As Tobruk's Arms Request Is Blocked in UN Security Council, On Libya Dark Talk of Repsol, ENI

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 9 -- Amid multiple blocks to Libya Tobruk-based government's request to the UN Security Council to import weapons, some are questioning the position(s) of UN envoy Bernardino Leon, who spoke for a naval blockade then backed away from it, below.
 
  Some are going every further, and linking Leon's Spanish nationality to Repsol's business interests in the zone controlled by Libyan Dawn. There's talk of Italy's ENI, too. Inner City Press reported on the UK's role in placing Leon to replace Tarek Mitri as UN envoy. And so it goes.

  In a parallel universe -- in the Security Council -- Federica Mogherini,  High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said Monday that "first of all, we need the Libyan factions to take the first step. Libya's political leaders should now make every effort to find the necessary compromises, to grasp this last chance and agree on a transitional national unity government. This should happen within days, not weeks, as time does not work on our side."

  Tobruk and its General are bombing Tripoli's remaining airport again.

   Mogherini on Monday said that “with the crisis getting deeper, Da'esh franchise is spreading thousands of miles away from the Levant. Human traffickers have already put at risk the lives of too many migrants, with no State control on Libya's coasts or land borders."

  About the coast, amid contentious discussions of imposing a naval blockade on Libya, the UN's envoy to the country Bernardino Leon has been quoted, and then "clarified" by his UNSMIL mission.

  AP reported on March 7 that "in an interview published Saturday with Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Bernardino Leon said he not only favors a blockade, but that it is necessary and the only thing that can be done concretely at this time. 'There's a measure that the European Union can take right away: Come out in force to guard the seas off Libya. Italy can't do it alone. It needs help,' Leon was quoted as saying. Leon said he was certain that such a mission would receive the blessing of the UN Security Council."

  This is not usually how a UN envoy is supposed to talk; there is somehistory to the way Leon was put into the roll (and Tarek Mitri of Lebanon pushed out), here.

   Quickly on March 7 the UNSMIL mission issued a "clarification" that 

"In an interview published on Saturday 07 March 2015, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya Bernardino Leon was quoted as saying in response to a question that he favors measures to be applied off Libyan shores.

"Mr. Leon actually said these measures could be part of a larger system that includes building the capacity of Libyan forces and securing the borders of Libya. While he favors these measures as interim action, he said that it will not be enough, and that there are attempts to reinforce the capacities of the Libyans through the political process to counter not only illegal migration, but also terrorism and weapons trafficking through land border control, training, etc.

"Since this is a problem affecting Europe and the international community, Leon thinks EU and International support should be appropriate."

 We publish the "clarification" in full. But is it clear?

  The idea of a naval blockade has been pushed, including by leaking to and using Reuters, at the UN for some time. This is a pattern. This too: the head of the UN Correspondents Association (now, UN Censorship Alliance) has twice used "his" set-aside first question to push for the naval blockade. We'll have more on this.

  Hours later on March 7, UNSMIL said the talks in Morocco will resume on March 11. We'll be covering them.

  Back on March 4 when Libya's long-time representative to the UN Ibrahim Dabbashi spoke in the Security Council after UN envoy Bernardino Leon, he made a point of criticizing “one Permanent member” of the Council for saying that ISIL in Libya is only being fought by Ansar al Sharia, and by implication not by the Tobruk-based government Dabbashi now represents.

   After this open meeting ended, Dabbashi came to the area beside the UNTV stakeout and spoke to the press, specifying that he had been referring to the United Kingdom. (He later added he personally has no problem with UK Permanent Representative Mark Lyall Grant.) But he said what he said. Inner City Press video here.

   Inner City Press has asked the UK Mission to the UN for its response and has been pointed to a transcript of  Deputy Permanent Representative Peter Wilson answering this seemingly mis-phrased question:

"the Libyan Ambassador criticized the UK and said that you support Islamic militias and Ansar al sharia - do you want to split Libya?"

DPR Peter Wilson: "No. The clear thing we support the UN lead process to lead to a government of national unity in Libya. Bernadino Leon was very clear. We very strongly support this. This is a Libyan process, for Libyans to come to an agreement themselves about how they wish to govern their country together, and that will enable them to take the fight to ISIL."

  Meanwhile, not all member or even Permanent members believe things must wait for the formation of a unity government. Russia's Vitaly Churkin, also to the side of the UNTV stakeout, said Russia supports the Egyptian and now Jordanian proposal with regard to the arms embargo on the Tobruk government - but add that due to concerns about where the weapons might go, some system of control would be needed but has yet to be established.

  One wanted to ask March's Security Council president Francois Delattre of France about this view and mechanism when he came to the UNTV stakeout. 

But he took three questions, handpicked by his Mission -- France 24, Agence France Presse and Voice of America -- declining to answer the Press' question even on Mali (on which he delivered Elements to the Press but took no questions, spokesperson's follow-up added here.)  Watch this site.

   

On Gas Off Cyprus, During UNGA Week Inner City Press Asked Both Sides, Differing Answers Foretold Talks' Halt

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 7 -- During the recently concluded UN General Debate, Inner City Press asked by Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu if hydrocarbons could help or hurt their negotiations.

  Anastasiades was upbeat about the chances, when he answered Inner City Press. Video here.

  Then on Saturday, September 30 at the General Assembly stakeout while UN official Herve Ladsouscreated a circus next to the stakeout, Vine here, Inner City Press asked Eroglu the same question about hydrocarbons. He was downbeat, saying that they might make Greek Cypriots more intransigent. Video here.

  Now, a development. While Italy's ENI started drilling, the Greek Cypriot were informed of competing seismic tests in the same area, at least until the end of the year.

  Now the Greek Cypriot side has pulled out of talks that were to take place October 9 between Anastasiades and Eroglu. One question is, whose to blame? Another is, why didn't the UN and its new envoy Epsen Barth Eide see this coming? What will they do now? We'll have more on this.

   

At UN, Call for Boycott of Staff Union Election, Ban's Secretariat Says Not Involved, Middle-Man on Samsung TV to Scribes

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 10 -- Of the two elections scheduled this week in the UN, in the one of the UN Staff Union voting began Tuesday morning in the UN lobby. The other in the UN Correspondents Association features  a request for a Samsung television and little competition -- none for the top two spots. 

  The UN in more than 24 hours has not answered Inner City Press' December 9 question about Samsung and "donations." This is a pattern. To Inner City Press' December 10 question about the Staff Union election, spokesperson Farhan Haq said the UN does not get involved.

  An hour after Haq's statement, an officious e-mail went out urging UN staff to boycott the election - a call that when made by a political party in Nepal, the UN denounced. Here's the key part:

Date: Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 1:37 PM
Subject: no to fake elections!
From: Egor Ovcharenko [at] un.org

Dear colleagues,

given the number of false statements circulated last days, I decided that it is my duty to clarify what is going on.

Last Friday Staff Union informed all of you that its Polling Officers have been recalled by Unit Chairpersons, the very same body that elected them.

From that day on, these recalled officers have no right to act as Union officials, and their actions or communications do not engage our Union in the slightest.

(Administration has been duly informed, as it has an obligation, in accordance with staff rule 8.1 d), to ensure the fairness of the ballot. Unfortunately, its actions, for instance, suspension of Polling Officers' e-mail, are still pending.)

Therefore fake elections the recalled Polling Officers are preparing must be called by their proper name: electoral fraud...

Everyone can make his or her own judgment. My opinion is that these fake elections are, in fact, a private enterprise.

I advise you not to participate in it, as there are reasons to believe that the motives of its organizers are far from innocent, as their record clearly shows.

Best,

Egor Ovcharenko
Rapporteur of the United Nations Staff Union
Coordinator of DGACM Staff Representatives

  This back and forth has echoes of the election in Cote d'Ivoire that led to military intervention. By contrast, no Permanent Five members of the Security Council has enough of an interest here for even a public relations intervention, thus far.

   The other "election" -- though four of the six top posts are clean slates with no competition --  is of the United Nations Correspondents Association, whose more than a dozen board members participated in efforts to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN. 

  Nothing has been reformed since; tactics in 2013 devolved into anonymous social media trolling and counterfeit Twitter accounts of the new Free UN Coalition for Access and of Inner City Press.

   An argument is still being made that the 2013 president of UNCA, Pamela Falk of CBS, is somehow not responsible for this, for trolling done under her watch, and for heading an organization which functions as the UN's Censorship Alliance. This is contrary to the very "command responsibility" principles the two top candidates awaiting coronation have espoused. 

  The decision to accept "through" the UN a Samsung television is defended by referring to some vibrant debate, with no record sent out of any voting, much less a roll call disclosing who voted to take the Samsung television.

  The defenders of the gift, Inner City Press is told, pointed out that UNCA already takes corporate (and governmental) advertisements in its (partial) book of journalists covering the UN, including for example from the Italian oil firm ENI.

  At the December 9 noon briefing Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: is there a comprehensive place to go to see what donations the UN receives from corporations? In particular, I’m asking about what I understand to be a donation of television screens or sets from Samsung and I wanted to know, what are the rule applicable to these donations? Is the UN aware, for example, of pretty serious organizing drive in South Korea aboutoccupational diseases at Samsung? What are the rules applicable and is there a database of such contributions?

Spokesperson: I’ll check, Matthew. Thanks very much. Have a good afternoon.

  But 26 hours later, there was still no answer.Unaccountability is increasingly pervasive throughout the UN, in ways as small as this and large, for example on the scandal of UN Peacekeeping having brought cholera to Haiti and now refusing to even accept (or confirm denying) service of legal papers.

  At least in the UN Staff Union, when it was claimed last week that a vote was taken to recall the poll officers, a request was made for the names of who voted which way. 

  In the UN's Censorship Alliance,  as documented by ongoing Freedom of Information Act requests including to Voice of America, "UNCA" reached out to the UN to seek the expulsion of Inner City Press without any vote even having been taken.

  There have been no reforms since -- but again, a re-coronation of Pamela Falk of CBS as the 2014 president of UNCA,now known as the UN Censorship Alliance, is set for next week. 

  A second midnight defense has been mounted, that Falk has not "done anything" to anyone, or even spoken badly. Well, the UNCA trolls are attributable to her, including under command responsibility.  In 2013, she was asked to reign in those UNCA "leaders" who used the organization to try to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, as they descended into anonymous trolling social media accounts, counterfeiting the new Free UN Coalition for Access and then Inner City Press.

  Falk's reaction in an on the record meeting was to demand that she not be written about, despite having sought this position, and putting herself forward at every opportunity to ask softball questions the answers to which are most often not published anywhere. Audio here, here and here.

  The United Nations Correspondents Association election also involves indicters and purported judges, and the Reuters successor to the scribe who spied (click here for that). That spying for the UN was done by UNCA first vice president and has not been addressed or acted on in any way. Such an organization is in no position to preach on ethics, journalistic or any other kind.

Now this UNCA is poised to raise money, $250 a plate, for an event Ban Ki-moon is set to attend, after fielding softball questions two days earlier from his hosts (or censors). Can you say, conflict of interest? And this is another way that senior UN officials remain unaccountable. Watch this site.

   

On Sustainable Energy, Ban Ki-moon Relies on Bank of America, Of Coal & Ads at UN, Singers and Sponsors

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 27 -- Sustainable Energy for All will be UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's topic today when he speaks to the press along with World Bank president Jim Kim.

   There will be another bank in the mix: Bank of America, implicated not only in the predatory lending meltdown of 2008 but also in funding mountain top removal coal mining.
 
   Ban put Bank of America chairman Chad Halliday is charge of "operational oversight" of Sustainable Energy for All.

   Ban Ki-moon's response on including coal industry lobbyists, for example in the recent climate change talks in Warsaw, is that "We must work together so that everyone can be part of the solution. Of course we recognize the importance of coal and fossil fuels in many economies at this time."

   But Bank of America's presence is part of a growing trends of commercialization at and of the United Nations. On November 26 for example, alongside singer Mohammed Assaf was his corporate promoter from Dubai-based MBC media group, permitted to use the UN press conference as an advertisement for MBC.

  Inner City Press wrote about it, and others have picked it up, saying for example that the "corporate storyteller" of MBC "was there to essentially use Assaf's appearance at the UN as an advertisement for MBC, which is wrong."

   But at the UN, the corporate infiltration continues.

   Earlier this same week, a fine play about violence against women was sponsored by the Italian oil company ENI, which also openly advertises with and sponsors the pseudo press advocacy group Ban partners with.

  One point is, these partnerships hurt the United Nations or what it is supposed to be.

   The UN decided to cancel, preempted by Ban's and Kim's press encounter on SE4ALL, its normal noon briefing, at which questions for example about the Haitian refugees drowned off the Bahamas and bombings in Sudan could be asked. So Inner City Press will cover the Sustainable Energy for All event. Watch this site.

   

UN Has No Update on Its Peacekeepers' Alleged Rapes in Mali on International Day to End Violence Against Women, Play Conflicts

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 25 -- It's the International Day to End Violence Against Women, and the UN is celebrating it with a play by Serena Dandini, "Wounded to Death." 

 At the press conference held before the play, Inner City Press asked Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, about the alleged gang rapes by UN peacekeepers in Mali.

  Puri answered that Security General Ban Ki-moon has a policy on this, and that the perpetrators must be brought to book.

  But there has been no UN reporting on what's been done with the alleged rapists. So it seemed it would be appropriate to ask for an update on the UN Peacekeepers alleged gang rape in Mali at UN noon briefing on Monday, the International Day to End Violence Against Women.

  There are also questions about the UN's response to Somalia again locking up a journalist for reporting on rape, and this time the alleged victim is also a journalist, from Kasno Voice Women's Radio. The UN has called for a "proper investigation." 

  What about the repeated detentions and the policy behind them? These too seemed like questions the UN should answer on the International Day to End Violence Against Women.

  But after taking repeat questions about Syria and the Geneva II talks, including two rounds from a number of correspondents (one from Inner City Press), UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky declared that the briefing was over. So much for International Day to End Violence Against Women, beyond the orange ties and scarves.

  In fact at the UN Women panel, Inner City Press had to push to even ask about UN Mali rape. The first question was automatically given to Pamela Falk of the UN Correspondents Association, which scheduled an event at the same exact time as Dandini's play, "Wounded to Death." Under Falk, UNCA increasingly functions as the UN's Censorship Alliance. Particularly when the number of questions are limited, the new Free UN Coalition for Accessasserts that there should be no automatic first (softball) question.

  While the play may be good -- the UN Censorship Alliance event is no problem for Inner City Press, having quit that group as now some others are -- another question arises: why is the oil company ENI a sponsor? We'll have more on this.

   

UN Censorship Alliance Closes Ranks, Bureaucrats & Scribes, Tearing Down Flyers, Ignoring Free Speech: FUNCA Resists

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 1 -- The full extent to which the current UN may be a faceless bureaucracy that cannot reform itself is on display in the belated answers to questions raised on January 17 by the new Free UN Coalition for Access.

  The also new chief of the UN Department of Public Information, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, had repeatedly asked to meet with FUNCA in response to issues it raised in e-mails to him beginning in December.

  These issues ranged from due process for journalists when a government, official or other media files a complaint against them through the duty of UN officials to take and answer answers to the need for the UN to allow an open democratic space for a group beyond the UN Correspondents Association, a/k/a the UN's Censorship Alliance.

   In 2012, according to documents Inner City Press has obtained from Voice of America under the US Freedom of Information Act, UNCA "met with UN officials (very quietly)" to seek the expulsion of Inner City Press.

   Soon thereafter, VOA which said it had the support ofReuters bureau chief Louis Charbonneau and Agence France Presse's Tim Witcher, filed a complaint with UN official Stephane Dujarric seeking the "review" of Inner City Press' accreditation.

  Dujarric thanked VOA's Steve Redisch and promised to call him later in the week. But Dujarric never informed Inner City Press about the dis-accreditation request.

  It was this that led the New York Civil Liberties Union to publicly ask DPI Under Secretary General Launsky-Tieffenthal to state the UN's content neutral policies for accreditation and for due process on any complaints received.

  Launsky-Tieffenthal never answered this request: the NYCLU has told Inner City Press it received a short (and unsatisfactory) letter from Maher Nasser, the charge d'affaires at the time, and a cursory cell phone call from Dujarric. No due process rules were disclosed. The question remained, and remains, outstanding.

While it was Launsky-Tieffenthal who requested the January 17 meeting with FUNCA, once there on the UN's 10th floor it was Dujarric who answered on most issues. 

  Dujarric said, in essence, that FUNCA should disband and "work with UNCA." That is not going to happened, not least because of the dis-accreditation attempts and now refusal to allow any democratic space.

  At the meeting, Dujarric said that the day after FUNCA's complaint about Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous directing his spokesman to seize the UNTV microphone to avoid an Inner City Press question about 126 rapes by the UN's partners in the Congolese Army, he told the spokesman it was wrong.

  But Dujarric never told anyone else, and has refused to put it in writing. This UN cannot reform: it only covers up.

  After the January 17 meeting, it was Dujarric and not Launsky-Tieffenthal who sent some cursory written answers. 

  FUNCA reiterated the outstanding issues, also stating with all due respect that Dujarric given his role in the Voice of America and UNCA complaints was and is not the right interlocutor, in UN-ese. There are more connections, left out, in good UN form.

  Dujarric's response was to ask that question that had already been handed over as a page and a half flyer on January 17 asked be sent again, electronically. They were.

   In the meantime, the UN's or at least Dujarric's partners in UNCA began tearing down flyers posted by FUNCA. 

  This is thuggish behavior, given that UNCA has its own glassed in bulletin board on which for months in 2012 they posted a five page letter denouncing Inner City Press.

   FUNCA wrote to Launsky-Tieffenthal about the bulletin board problem, twice, and raised it again in person. 

   But no response was received; rather first one Media Accreditation & Liaison Unit staffer then other sent a copy of an inapplicable flyer policy that applies to invitations to events by Permanent Missions or UN Departments. The second message noted that correspondents can post flyers on the doors to their cubicles.

  On January 31, after ten days of silence and inaction by DPI, the UNCA "leaders" tore the FUNCA flyers even off Inner City Press' cubicle door.

   Also that week, UNCA's "leaders" created an anonymous fake Twitter account to try to undermine both FUNCA and Inner City Press. Click here for that story; UN DPI is aware of these acts by its partner, its UN Censorship Alliance.

   The UNCA "leaders" made spurious allegations, as they had tried in 2012, of terrorist funding -- even as they and even their Dag program for young journalists are funded by, among others, the Italian oil company ENI. These are the UN's partners.

   On the afternoon of Friday, February 1 some even more bureaucratic and non-responsive answers were sent by Dujarric, along with a request that they be published in full. Read them and weep -- at what the UN has become.

   Where do things stand? FUNCA will continue to push forward. Some continue to say that Launsky-Tieffenthal might think in a new and fresh way, and not simply be captured. 

  Rather desperately, the new president of UNCA on January 31 went to a normal noon briefing and made a point of telling the Deputy Spokesperson, the only one on the podium, "on behalf of UNCA, thank you for being here." Video here, at Minute 5:29.

   There was more than a little laughter in the room. Inner City Press for FUNCA thanks the deputy spokesman Eduardo Del Buey as well, "for all you do," then asked questions. Had it seem Dujarric's non-responsive answers it would have asked more pointedly. 

 Here are those "answers," in full, with FUNCA's responses marked and in bold:

Subject: Answers
From: Stephane Dujarric [at] UN.org
Date: Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 3:18 PM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] innercitypress.com
Cc: funca@funca.info

Dear Matthew,

Further to our response to you of 23 Jan, I wanted to come back to you on your questions.

On the issue of your suggestion of the withholding of white P passes to long-time correspondents, these accreditation badges are provided to UN Resident Correspondents, as per the Renewal of Accreditation guidelines on the UN media accreditation website.

FUNCA: This totally ignores the point FUNCA has been raising since December 2012 -- that for example a photographer who's covered the UN for twenty years still has a "Green" P pass and has to go through metal detectors -- and can't enter the Delegates' Lounger, according to UNCA -- while any photographer who work for example for AFP gets a white P, since AFP has an office. UNfair.

UN/SD: Regarding the issue of encouraging senior officials to speak to the media, DPI has consistently encouraged UN officials to speak to the media when appropriate and is providing more opportunities for briefings for UN correspondents, including through live briefings from field situations.

FUNCA: This totally ignores both the request that DPI tell Under Secretaries General to hold press conference, and the specific complaint that USG Herve Ladsous refuses to answer Press questions and told his spokesman to seize the UNTV microphone on December 18, 2012. Dujarric claims to have told the DPKO spokesman it was wrong, but he didn't tell UNTV staff and won't put it in writing. UNreal.

UN/SD: With regard to the assignment of office space, DPI continues to review and revise the allocation of rent-free office space to media outlets, in consultation with journalists and the CMP. Our aim is to accommodate as many outlets as possible in the limited office space that is available.

FUNCA: Among the issues raised is unfair treatment of media based on where in the world they are from, and a specific question about State Department affiliates like Voice of America getting three separate offices at the UN. And yet limited space is slated to be given to an "UNCA Club, "UNCA Office" (at least half) and even an "UNCA Pantry."

UN/SD: The Media Guidelines for UN Headquarters in New York are established by DPI. The specific guidelines on media access at UNHQ contained in the Media Guidelines represent an agreement by DPI, the UN Department of Safety and Security, the Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary-General, UNCA and the Office of the President of the General Assembly.

FUNCA: What is the basis of having as a party a purportedly private group, UNCA, which doesn't represent all journalists at the UN and has moved to get even its own members thrown out? Now, the UNCA "leaders" have created a fake Twitter account to accuse other corresponents of being funded by terrorists. UNsustainable.

UN/SD: DPI has consulted UNCA on questions related to media access to ensure that the needs of journalists are considered and reflected in these arrangements, which seek to facilitate the work of journalists in covering UN activities to the greatest extent possible. DPI is always open to the views and needs of all in-house correspondents on these issues. DPI has, and will continue, to provide all in-house correspondents with up-to-date information on issues related to media access.

The granting of the first question in press briefings to UNCA, when an UNCA representative is present, is a tradition in recognition of the establishment of UNCA soon after the creation of the United Nations.

FUNCA: Again, UNCA does not represent all journalists at the UN, attacks some, does not ask good or even interesting questions (!), and UNCA "leaders" have created a fake Twitter account to accuse other corresponents of being funded by terrorists. UNacceptable.

UN/SD: With regard to access to open segments of informal meetings of the General Assembly that take place in the North Lawn Building, DPI is discussing arrangements for access with the Office of the President of the General Assembly and will inform all correspondents about the future arrangements. At the same time, open segments of informal meetings of the General Assembly are available on the live UN webcast.

The UN live webcast is available on any platform that supports flash video. Owing to technical issues that we working to resolve, only some of the live meetings are viewable on iOs devices (iPhones, iPads). We are working to expand access to all open UN meetings on all platforms.

FUNCA: Unresponsive - the webcast doesn't work on the ANDROID platform. What ARE the "technical issues"? This was raised by FUNCA in December, more than a month ago.

UN/SD: We have discussed the NYCLU letter a number of times. The NYCLU chose to make its letter addressed to DPI public; it may also wish to make public the response received by DPI. With regard to your request for information about the procedures for the renewal of media accreditation, they are available on the following UN website: http://www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/form/renewal.shtml.

FUNCA: It is UNreal that the UN won't say what its due process rules are - there are no such rules on the website cited. UNresponsive.

UN/SD: You subsequently raised questions about the posting of flyers in the press area of the United Nations. The response provided by MALU and shared with all correspondents states that “No individual or group has permission to individually tape a poster or flyer in UN hallways." I would add The UN Administrative Guidelines for Posting Flyers was also sent for reference. Moreover, any group or individual journalist can share flyers and information with their colleagues by using the mail boxes of resident correspondents, which sits outside of the MALU office.

FUNCA: Totally unresponsive to the unfairness of UNCA having a glassed-in bulletin board on which they have posted denunciations of other journalist -- under the door or mailbox is not the same. And, UNCA "leaders" have even torn flyers off a FUNCA member's office door, contrary to what MALU said were the rights of expression.

UN / SD: As always, the MALU staff and myself remain at your disposal to meet with you and listen to your concerns.

FUNCA: For the reasons stated, not the right interlocutor.

Sponsored by Oil Firm ENI, UNCA's Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalism Promotes Sri Lanka Ambassador

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 30 -- In the campaign by Reuters, Agence France Press, Voice of America and other board members of the UN Correspondents Association to dis-accredit Inner City Press and slow the growth of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, the arguments have shifted.

  They've gone from stealth complaints and requests to dis-accredit to anonymous posts implying terrorist funding, or now funding by countries' Mission to the UN.

  Neither is true, but the allegation is ironic from UNCA, since even the program of its December 19, 2012 ball -- for which it charged $250 a plate -- lists as funders not only countries but, among others, the Italian oil company ENI, which also purchased the back page of UNCA's 2012 Directory.

  Beyond ENI, full page ads were purchased from UNCA by an Italian eyewear firm I-Velvet ("Italia Independent"), Benetton, Royale Air Maroc, the ginseng cream Sulwhasoo, J.Estina, watchmaker Romanson, and "Royal Gold La Bagnaia," built by Marisa Riffeser of the family owning the newspaper of UNCA's then President.

  So a composite UNCA supporter could grease up with Sulwhasoo, put on the I-Velvete shades and Romanson watch and play golf in Tuscany. Where does the investigative journalism come in?

   Even the awards that UNCA gave out were to media groups which bought full page ads in UNCA's program. The ostensibly beneficiary, UNCA-affiliated Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalism, is also funded by countries' mission and the same Italian oil company.

   Even UN Correspondents Association's faded jewel the "Dag" has been corrupted by the UNCA Executive Committee and its lack of conflict of interest rules.

   In late 2011 and the first half of 2012, UNCA's then-president tried to expel Inner City Press for its reporting on the Sri Lankan Mission's UNCA film screening denying war crimes, after a past financial relationship with -- the renting of one of Pioli's apartments some years ago when he was a UN official to -- Sri Lanka's now Ambassador to the UN, Palitha Kohona.
 
  Click here for the report by the Sri Lanka Campaign, led by former Secretary General Kofi Annan's Director of Communications Edward Mortimer.

  Then in 2012 the UNCA-affiliated Dag Hammarskjold Fund for Journalism chose as one of its four fellows a journalist from Sri Lanka who conducted laudatory interviews with the same Sri Lankan Ambassador, Kohona. 

  Click as simply two examples here (quoting "Doctor" Kohona that Ban Ki-moon's "internal report will not affect Sri Lanka"), and here (YouTube praise of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon).  

  Again, where does the investigative journalism come in?

 "The Dag" also takes money from the Italian oil firm ENI, and has on its board the Voice of America reporter Margaret Besheer who pushed to expel Inner City Press along with other former and current UNCA Executive Committee members and the past -- and current? - UNCA President.

 These are all pictured in the "Dag" section of UNCA's glassed-in bulletin board , which the UNCA leadership demands to UN Media Accreditation be the only voice on the UN's press floor walls. (ENI, presumably, could post an advertisement.)

 Sometimes it's hard to keep track: does UN Media Accreditation and Department of Public Information work for UNCA's Executive Board -- that is, for Reuters, AFP et al. -- or does UNCA work for the UN's Herve Ladsous and even Ban Ki-moon?

  That's why they call it the UN's Censorship Alliance.

   As a number of UN correspondents, and now some UN diplomats and officials have opined, UNCA's leadership has taken a turn toward the "disgusting." Their response to on the record criticism with anonymous posts alleging terrorist financing is a last straw. Watch this site.