Amid UN Scandal, UNCA Took Money from South South News, Delivered Ban Ki-moon for Photo Op

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 9 -- As the scandal unveiled in the corruption charges against former UN General Assembly President John Ashe, Francis Lorenzo of South South News and others continues to expand, the compromised position of the UN Correspondents Association has come to the fore.

   While UNCA does not represent all journalists accredited to cover the UN -- Inner City Press for example quit the group in 2012 with another Executive Committee member and co-founded the new Free UN Coalition for Access -- the UN gives it a privileged position, a large clubhouse on the third floor of the UN and, automatically, the first question at press conferences.

  But is that appropriate, given that UNCA received money from South South News, “NGO 1” in the filing against Ashe? Not only did UNCA receive money from South South News: it gave the group an “UNCA award” at a ceremony at the high-ceilinged Cipriani's restaurant on December 15, 2011.

  Inner City Press, which did not quit UNCA in fully ripened disgust in 2012, was present on December 15, 2011 and witnessed, when Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came into Cipriani's, him being shepherded into a side room for photographs with Asian men in business suits who Inner City Press did not then recognize.

  Shepherding Ban for this (compensated) photo op with dubious businessmen was Giampaolo Pioli, then as now the president of UNCA. South South News interviewed Pioli that night, bragging of the UNCA award it got / paid for, screenshot from video here.

    (For context it must be noted too that Pioli rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Palitha Kohona then granted Kohona's request as Sri Lanka's Ambassador to screen his government's war crimes denial film “Lies Agreed To” in the UN's Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium: this precipitated Inner City Press quitting UNCA, in full disclosure.)

   How can UNCA be given first questions to ask about a scandal involving South South News, from which UNCA took more then to which it gave an award? And what are the other implications?

  (In terms of Mr. Ng's desire for photo ops, Inner City Press is informed that he separately wanted a photo with US President Obama, and paid six figures to a middleman - who disappeared with the money. UNCA on the other hand, one wag noted, delivered Ban Ki-moon for photos at Cipriani's.)

  UNCA, it should be noted, has been and is open to business interested beyond Mr. Ng and South South News. Another UNCA awards ceremony was sponsored by a company called “Acoona;” the Italian oil company ENI pays the group money.

But UNCA's South South News connection, given what has been disclosed and charged this week, should at a minimum and as a first step disqualify UNCA from first questions from the UN, and from the continuation of its role.

Wider, and going forward in this series, limiting UN investigation to OIOS - whose director of investigations Stefanovic has resigned, Inner City Press hereby exclusively reported on October 9 - looking at only two NGOs is laughable. The scandal is expanding: there is a pattern here, pattern and practice. Watch this site.
   

In Decay, UN Censorship Alliance Giving Haiti "Humanitarian" Award to Italian Tenor Andrea Bocelli, UN Cholera Not Shown

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 8 -- In further UN decay, after its Department of Peacekeeping Operations brought cholera to Haiti then refused to compensate the visits, now its UN Censorship Alliance will on December 16 give a "global humanitarian" award -- about Haiti -- to an Italian operatic tenor, in a process run by UNCA's returning chief censor Giampaolo Piolo. How did this come about?

  When Ban Ki-moon was selected as UN Secretary General in 2006 it was an untransparent process, with secret ballots in the Security Council.  But at least there was competition. Now reportedly the top spot at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs may be given without competition.

  This trend at the UN under Ban, including for example UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, has been enabled and concealed by what has become the UN's Censorship Alliance, formally the United Nations Correspondents Association.

  On November 14 this organization in decline formally announced a slate of six officers -- all without any competition at all. These six were "elected" on December 3. The top post was handed (back) to Giampaolo Pioli of Italy, who engaged in outright censorship while last using the position. 

   An Italian media, the only ones reporting Pioli's coronation, said that "Back to guide the Italian Association of correspondents accredited to the United Nations (UNCA). Giampaolo Pioli, the National Newspaper, and 'was elected president of the organization that owns the 250 journalists 'residents' at the UN that become about three thousand in the days of the General Assembly."Click here for that, then (Google?) translate.

  It's telling, the idea that UNCA "owns" journalists, particularly all resident correspondents -- that is false. Also, well under fifty percent of that false 250 number voted. And what is that percentage, of 3000? The censor does not have the mandate that Dujarric UNwisely publicly claimed, for the UN's Censorship Alliance. Will correction of any of this be sought? We'll see.

  That Andrea Bocelli is UNCA's awardee -- Pioli was head of the committee -- was revealed here: "The Made in Italy arrives in America with a partnership against violence against women. The more than 600 distinguished guests will receive the bracelet Tatu, the new brand led by Manuel Giannini, Luca Zafarana Benedettelli and Barbara... This year the United Nations Correspondents Association will award the Master Andrea Bocelli and his wife Veronica Berti with UNCA Global Citizens of the Year for the devotion of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation towards people in difficulty due to illness, disability, poverty and ' social exclusion and for the 'special commitment in favor of Haiti. Sting and Trudie Styler will be rewarded for the work as co -fondatori Rainforest Foundation Fund."

 In fairness to Bocelli, it is pointed out he has worked on the Haiti issue. We'll add a link here - his foundation (which when searched for the word "cholera" yields "no result found - Sorry, we were unable to find any results that matched your search terms.") So what about the UN bringing cholera? What about the group, the UN Censorship Alliance, that's using him and others to prop themselves up?

   UN scribes and censors citing Haiti without reference to the UN having brought cholera there and killed over 8000 Haitians and hidden from court papers since, providing no restitution to families who lose their breadwinner. In a dinner for which they are hawking "discounted" tickets for $100. This is telling.

  After his censorship push in 2012, Pioli was rarely seen at the UN; even when back, pressuring people to vote for him, he did not ask questions in any noon briefing or stakeout (though he did appear in evening wear with his ubiquitous glass of wine, winning the title Party-Boy Pioli.)

  But there is nothing funny about it. Pioli, who had rented one of his Manhattan apartments to Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's ambassador, unilaterally granted Kohona's request to use UNCA to screen inside the UN a government film denying war crimes, and sat on a panel with only Kohona and his deputy Shavendra Silva, who is still in the news. From the December 3 UN noon briefing transcript:

Inner City Press: I'm going to ask really fast on Sri Lanka.  You mentioned the Rights up Front initiative.  So I wanted to ask, there has recently been published in a Sri Lankan publication, previously been censored or blocked by the Government, Lanka eNews, the detailed testimony of somebody saying in the final stage of the conflict, the presidential brother, Defense Minister Gotabya Rajapaksa, told Shavendra Silva, who was on the Secretary-General’s senior advisory group, to kill all surrenderees.  That's now been published.  He said they're willing to put it into the thing in Geneva.  What I wonder is, given the UN's role at that time in assuring people that were surrendering that they would be treated in compliance with international and humanitarian law, is the UN aware of this?  What now is the response to it?

Spokesman Dujarric:  I have not seen that report.  But I will take a look into it. 

  Seven hours later, nothing. Already, the issue of Sri Lanka is covered up in the UN. Will Pioli be able, as he tried before, to cover it up or white wash it more?

   When Inner City Press reported, after his screening panel with Silva and Kohona, that Kohona has been his tenants in the past, Pioli demanded that reporting of these facts must be removed from the Internet (compilation of audio here) or he would use UNCA to try to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN. There followed a kangaroo court proceeding, which has resulted in Inner City Press receiving death threats from Sinhalese extremists in Sri Lanka. 

 Voice of America, then on the UNCA Executive Board, wrote a letter to the UN asking that Inner City Press' accreditation be reviewed; a Freedom of Information Act request showed that VOA said it had the support of Agence France Presse and Reuters (which they tried to censor its anti-Press complaint to the UN by claiming it is copyrighted, here.)

  Now for 2015 Pioli returns. Reuters has on the board its current correspondent though no longer its retired UN bureau chief. Agence France Presse, which had been off the UNCA Executive Committee after having used it to complain about Press reporting on Herve Ladsous, sought to return but was not able. 

 Only News Agency of Nigeria, which ran in 2013, did not run this time: its UN office space was taken away in 2014, ostensibly due to scarcity when UNCA is given a big room that sits empty and locked most of the time. This is the UN's Censorship Alliance -- now again with a chieftain with a documented history of demanding censorship.

  This is the face of UN decay, sanitized if at all by the desire of some to go to parties and balls, free lunch, or a backdoor way into the UN, like Kohona requested and got unilaterally from his former landlord, without written polling of other board members, to screen inside the UN a government rebuttal to a firm that was not shown in the UN. And then a campaign for censorship, triggering death threats. This is the face of UN decay: unsanitizable.

Silva, Pioli and his former tenant, Kohona, censorship demand not shown (but sample audio links here)


Ready for censorship, raised wine glass, Haiti cholera not shown

 As to the Secretary General's race, a November reform letter's signatories include Avaaz, Amnesty International, CIVICUS, Equality Now, FEMNET, Forum-Asia, Global Policy Forum, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, Social Watch, Third World Network, Women’s Environment and Development Organization, the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy and the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

The new Free UN Coalition for Access, formed in response to the decline in media access and transparency generally under Ban Ki-moon, heartily agrees with the need to reform and improve the Secretary General selection process. 

 Candidates so far including Helen Clark of UNDP, who virtually never takes press questions while in New York, the headquarters of UNDP, amiduntransparent layoffs, and Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO, an agency which on November 3 led an event about journalists at which not a single question from a journalist was taken. There's also among others, in this SG race we will closely cover, a Latina trio, Kristalina Georgieva, Miroslav Lajcak, Kevin Rudd, Dalia Grybauskaite, Vuk Jeremic, Danilo Turk, Jan Kubis - that is, unlike the UN's Censorship Alliance, at least there is some competition.

Tellingly, after September's General Assembly debate week, UNCA's“complaints” to Ban's Secretariat are to ask for fewer events, for a private wi-fi network for in-house UN journalist and not those who cover to cover the week, and a booklet co-signed with Ban.

UN Censorship Alliance lunch, Feb 11, 2014 including Pam Falk and continuing Kahraman Haliscelik, Sylviane Zehil, Erol Avdovic, Bouchra Benyoussef, Seana Magee, Nabil Abi Saab, Evelyn Leopold, Talal Al-Haj, Melissa Kent, Michelle Nichols, Sangwon Yoon, Valeria Robecco, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, Zhenqiu Gu UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Meanwhile, UNCA makes no mention of restrictions of access that week such as the French mission ordering all non-French journalists out of the UN's Press Briefing Room, and UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous physically blocking the Press' camera, Vine here.

  The new Free UN Coalition for Access has raised these issues, publicly, in fliers and in the UN's Press Briefing Room. Tellingly, the UN Secretariat appears ready to limit its "interlocutors" on media access to the very insiders at UNCA who have overseen and promoted the decline in access. 

 Pioli, while strong-arming in his fashion for votes, said no one could simultaneously be a member of the Free UN Coalition for Access and "his" UNCA. Meanwhile, while UNCA tries to demand that it always gets the first question at press conferences, that this is somehow a precedent, at the December 2, 2014, Program of Work press conference by the Chadian UN Security Council President, the first question explicitly went to the Free UN Coalition for Access. That's it: no precedent, no more, particularly with the return of the Censor in chief.

  An analogy that some have now made: it's one thing that Kurt Waldheim was UN Secretary General once. But what would it say about the UN if he were to return, after a haitus, for more time atop the organization? We'll see.

  Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, is appearing in polls as running for president of his native South Korea in 2017. Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson about it, who said Ban is “currently” focused on his current job. This has been repeated in South Korea, here. The UN is being used; the UN is in further decline; there are moves afoot to stem the tide of decay. Watch this site.

   

After Non-Indictment for Killing of Eric Garner, NYC Marches, "I Can't Breathe"

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 3 -- Nine days after Missouri police officer was not indicted for killing Michael Brown in Ferguson, in New York City on December 3 a Staten Island grand jury declined to return any indictment for the killing of Eric Garner, which was caught on video, here.

 On the evening of December 3 in midtown Manhattan, the chant was "Justice for Eric Garner" and "I can't breathe," which he'd said as he was choked. Marchers headed from Times Square east to Sixth Avenue but were blocked from heading north to Rockefeller Plaza and the tree lighting ceremony. Short Inner City Press YouTube video here.

  And so to Fifth Avenue -- again process north was blocked, this time with orange kettling netting -- and down to 42nd Street. Police closed the doors to Grand Central, no more dying-in. The march passed Cipriani in the old bank space, venue of the UN Censorship AllianceBall. And they passed Pfizer, with the UN on the horizon, see below.

 Earlier on December 3, New York Congresspeople spoke out, with Bronx Rep. Jose Serrano say that Garner's death "was not an accident, it was homicide," for all to see.

    Brooklyn Representative Nydia Velazquez linked the Garner non-indictment to 12-year old Tamir Rice being killed in Cleveland. Representative Hakeem Jeffries recalled peaceful protests after the killing, in The Bronx, of Amadou Diallo. 

  Later Mayor Bill De Blasio spoke but unlike the Congresspeople took no questions, as his Commissioner for International Affairs Penny Abeywardena recently came to the UN without openly taking questions, either, here. 

 The UN in Geneva for days refused to release to US-based media without paid correspondents in Switzerland the UN Committee on Torture's concluding remarks on the US. 

  When they went online on November 28, on police brutality they discussed Chicago but not Ferguson, Missouri, from which the family and supporters of Michael Brown, killed by police officer Darren Wilson, even traveled to Geneva. The report as belatedly put onlinesays:

Excessive use of force and police brutality

26. The Committee is concerned about numerous reports of police brutality and
excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, in particular against persons belonging to certain racial and ethnic groups, immigrants and LGBTI individuals, racial profiling by police and immigration offices and growing militarization of policing activities. The Committee is particularly concerned at the reported current police violence in Chicago, especially against African-American and Latino young people who are allegedly being consistently profiled, harassed and subjected to excessive force by Chicago Police Department (CPD) officers. It also expresses its deep concern at the frequent and recurrent
police shootings or fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals. In this regard, the
Committee notes the alleged difficulties to hold police officers and their employers
accountable for abuses. While noting the information provided by the delegation that over
the past five years 20 investigations were opened into allegations of systematic police
department violations, and over 330 police officers were criminally prosecuted, the
Committee regrets the lack of statistical data available on allegations of police brutality and
the lack of information on the result of the investigations undertaken in respect of those
allegations. With regard to the acts of torture committed by CPD Commander Jon Burge
and others under his command between 1972 and 1991, the Committee notes the
information provided by the State party that a federal rights investigation did not develop
sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that prosecutable constitutional
violations occurred, However, it remains concerned that, despite the fact that Jon Burge
was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice, no Chicago police officer has been
convicted for these acts of torture for reasons including the statute of limitations expiring.
While noting that several victims were ultimately exonerated of the underlying crimes, the
vast majority of those tortured –most of them African Americans–, have received no
compensation for the extensive injuries suffered (arts. 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16).
The State party should:
(a) Ensure that all instances of police brutality and excessive use of force by
law enforcement officers are investigated promptly, effectively and impartially by an
independent mechanism with no institutional or hierarchical connection between the
investigators and the alleged perpetrators;
(b) Prosecute persons suspected of torture or ill-treatment and, if found
guilty, ensure that they are punished in accordance with the gravity of their acts;
(c) Provide effective remedies and rehabilitation to the victims;
(d) Provide redress for CPD torture survivors by supporting the passage of
the Ordinance entitled Reparations for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors.

 The words Ferguson, Missouri and Brown appear nowhere in the report. In a Geneva press conference which was not on UN webcast or even the Treaty Bodies website, one UNCAT member was quoted by CNN. So it goes with the UN. We'll have more on this.

   The day after St. Louis Country prosecutor Bob McCulloch blandly read out a justification of the non-indictment of Police Officer Darren Wilson for killing Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, on November 25 in New York a protest march came by the United Nations, taking over First Avenue with non-violent chants of "Hands up, don't shoot!"

  The UN locked its gates, and New York City sent Corrections Department busses to park in front of the UN compound. Inner City Press joined the march, headed to Times Square, video here and see below.

  On November 28 at the UN in Geneva reports including one on Torture and police brutality in the United States will be released. On November 24 the UN said it was restricting embargoed copies of this report to its "UNOG-based press corps" - that is, media that can afford to have a correspondent in Switzerland. 

  How many of the media that have consistently covered the murder of Mike Brown can afford that?

  Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Accessimmediately challenged this restricted distribution. First Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman in New York, and now the UN in Geneva have refused to lift the restriction, without substantive explanation. On November 27, Inner City Press and FUNCA asked:

"Now on the eve of the press conference, reiterating the request below, that embargoed copies not be needlessly restricted only to "UNOG-based" press -
there is as much or more interest by US-based media in the report on US torture and police brutality as by media based in Geneva.  But US-based media that have reporters based in UNOG are larger, more corporate media. So that particular embargoed report should be released to all UN system accredited media, not only those with reporters based at UNOG. The Free UN Coalition for Access says that should go the other way, too -- embargoed UN reports should not be restricted to NY / UNHQ based media either."

On November 27, the UN in Geneva via Liz Throssell Media Officer for the UN Treaty Bodies, replied:

"Dear Matthew, The six-hour time difference is very much in your favour, and unlike the journalists here you will have an entire working day to report on the Committee against Torture's "Concluding Observations" on the eight countries they have been reviewing this session. These will be posted online at around 8:00 a.m. New York Time -- you will be able to find whichever ones that interest you by scrolling down through the countries listed here."

 But this is not responsive. As Inner City Press and FUNCA have replied, "the request is that you not arbitrarily limit embargoed copies only to “UNOG-based journalists.” They will be able to publish stories at the embargo time, while despite your message, others will not."

  Why limited pre-distribution of this report to the media which can afford to have a Switzerland-based correspondent? What is wrong with the UN? Click here for Inner City Press and FUNCA's coverage of the opaque race to head the UN Department of Public Information, here. The UN must do better. 

  Back on November 25 in Times Square, amid the neon glitz, there were chants of "we do this for Mike Brown" and light-up signs for Justice. Seventh Avenue was shut down, peacefully. "All Lives Matter" -- video here. But where is it headed?

   Back on November 24, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric if the UN or Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have any comment (not this evening) and about limitations on the distribution of the UN's report on US torture and police brutality.

  Mike Brown's parents went to Geneva to testify at the UN review of the US' record on torture and police brutality. The results of the review are due on November 28, but will only be given in advance to media accredited at the UN in Geneva, UNOG. As noted, the Free UN Coalition for Access opposes that limitation on non-corporate media, and requested comment on the non-indictment from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

  Inner City Press asked:

"This is a request for comment on the non-indictment for the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Separately but relatedly, this is request on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access that the planned restriction of the embargoed release of the UN's review of the US' record on torture and police brutality to media at UN Geneva. Media accredited here at the UN Headquarters should have the same rights, unless the UN is choosing to favor corporate / multinational media. The request for comment should be responded to asap; the request for equal treatment on embargoed copy should be addressed before November 27, given the November 28 public release."

  Dujarric to his credit replied quickly; he declined comment for the evening, and argued:

"Dear Matthew,  On your first question, I will not have a comment this evening.  On your second, this is the purview of my colleagues in Geneva. To your point about corporate media, I think you misjudge the press corps in Geneva which is as diverse as the press corps in NY. In fact, there are probably more freelancers in Geneva than in New York."

  Inner City Press, for FUNCA, has clarified:

"The point is, there is as much or more interest by US-based media in the report on US torture and police brutality as by media based in Geneva. But US-based media that have reporters based in UNOG are larger, more corporate media. So that particular embargoed report should be released to all UN system accredited media, not only those with reporters based at UNOG. (FUNCA says that should go the other way, too -- embargoed UN reports should not be restricted to NY / UNHQ based media either.) Will appreciate a decision on this asap, given the November 28 release and, for example, tonight's Mike Brown killing non-indictment, on which comment is still sought."

  Dujarric did not responded to that, but on November 25 he said " for the Secretary-General, his thoughts right now are with Michael Brown's family and with the Ferguson community.  I think he appeals to all of those in Ferguson and throughout the United States who felt disappointment at the grand jury's decision to make their voices heard peacefully and to refrain from any violence.  He also calls on the US authorities, on law enforcement authorities, whether at the federal, state or at the local level, to protect the rights of people to demonstrate peacefully and to express their opinions peacefully.  And he echoes the appeals made by Michael Brown's parents to turn this difficult time into a positive moment for change."

   FUNCA has spoken up to Turkish media, for example, on an attack on Turkish media in Ferguson. Back on August 13,  Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the killing and crackdown. Video here.

  Dujarric began by saying that Ban and the UN have "no particular comment," then added that "as in all cases, the right to demonstrate peacefully needs to be respected, and investigations need to be conducted." Okay, then.

  There have been reports mentioned the financial institutions in the area, including nationwide lenders Bank of America, US Bank and Fifth Third.

  Inner City Press and Fair Finance Watch reviewed the demographics of mortgage lending by these three in the area in the most recent year for which data is publicly available, 2012.

   In the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2012, Bank of America denied the conventional home purchase mortgage applications of African Americans 1.81 times more frequently then those of whites.

  Fair Finance Watch has previously objected to US Bank's stealth branch closings, including in Chicago, here and here. The US Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to lend fairly in all of their communities, but is not sufficiently enforced, FFW has shown.

For US Bank, the disparities was 1.6 to 1; for Fifth Third Mortgage, that company's lender, it was a whopping 4.95 to 1: African American applicants were denied 4.95 times more frequently than whites, worse that the aggregate (all lenders). 

  Troublingly, for all lenders Latinos were denied 3.1 times more frequently than than whites. So where is the US headed? And why has the UN had nothing to say so far? Watch this site.

   

In Elections at UN, Dysfunction & Decay, Union Pay Disputes & Declining Vote Counts in UN's Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 -- While the UN preached democracy around the world, in two elections held this week inside the UN, dysfunction and decay were the rule.

  In the UN Staff Union election, in which an incumbent seeks to stay on despite term limits, there were charges of illegal polling, and an attempt to stop paying the Elections Services Company. Nevertheless polling took place in the UN lobby on December 10 and 11; the contest is predicted to go on for months.

  Late Friday Inner City Press learned that results are delayed by payment disputes; the tallies are now due on December 16 or 17.

 Here were the two slates listed on December 5, which did not include the incumbent:

Ref.: PO/2013/11 Date: 5 December 2014

From: Hesham A Auda, Chairperson, Polling Officers of the 45th Staff Council

Ticket 1

President Stephen Kisambira (DESA/PD)

First Vice-President Emad Hassanin (DGACM/MPD/PS)

Second Vice-President Leonid Dolgopolov (DSS/DSSS/SSS)

Ticket 2

President Nadir A. Dirar Bashir (DGACM/MPD/PS/DTPU)

First Vice-President Raymond Gomez (DSS/DSSS/SSS/OS)

Second Vice-President William Bly (DGACM/OPGA)

  While over 2000 journalists are accredited at the UN, only 111 tried to vote in the three days of polling -- and door to door demands to vote for -- the United Nations Correspondents Association. Seven of these ballots failed. The incumbent Pamela Falk of CBS, running unopposed, still managed to not get 26 of the 104 votes cast.

  Her vote total of 78 is lower than the 85 obtained in December 2011 by her predecessor, who demanded that Inner City Press remove an article about Sri Lanka from the Internet, click here for that.

(Inner City Press after withstanding a kangaroo court UNCA proceeding quit the organization and co-founded the newFree UN Coalition for Access, @FUNCA_info, to actually defend the right of free press and free inquiry in and about the UN system.)

   UNCA is an organization in continued decline. In 2012 many of its "leaders" tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, as documented by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Voice of America asked the UN to "review" Inner City Press' accreditation; VOA said it had the support of Agence France Presse and Reuters, click here for that.

The Reuters first vice president of UNCA spied for the UN, giving them an internal anti Press UNCA document three minutes after promising not to (story here, document here,audio here). 

 While he has stepped off, the Reuters reporter he supervised (and who also tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN) campaigned to get on UNCA's board, demanding in Friday's noon briefing to all present, "Have you voted?" It's as if Reuters has a Permanent seat on UNCA's 15-member Executive Committee, like the P5 in the Security Council.

Here are the results, compared to votes in December 2011 for the "candidate" or their predecessor

Dec '13 Dec '11

Prez: * 78 [85] Pamela Falk, CBS News TV and Radio

1st VP * 74 [79] Kahraman Haliscelik, TRT Turkish Radio & TV

2d VP * 48 71 Masood Haider, Dawn, Pakistan

* 48 [71] Sylviane Zehil, L’Orient Le Jour

3d VP * 55 [62] Erol Avdovic, Webpublicapress

38 Ali Barada, An-Nahar/France 24

Trez * 81 [71] Bouchra Benyoussef, Maghreb Arab Press

Sect * 79 [81] Seana Magee, Kyodo News

Members at Large (9)

* 57  Nabil Abi Saab , Alhurra TV

* 57  Talal Al-Haj ,Al-Arabiya News channel

22  George Baumgarten , Jewish Newspapers, Nation Media

* 50 Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcasting (SABC)

* 51  Zhenqiu Gu, Xinhua News Agency

* 69  Melissa Kent, CBC/Radio Canada

* 56  Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post Contributor

49 J. Tuyet Nguyen, German Press Agency DPA

* 67  Michelle Nichols, Reuters

41  Edwin Nwanchukwu, News Agency of Nigeria

27  Cia Pak, Scannews

*54  Valeria Robecco, ANSA

* 54  Sangwon Yoon , Bloomberg

  Some of the elected are new and their positions on UNCA Executive Committee members trying to get other (investigative) media thrown out of the UN, and the need to preclude this and UNCA leaders' anonymous social media trolling, are not yet known. (Some not elected were among the better / more diverse candidates.)

 Beyond the lack of reform after UNCA "leaders" tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and then engaged in 2013 in anonymous social media trolling which the incumbent though told on the record did not stop, there's now a dispute of the statement that donated Samsung television equipment "did not involve a mission," which theUN itself admits Samsung have the equipment to the South Korean Mission, which gave it to the UN, which forwarded it on to UNCA. 

 Why, given how much they are charging next week in Cipriani's? They will honor Ban Ki-moon, whose spokesperson's office squawked Friday, immediately after a briefing on Syria chemical weapons, that wine would be served in the UNCA room and that election results were out: to UN, newsworthy.

When the UN Correspondents Association leaders tried stealthy to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and have failed to institute any reform since, it became the UN's Censorship Alliance. Watch this site.

   

At UN, Will Ban Ki-moon Blithely Bless the Censorship Alliance, After Its Pro-Sri Lanka Trolling?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, November 30 -- Each December like clockwork UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had read out canned remarks praising the leadership of the United Nations Correspondents Association. 

   But what makes this year different?

   For one, it is public record that UNCA leaders tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN. The documents emerged from a Freedom of Information Act request to Voice of America, a US government agency. FOIA inquiries continue.

   Voice of America asked the UN to "review" Inner City Press' UN accreditation; it said it had the support of Agence France Presse (which came to the defense of Ban's or France's head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous),Bloomberg and Reuters, which also said it would sue Inner City Press.

  This all started when Inner City Press reported on war crimes in Sri Lanka, and UNCA's president screening a genocide denial film for the ambassador he had accepted rent money from. Ban's record on Sri Lanka has been, according to the UN's own report, a "failure." (In fairness, click here for his "Rights Up Front" plan.) So UNCA became the UN Censorship Alliance.

   To defend the right of all journalists to report on issues like the UN's inaction in Sri Lanka, the Free UN Coalition for Access was formed. Another difference is it like Inner City Press is on the record, not anonymous trolling like UNCA "leaders" have in 2013.

  In 2013 under Pamela Falk of CBS, the UNCA "leaders" have gone stealth, starting counterfeit FUNCA and Inner City Press accounts on Twitter, and posting anonymous comment for example on the site of the UK New Statesman. 

  Falk and her outgoing first vice president Lou Charbonneau of Reuters were on notice, and in at least one of the two cases actively involved, in the trolling back in February 2013:on the record audio here, and here, and here (Reuters, saying "the problem is your website" - Censorship Alliance.) The UNCA trolls were back at it on November 27, the day before US Thanksgiving.

  Should the UN be using and partnering, exclusively, with a group like this one has become? What does it say about this UN's commitment to freedom of the press?

    So what does Ban say, then, on December 4 when returning from UNIDO in Peru he is scheduled to prop up the UNCA trolls' legitimacy by speaking at an event in the clubhouse he gave them on the UN's third floor, in which UNCA in July held a faux "UN briefing" with Saudi-sponsored Syria rebel Ahmad al Jarba, who Ban also met in his UN-provided residence in September?

  Four pm, coupe de champagne? Why not? And who cares if the Security Council is meeting about carnage in a former French colonies, as it was last Monday on Central African Republic when UNCA scheduled a competing event? 

  This time, France might in deference solicitously cancel any briefing about the carnage. They took all of August off. What's two hours in the afternoon for champagne with the censors?

  What can be said about those follow-overs like Falk, and even more of wannabe UNCA-ites for 2014, with this censorship and trolling public record? There will be faux elections, and then Ban is to speak again for $250 a plate at Cipriani's on 42nd Street. Is this the UN, with a Censorship Alliance? Watch this site.