2020. 

Back on August 11 after the climate change announcement of Australia, Inner City Press on August 11 asked UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about it, video here, transcript here:

Inner City Press: in the statement about the countries coming out with their climate change targets, Australia came out with one.  It's sort of become a touchstone, many people are saying there's no way it would lead to 2°C…

Spokesman Dujarric:  First of all, we very much welcome countries that issue their INDC.  It's an important step, and we very much hope that all Member States will do so.  They really need to be seen as a floor and not a ceiling.  They're a starting point.  There will be discussions prior to Paris.  There will, obviously, be discussions in Paris.  People are free to, obviously, express their opinion on certain countries' INDCs, but for our part, we're glad we have them, and we do see them as a starting point in the discussions.

Back on June 18 when the UN gave a climate change briefing by UNDP's Cassie Flynn, and Jo Scheuer, on June 18 Inner City Press asked about the under-funding of the Least Development Countries Fund, and if South Korea is backsliding in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. Video here.

  The answers, on film, were to promote other funding vehicles, and to say that South Korea has still yet to file its INDC.

Back on June 4 the UN's Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Janos Pasztor held a press conference and Inner City Press asked him about unspent funds at the Clean Development Mechanism in Bonn, and about reported backsliding by South Korea on its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions on greenhouse gas reduction.

  Pasztor said that the CDM is still needed; he said country have committed not to backslide. Video here. (South Korea had yet to submit its INDCs, it seems). Inner City Press asked Pasztor to provide a comment, if he has one, once South Korea's filing is made.

Back on May 5, Inner City Press asked him about criticism of the Green Climate Fund, including at the recent Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Video here and embedded below.

  Specifically, why will the "Green" Climate Fund provide financial for coal-powered plants? Pasztor replied that some felt that an exclusion for coal would have been divisive. On statements at the PFII that the UN is helping to "monetize" nature, Pasztor replied that most states feel differently. But what about the indigenous?
  
  Pasztor in his opening statement had praised the UN Pension Fund for now investing in "green equities" and "green bonds." Since the UN has responded to Press questions about irregularities alleged at the Pension Fund by emphasizing how separate and independent it is, Inner City Press asked Pazstor if the UN Secretariat had brought about this Pension Fund decision.

 Pazstor replied that the Pension Fund answers to the Secretary General and that "she" - Carolyn Boykin, presumably - had made this decision. We'll have more on this, after noting Pasztor by no means the least responsive UN official...

 When last September 21 the People's Climate March assembled at Manhattan's Columbus Circle, there were anti-corporate puppets in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower, speeches by coal miners and from the Marshall Islands.

   Many called on the UN to do better. But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined the march mid-way, at Radio City Musical Hall with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Senator Chuck Schumer was on hand, walking by a Bronx contingent chanting how Fresh Direct has broken its promises.

  Inner City Press' 90 second video of the march is here.

  The UN's or "BKM" (Ban Ki-moon) Climate Summit will feature Cargill and Walmart, Credit Agricole and Bank of America. The last of these is the first, in terms of funding mountain top coal removal. These are the contradiction. Inner City Press tweeted photos on@InnerCityPress. More to follow.

  The night before the People's Climate March, the UN buildings on First Avenue lit up with photos and footage of trees and fish and written messages. It is called "illUmiNations." Inner City Press video here.

   Inner City Press late on September 19, after covering the Ukraine,Iraq, Ebola and Iran nuclear meetings inside the UN, went out and found a sort of trial run for the screening taking place on First Avenue, alreadylined with NYPD cement blocks. Photo here.

   Looking back at the UN's press release for the upcoming "VIP Press Screening" -- hard to know how they could exclude non-VIPs from it, or why they would want to -- there were laudatory quotes about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and: 

Obscura Digital has staged similar large-scale architectural mapping projection events on the Sydney Opera House, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. For examples of previous work, please visit the following link http://wdrv.it/1tx7Emd.

 In that video compilation, well worth watching, there are also corporate projects for Coca-Cola and YouTube owned by Google, with history at the UN. 

  A message Inner City Press photographed on September 19, here,  was "In nature's economy, the currency is not money but life." Is this true of Coca-Cola?

   There are questions about the UN's UNcritical approach to corporations and corporate "partnerships."

   In the run up to the UN's September 23 Climate Summit, the UN put out a media advisory promoting the participation of 14 corporations ranging from Saudi Aramco through Cargill, McDonald's and Walmart to Bank of America and Credit Agricole. 

  Inner City Press on September 16 asked Summit promoter Robert Orr how these 14 were selected for listing in the media advisory, and if the UN had reviewed their wider record. For example, the recent court decision involving Cargill and child slavery in Cote d'Ivoire, or Saudi Aramco not allowing employees in Saudi Arabia to protest.

   Orr mentioned a luncheon during the summit about carbon pricing and the UN Global Compact, a branch of the UN which repeatedly says it does not enforce substantive standards, only encourages reporting and dialogue.  Well, Saudi Aramco did not respond to the complaint about “employees allegedly dismissed after being detained for participation in civil rights protests in Saudi Arabia.”

   And what of the environment? Bank of America has been the number one funder of mountain-top removal coal mining, but Ban Ki-moon made it chairman the chief of his Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

  On behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access, Inner City Press asked that those making commitments, like the 14 corporations named, hold question and answer sessions during the summit. We'll see.

For Pope's Visit, UN-Friendly CBS & FP Given Insiders' Spots, UNexplained, UN Food Workers Told to Hide: "Discrimination"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 25 -- With the Pope scheduled to be in the UN for a few hours on September 25, workers in the UN Cafeteria right next to where he will speak were told they cannot as before eat in the regular cafeteria but must go to a side room. 

 “It's discrimination,” an outraged food worker exclusively told Inner City Press. But it is the type of hypocrisy for which today's UN increasingly known, from equating peacekeepers' rapes with “R&R” to irregularities and a lack of transparency in who is let into his the Pope's first event in the UN.

  At the UN, transparency and access are in decline, due to collusion. Despite talk of the upcoming Papal visit and UN General Assembly week having Facebook and Instagram, virtual reality (photo here) and even Ban Ki-moon on Snapchat, things threaten to get worse. Inner City Press asked the UN whopicked the scribes allowed into the Pope's meeting with UN staff without being in the lottery, including the UN-friendly CBS and FP, and the UN Spokesman said he doesn't know. The immaculate selection? 

  Neither saw fit to explain how they wrangled their insider's spot, and so we are compelled to report: the CBS correspondent, when she asks questions at the UN, says things like “What are we” - conflating herself WITH the UN -- about such and such a problem. 

  FP is less blatant, but became the UN's go-to guy to present its defense of the indefensible, for example after the UN covered up the killing, by Afghan forces, of UN security officer Louis Maxwell. Neither has ever reported, for example, on UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, no only when he openly refused to answer Press questions, but more recently when he linked UN rapes to “R&R.” Is THIS why they got the insiders' spots? We waited to hear, we asked and there was no answer. We'll have more on this.

Video here.

   For the Pope's visit to the UN on September 25, as everywhere else, there is more demand than there is space, so the UN purported to hold a lottery for journalists. The Free UN Coalition for Access went to observe the lottery, and was appreciative for that -- but found that the old UN Correspondents Association had already grabbed six spots.  Then it grabbed more.

  With no transparency, UNCA (now the UN's Censorship Alliance) president Giampaolo Pioli of Quotidiano Nazionale informed only those who pay UNCA money that six places at the Pope's first meeting in the UN, with UN staff, would be doled out to, among others, his predecessor from CBS, and the ex-Washington Post, now Foreign Policy correspondent. Who decided this?  On what authority? Perhaps these individuals, with their long pedigrees, will explain publicly, as they should.

 Then during the (faux) lottery, which Inner City Press for FUNCA on less than an hour's notice was invited to observe, Pioli's colleague Valeria Robecco, formerly of Quotidiano Nazionale and now ANSA, first said Inner City Press, when its name was drawn, was not really a photographer. Inner City Press said, take a vote. But it was called a decision that needed consensus, and Robecco broke it.

  But when minutes later there was no winner for the final staff meeting slot, it was proposed that Robecco be given it. Inner City Press walked out - volare - so clearly there was no consensus. But hours later, hers was the first name announced by the UN as attending the Pope's meeting with staff. The UN's announcements never named CBS or Foreign Policy, much less the correspondents' names: a total lack of transparency, a faux lottery, a fix. 

 And so on September 24 Inner City Press from FUNCA asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric how picked these people, and how. Video here. He said he has no idea. UNtransparent: the immaculate selection?  Or not so immaculate: one of them is already bragging online that they'll be there. But how? Though what process?

 There was another UNCA board member with more than one entry, but they still "won" a spot. Meanwhile others not liked or known by the two UNCA observers were bounced on various pretexts. FUNCA stood up for one less than tech-savvy applicant.

 UNCA Executive Committee member Robecco told multi-media Inner City Press, You are not a photographer and said it shouldn't get a spot to cover the Pope's meeting with UN staff - then took a spot for herself. 

   This bogus UN Censorship Alliance being allowed to opine who is a photographer or journalist is laughable, given for example that it past and current president rented out one of his apartments to a UN official turned diplomat, mentioned in the UN's own Sri Lanka war crimes report. He thentried to order coverage of this removed from the Internet: it's the UN's Censorship Alliance.  

  This is today's UN - but Inner City Press will nevertheless have Papal coverage on September 25, no thanks to UNCA. Maybe even, like Ban Ki-moon, on Snapchat (InnerCityPress), certainly Periscope.

   Later on September 22, there was an again-appreciated media walk-through (Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access Periscoped some of it, for wider benefit, while trying to not portray either the speaker or listeners, never easy). Among the upshots is that the General Assembly UNTV stakeout is being set up in a location of the third floor that few speakers would or even could find and go to. Media access, FUNCA says, is in decline: due to collusion. We'll have more on this.

Up to September 11, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has not held a Q&A press conference at the UN since December 17, 2014 -- more than eight months ago, after at least a monthly press conference was promised.

  Instead, Ban and his team dole out quotes to favored media, apparently conditioned on positive or at least not negative coverage. Ban's UN partners with the old UN Correspondents Association, UNCA, whose leadership is focused on getting privileged access for itself, and effectively censoring others.

  On September 11, Inner City Press for the new Free UN Coalition for Access -- yes, FUNCA -- challenged the UN's attempt to Ban smartphone broadcasting in the upcoming UN General Assembly, and sought confirmation that no country to expel journalists it doesn't like from the UN Press Briefing Room, as France did last year.

  UNCA's past and current head then asked, if country do so, could the (closed) briefing be broadcast out? Of course, one couldn't then ask questions. But this UNCA leadership is not about the right to ask questions - if did nothing, for example, when UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous began picking which media he would respond answers, saying "I don't respond to you Mister," and the UN Spokesperson's Office colluded in this.

 The main point of UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance, was for it to be able to send a pooler / scribe to photo-ops. FUNCA said it has no objection, as long as the supposed "pool" is shared with all journalists, not just those who pay UNCA money and prop up censorship. Let the UN / MALU run it. We'll see.

  Prospectively, FUNCA asked the UN to set up a web page to upload answers about access, where people can go, so it can be shown to Security in real time, on phones.

 For the upcoming UNGA Week, the Free UN Coalition for Access to be pushing the envelope, seeing more information, more access, more accountability. Watch this site.

On September 9 Ban's Spokesperson's Office sent out a photo of Ban with New York 1, talking about the Pope's visit. Ban's deputy told a rarely seen Italian journalist, the landlord president of the old UN Correspondents Association (now known at the UN's Censorship Alliance), that the Nobel Peace Prize should go to... the Italian Navy. There were and are things to be reported, but they are not. Yet.

  On September 10, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Ban's Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here, transcript here:

Inner City Press:  I’ve noticed in recent days that the Secretary-General has done a series of interviews, with the Guardian, ITV, maybe New York 1.  So one thing I wanted to know is, I went to the web page, and I looked at press conferences, and at least… Q&A press conferences in this room.  And the last one that I find is from December 2014.  So is that the case?  Is that… is there something…?

Spokesman Dujarric:  Well, I mean, since you are in this room every time there’s an event, I think you probably have a pretty good record…

Inner City Press:  How would you explain this, eight months, when it was said that he would do it every month?

Spokesman:  I… I think the Secretary-General, whenever he travels, has had press engagements.  I mean, he is the Secretary-General of the United Nations.  So he does engage with the press globally wherever he goes.  We also organize one-on-one interviews throughout the year.  He also does press stakeouts when we feel there’s a need and when he feels there is a need to do a stakeout.  There was one not too long ago.  And he does press conferences.  There are an army of tools in our toolbox in order for the Secretary-General to engage in the press.  A press conference in this room is just one of many.

Inner City Press:  And this is the… kind of procedural question is other… you know, I’m thinking of John Kerry, but I’m sure this is true in other countries as well.  One, they do globally and in their headquarters.  But they also… the spokespeople office for these people put out… they’ll say, this interview took place and will air then.  Sometimes they’ll put out transcripts.  How are we to know what was said?

Spokesman:  You could also spend more days at the State Department.  We all work differently.

Inner City Press:  Right.  No, but what’s your reasoning for doing it — given there’s a whole world interested in what Ban Ki-moon says, why not make it more available?

Spokesman:  I think the Secretary-General is extremely available to the press.

Inner City Press / FUNCA:  I disagree respectfully.

Spokesman Dujarric:  There you go.  I disagree respectfully as well.

  The UN props up as its "adversary" a group it buys off with faux access.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access takes a different approach: UN officials like Peacekeeping Chief Herve Ladsous should take questions from the media which cover peacekeeping. He should have to answer about the peacekeeper rape scandal. 

In late June Ban's security detail ejected the Press from an open meeting in which Ban spoke to UN Peacekeeping force commanders. That ejection was at the demand of Ladsous, who now rather than speaking at the UNTV stakeout like his predecessors summons a few friendly journalists to whom to deliver or deposit "news." The new Free UN Coalition for Access challenged this; the old UN Correspondents Association says nothing, as its past and current leadership takes advantage of, or doesn't care about, the lack of access.

  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:

"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."

  UNCA "press conferences" have degenerated into Italian book club events; previously, Pioli hosted his former tenant Palitha Kohona to screen a video denying war crimes in Sri Lanka, then used the organization to demand a Press article about it be removed from the Internet. This is the UN Censorship Alliance.

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 will become 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.

"UNCA room activities, press conferences and events for 2015" -- Pioli in his last tenure granted the Ambassador of Sri Lanka Palitha Kohona, a former tenant of Pioli in one of his Manhattan apartments, the use of UNCA to screen inside the UN a film denying Rajapaksa government war crimes. It was reporting about this that Pioli ordered Inner City Press to remove from the Internet. There have been no reforms since. 

  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. 

"UNCA soccer" - this involved providing a craven photo op for, yes, Ban Ki-moon

"UNCA Awards 2015" - in December 2014, UNCA gave out an award about Haiti with no mention of the UN bringing cholera there, or UN peacekeepers shooting at democracy demonstrators. Ban Ki-moon was in attendance and they had him take pictures with another of their awardees, which was mischaracterized as  UN award. As with office space, it seems that UNCA sells the UN.

   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. 

     Today's UN Censorship Alliance is unlikely to get any meaningful media access problem addressed -- members its Executive Committee have, in fact, caused or colluded in many of the decreases in access. They drafted a rule with MALU to eliminate journalist workspace at the Security Council stakeout; they withheld audio tapes and transcripts of a Ban "interview" with them, even from their own members.

  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.)

   The French-only briefing was described on HuffPost Live, here.)

Footnote: as noted the old UN Correspondents Association, which is given privileged status and set-aside first questions nearly always used for softballs, has done nothing in recent years to improve or even defend press access. In fact, members of UNCA's Executive Committee have tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and there have been no reforms since. It's become the UN's Censorship Alliance. They provide Ban Ki-moon with photo ops playing soccer with them. This is today's UN - and FUNCA is fighting to hold the UN to its stated principles.

   

With Pope at UN, Food Workers Told Not to Dine in Cafeteria, "Discrimination" Charged

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, September 24 -- With the Pope scheduled to be in the UN for a few hours on September 25, workers in the UN Cafeteria right next to where he will speak were told they cannot as before eat in the regular cafeteria but must go to a side room. 

 “It's discrimination,” an outraged food worker exclusively told Inner City Press. But it is the type of hypocrisy for which today's UN increasingly known, from equating peacekeepers' rapes with “R&R” to irregularities and a lack of transparency in who is let into his the Pope's first event in the UN.

  At the UN, transparency and access are in decline, due to collusion. Despite talk of the upcoming Papal visit and UN General Assembly week having Facebook and Instagram, virtual reality (photo here) and even Ban Ki-moon on Snapchat, things threaten to get worse. Inner City Press asked the UN whopicked the scribes allowed into the Pope's meeting with UN staff without being in the lottery and the UN Spokesman said he doesn't know. The immaculate selection? Video here.

  For the Pope's visit to the UN on September 25, as everywhere else, there is more demand than there is space, so the UN purported to hold a lottery for journalists. The Free UN Coalition for Access went to observe the lottery, and was appreciative for that -- but found that the old UN Correspondents Association had already grabbed six spots.  Then it grabbed more.

  With no transparency, UNCA (now the UN's Censorship Alliance) president Giampaolo Pioli of Quotidiano Nazionale informed only those who pay UNCA money that six places at the Pope's first meeting in the UN, with UN staff, would be doled out to, among others, his predecessor from CBS, and the ex-Washington Post, now Foreign Policy correspondent. Who decided this?  On what authority? Perhaps these individuals, with their long pedigrees, will explain publicly, as they should.

 Then during the (faux) lottery, which Inner City Press for FUNCA on less than an hour's notice was invited to observe, Pioli's colleague Valeria Robecco, formerly of Quotidiano Nazionale and now ANSA, first said Inner City Press, when its name was drawn, was not really a photographer. Inner City Press said, take a vote. But it was called a decision that needed consensus, and Robecco broke it.

  But when minutes later there was no winner for the final staff meeting slot, it was proposed that Robecco be given it. Inner City Press walked out - volare - so clearly there was no consensus. But hours later, hers was the first name announced by the UN as attending the Pope's meeting with staff. The UN's announcements never named CBS or Foreign Policy, much less the correspondents' names: a total lack of transparency, a faux lottery, a fix. 

 And so on September 24 Inner City Press from FUNCA asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric how picked these people, and how. Video here. He said he has no idea. UNtransparent: the immaculate selection?  Or not so immaculate: one of them is already bragging online that they'll be there. But how? Though what process?

 There was another UNCA board member with more than one entry, but they still "won" a spot. Meanwhile others not liked or known by the two UNCA observers were bounced on various pretexts. FUNCA stood up for one less than tech-savvy applicant.

 UNCA Executive Committee member Robecco told multi-media Inner City Press, You are not a photographer and said it shouldn't get a spot to cover the Pope's meeting with UN staff - then took a spot for herself. 

   This bogus UN Censorship Alliance being allowed to opine who is a photographer or journalist is laughable, given for example that it past and current president rented out one of his apartments to a UN official turned diplomat, mentioned in the UN's own Sri Lanka war crimes report. He thentried to order coverage of this removed from the Internet: it's the UN's Censorship Alliance.  

  This is today's UN - but Inner City Press will nevertheless have Papal coverage on September 25, no thanks to UNCA. Maybe even, like Ban Ki-moon, on Snapchat (InnerCityPress), certainly Periscope.

   Later on September 22, there was an again-appreciated media walk-through (Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access Periscoped some of it, for wider benefit, while trying to not portray either the speaker or listeners, never easy). Among the upshots is that the General Assembly UNTV stakeout is being set up in a location of the third floor that few speakers would or even could find and go to. Media access, FUNCA says, is in decline: due to collusion. We'll have more on this.

Up to September 11, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has not held a Q&A press conference at the UN since December 17, 2014 -- more than eight months ago, after at least a monthly press conference was promised.

  Instead, Ban and his team dole out quotes to favored media, apparently conditioned on positive or at least not negative coverage. Ban's UN partners with the old UN Correspondents Association, UNCA, whose leadership is focused on getting privileged access for itself, and effectively censoring others.

  On September 11, Inner City Press for the new Free UN Coalition for Access -- yes, FUNCA -- challenged the UN's attempt to Ban smartphone broadcasting in the upcoming UN General Assembly, and sought confirmation that no country to expel journalists it doesn't like from the UN Press Briefing Room, as France did last year.

  UNCA's past and current head then asked, if country do so, could the (closed) briefing be broadcast out? Of course, one couldn't then ask questions. But this UNCA leadership is not about the right to ask questions - if did nothing, for example, when UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous began picking which media he would respond answers, saying "I don't respond to you Mister," and the UN Spokesperson's Office colluded in this.

 The main point of UNCA, now the UN's Censorship Alliance, was for it to be able to send a pooler / scribe to photo-ops. FUNCA said it has no objection, as long as the supposed "pool" is shared with all journalists, not just those who pay UNCA money and prop up censorship. Let the UN / MALU run it. We'll see.

  Prospectively, FUNCA asked the UN to set up a web page to upload answers about access, where people can go, so it can be shown to Security in real time, on phones.

 For the upcoming UNGA Week, the Free UN Coalition for Access to be pushing the envelope, seeing more information, more access, more accountability. Watch this site.

On September 9 Ban's Spokesperson's Office sent out a photo of Ban with New York 1, talking about the Pope's visit. Ban's deputy told a rarely seen Italian journalist, the landlord president of the old UN Correspondents Association (now known at the UN's Censorship Alliance), that the Nobel Peace Prize should go to... the Italian Navy. There were and are things to be reported, but they are not. Yet.

  On September 10, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access asked Ban's Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here, transcript here:

Inner City Press:  I’ve noticed in recent days that the Secretary-General has done a series of interviews, with the Guardian, ITV, maybe New York 1.  So one thing I wanted to know is, I went to the web page, and I looked at press conferences, and at least… Q&A press conferences in this room.  And the last one that I find is from December 2014.  So is that the case?  Is that… is there something…?

Spokesman Dujarric:  Well, I mean, since you are in this room every time there’s an event, I think you probably have a pretty good record…

Inner City Press:  How would you explain this, eight months, when it was said that he would do it every month?

Spokesman:  I… I think the Secretary-General, whenever he travels, has had press engagements.  I mean, he is the Secretary-General of the United Nations.  So he does engage with the press globally wherever he goes.  We also organize one-on-one interviews throughout the year.  He also does press stakeouts when we feel there’s a need and when he feels there is a need to do a stakeout.  There was one not too long ago.  And he does press conferences.  There are an army of tools in our toolbox in order for the Secretary-General to engage in the press.  A press conference in this room is just one of many.

Inner City Press:  And this is the… kind of procedural question is other… you know, I’m thinking of John Kerry, but I’m sure this is true in other countries as well.  One, they do globally and in their headquarters.  But they also… the spokespeople office for these people put out… they’ll say, this interview took place and will air then.  Sometimes they’ll put out transcripts.  How are we to know what was said?

Spokesman:  You could also spend more days at the State Department.  We all work differently.

Inner City Press:  Right.  No, but what’s your reasoning for doing it — given there’s a whole world interested in what Ban Ki-moon says, why not make it more available?

Spokesman:  I think the Secretary-General is extremely available to the press.

Inner City Press / FUNCA:  I disagree respectfully.

Spokesman Dujarric:  There you go.  I disagree respectfully as well.

  The UN props up as its "adversary" a group it buys off with faux access.

  The Free UN Coalition for Access takes a different approach: UN officials like Peacekeeping Chief Herve Ladsous should take questions from the media which cover peacekeeping. He should have to answer about the peacekeeper rape scandal. 

In late June Ban's security detail ejected the Press from an open meeting in which Ban spoke to UN Peacekeeping force commanders. That ejection was at the demand of Ladsous, who now rather than speaking at the UNTV stakeout like his predecessors summons a few friendly journalists to whom to deliver or deposit "news." The new Free UN Coalition for Access challenged this; the old UN Correspondents Association says nothing, as its past and current leadership takes advantage of, or doesn't care about, the lack of access.

  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:

"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."

  UNCA "press conferences" have degenerated into Italian book club events; previously, Pioli hosted his former tenant Palitha Kohona to screen a video denying war crimes in Sri Lanka, then used the organization to demand a Press article about it be removed from the Internet. This is the UN Censorship Alliance.

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 will become 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.

"UNCA room activities, press conferences and events for 2015" -- Pioli in his last tenure granted the Ambassador of Sri Lanka Palitha Kohona, a former tenant of Pioli in one of his Manhattan apartments, the use of UNCA to screen inside the UN a film denying Rajapaksa government war crimes. It was reporting about this that Pioli ordered Inner City Press to remove from the Internet. There have been no reforms since. 

  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. 

"UNCA soccer" - this involved providing a craven photo op for, yes, Ban Ki-moon

"UNCA Awards 2015" - in December 2014, UNCA gave out an award about Haiti with no mention of the UN bringing cholera there, or UN peacekeepers shooting at democracy demonstrators. Ban Ki-moon was in attendance and they had him take pictures with another of their awardees, which was mischaracterized as  UN award. As with office space, it seems that UNCA sells the UN.

   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. 

     Today's UN Censorship Alliance is unlikely to get any meaningful media access problem addressed -- members its Executive Committee have, in fact, caused or colluded in many of the decreases in access. They drafted a rule with MALU to eliminate journalist workspace at the Security Council stakeout; they withheld audio tapes and transcripts of a Ban "interview" with them, even from their own members.

  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.)

   The French-only briefing was described on HuffPost Live, here.)

Footnote: as noted the old UN Correspondents Association, which is given privileged status and set-aside first questions nearly always used for softballs, has done nothing in recent years to improve or even defend press access. In fact, members of UNCA's Executive Committee have tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and there have been no reforms since. It's become the UN's Censorship Alliance. They provide Ban Ki-moon with photo ops playing soccer with them. This is today's UN - and FUNCA is fighting to hold the UN to its stated principles.