Exclusive: In Murky UN, Vying for Public Info Post Are 2 Staff, 3 Ambassadors, Others; FUNCA Does the Short List

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 27 -- The resignation of Baroness Valerie Amos as UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs on November 26, after UK Prime Minister David Cameron reportedly “nominated” Andrew Lansley as her replacement to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the G20 meeting in Brisbane has highlighted the lack of transparency in UN appointments.

  As Inner City Press exclusively reported in 2011, and again on November 26, when the USG position atop UN Peacekeeping was vacated by Alain Le Roy, already the third Frenchman in a row in the post, Herve Ladsous was opaquely dumped on the UN and has been an uncommunicative disaster since. Video compilation here,Vine here.

  Now Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access, for comparison and in the interest of increased transparency in and about the UN, will exclusively report on the race to fill the USG position atop the UN Department of Public Information, which has been vacant for months.

   The Free UN Coalition for Access has been following the process but this reporting is triggered by the UN Deputy Spokesperson's claim to Inner City Press that the Amos / UK post is “"open to people from any region.”

Since vacated by Austria's Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal at the beginning of the summer, longtime UN staff member Maher Nasser from Palestine has been acting chief of DPI. During this interim period he has, for positive example, provided on the record comment about the UN's policy on unpaid internships being sold, here. Nasser is a candidate to assume the position formally.

  Another UN system official, Eric Falt, is also in the running. Some question whether with Ladsous still USG for Peacekeeping, France can have two “front line” UN position, particularly given Ladsous' notorious performance on questions of information and communication. Falt, now at UNESCO, was previously Director of DPI's Outreach branch so, like Nasser, he has experience. (Falt has previously been public about his applying or not applying for posts, which one hopes can continue in this case.)

  Indicative of the UN's lack of transparency -- this “short list” is being provided by the Free UN Coalition for Access, since the UN itself has refused -- there is in the mix a candidate described in UN Headquarters simply as “the lady from Brussels," nationality Spanish or French. There is also, it is said, former DPI official Ahmad Fawzi, who since service as then envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi's spokesman has been around the UN in a capacity that, if he is running, should be explained and would happily be published.

  There are also several current Ambassadors at the UN vying for the job. Romania's Permanent Representative Simona Miculescu is a candidate, quite visible and voluble within the UN; she has for example commented publicly on her country's position on Kosovo and impact of the International Monetary Fund, here. She is one of the five “Singing Ambassadors” and a member of the Cigar Smoking Club, which recently met and smoke farewell to Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative Alexander Pankin. (As Inner City Press reported yesterday, Pankin is being succeeded by Petr Iliichev, click here for that).

  It's also said that non-interviewed aspirants include the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic and the Deputy Permanent Representative Saudi Arabia, personally not UNopen but given the the country's or Kingdom's treatment of bloggers, Tweeters and other free speechers, some would find this ironic. But this is the UN. Watch this site.

Footnote: Inner City Press on behalf of the Free UN Coalition for Access has repeatedly publicly asked, in the UN noon briefing and on its walls, that those who interact with the UN Department of Public Information, including all accredited and not only “resident” correspondents and others who cover the UN, should have input into this process, at least into the criteria to be used for selection. 

  This has been for now rejected by the UN Secretariat, and even by some in-house, insider correspondents, who are putting forward as their repeat chief a rarely present Italian correspondent who has demanded the censorship of articles, for himself about Sri Lanka and during his tenure atop the United Nations Correspondents Association, about Herve Ladsous. 

  This is another reason the UN remains so UNtransparent, even on this “Public Information” post. The Free UN Coalition for Access aims to hold the UN to its stated principles, on this and other issues.

   

UN Against the Media, Bloggers and the New, Story of a Footnote from Ban's No Whistleblower Zone

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/un1bloggers072910.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 29, updated -- The UN, which preaches about disseminating information and even hires pro-UN bloggers, has resisted including the word “bloggers” in its Media Accreditation Guidelines, which it put online on July 30. Click here.

This despite the fact that the head of the UN's Department of Public Information, Kiyotaka Akasaka, who oversees the Accreditation and Liaison Unit (MALU), has a pro-UN (and ostensibly pro press freedom) blog on the Huffington Post.

The previous and prospective chief of MALU told Inner City Press, “the UN does not accredit bloggers," and reiterated this after a New York Times piece identifying Inner City Press as the first blog at the UN.

At that time, in the NYT piece, the UN “said that guidelines for bloggers are a work in progress. The goal is to balance concerns about openness, security and professional standards with growing interest from online journalists.”

Yet even now, the UN refuses to put even the word “blogger” in its accreditation guidelines. The distinction seems to be between pro-UN blogs or those owned and controlled by large corporations and those with critical independence.

This year, the UN Correspondents Association executive board, to which this reporter was elected, twice after debate and votes submitted language to MALU that they should explicitly include “bloggers” the Accreditation Guidelines, for which the UN wanted UNCA's concurrence.

But following the first submission of UNCA suggestions, the UN accepted every proposal except on bloggers. After a second UNCA submission -- this time addressing concerns by referring to “journalists who are bloggers” -- the UN still demurred.

Mr. Akasaka's outgoing deputy Eric Falt responded with what he called the “final” version, to be put online the next day, which only in a footnote mentions that online media includes blogs and vlogs. The reference is marginalized in a footnote, and there is no reference to bloggers as such. Why not?

At a DPI event about Social Media held earlier this year in the UN's North Lawn building, chaired by Mr. Akasaka, UN staffers praised their own blogging and Tweeting of UN positions. Staff said they were paid to monitor Wikipedia to remove “inaccurate” information about UN officials.

Inner City Press asked, if someone posted for example that Ban's chief of staff Vijay Nambiar was too close with regimes in Myanmar or Sri Lanka, would that be considered opinion or “inaccurate”? There was no answer -- presumably, the UN's social media team is directed to remove such free speech. And now, no reference to “bloggers.”

There is a larger context here. The UN has used the opportunity of its Capital Master Plan rehabilitiation to move the press corps from offices with walls, from which calls could be made and whistleblowers could visit, to a series of cubicles directly under the Department of Management.

As exclusively exposed by Inner City Press, in what the UN dismissively called a "blog post," the cubicles initially came with security cameras above them, making it the whistleblower free zone. Still everything can be heard, and there are no improvements on the horizon.

Because of the previous and prospective MALU chief's statement that “the UN doesn't accredit bloggers,” this reporter pressed that the UNCA proposal(s) be stuck to, and that the word “blogger” be included. Inner City Press asked these questions:

UNCA's Executive Board has twice unanimous proposed that the word “blogger” be included in the Accreditation Guidelines. After UN DPI's initial response to merely refer to bloggers in a side email from the interim supervisor of MALU, the UNCA Board met for more than an hour and counter proposed compromise language, “including those who are bloggers.”

On July 27, the USG of DPI told me the bloggers would be in the guidelines.

But the text provided on July 29, with a less than one day deadline, does not include the word bloggers, but rather a footnote about “blogs or vlogs.”

Given that the previous and perhaps future supervisor of MALU has said “the UN does not accredit bloggers,” if that is not the position, why is the word “blogger” not included in the Guidelines? Please -- an answer.

But rather than an answer, a vote was called for. This reporter voted no. UNCA response reflected that the vote

“was not unanimous.. We interpret it to mean that the UN has officially recognized that blogger journalists that fulfill MALU’s criteria have the right to a UN accreditation and will not be discriminated against simply because they are bloggers.”

But will that “understanding” be in the guidelines? Unanswered is the question of whether UNCA's consent should have required a vote of the full membership, and the larger question: why is the UN so scared of independent bloggers?

The current UN Spokesman, on camera at one of the UN's noon briefing, used the podium to call Inner City Press' “blog” characterizing the murder of UN staff member Louis Maxwell by Afghan National forces as having been covered up as “outrageous.”

Due to outmoded UN distinctions between print and photo journalists, which make little sense for new media, Inner City Press has several times been blocked from filming or photographing events at the UN, and was most recently ordered to leave a photo op with the foreign minister of Rwanda while the UN's own in-house media, UN Photo, was allowed to stay. Click here from that story.

The UN demanded the deletion from an Inner City Press "blog post" of a photograph of asbestos falling in areas frequented by staff, even women with babies in strollers, click here for that.

The outgoing overseer of MALU, Eric Falt, is known to run morning meetings at 9:30 a.m. in the UN's “luggage building” at which messaging, and countering this publication by name, have according to sources at times been discussed. [Another participant has countered that the meetings are only to plan the UN's own p.r. work, not to discuss others' coverage. But] It seems to some that this UN is comfortable with UN controlled bloggers, but not independent journalists.

Update: the UN's footnote not mentioning "bloggers" but merely that "bona fide" online media includes blogs and vlogs -- with no definitely of "bona fide" (good faith) or any rationale for the UN to define such, has now gone online here - watch THAT site...

And see, www.innercitypress.com/un1bloggers072910.html

At UN, Press Banned from Delegates' Entrance, Spokesman from Consultations

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/sc7unreform042210.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 22 -- As the UN Security Council takes up the seemingly arcane subject of its "working methods," there was a development Thursday morning on the move by some Permanent Council members to give less access to the press.

A convoluted series of rules, below, about how the press can use the stairs outside the Security Council, and essentially Banning the press from the Delegates' Entrance, were emailed to correspondents, on behalf of April's Japanese presidency of the Council.

Spokespeople for other Council members, when shown the diktat, said it was more restrictive than they had agreed to. They pointed the finger at top UN security official Gregory Starr as responsible. We'll see, if the Spokesperson's Office answers.

That Office, having been barred from Council consultations, now refuses to answer questions about why it was barred and what it is doing. On April 22 Inner City Press asked Spokesperson Martin Nesirky for an update on the Secretariat's access to the Security Council consultations. from the UN's transcript:

Spokesperson Nesirky: I told you before Matthew, that this is something that you could ask the President of the Security Council about. This is a matter for them. But, as I have also told you, we -- meaning my Office -- have a role to play in ensuring that the Secretary-General is up to speed on what is happening. And as I say, further to that, it would be better for you to speak to the President of the Security Council.

Inner City Press: That’s exactly why I was asking for the update. If you regain access or if there is some development, it seems like you know…

Spokesperson Nesirky: If there is a development you would know about it.

How?

Meanwhile, the UN has decided to install an unmanned camera to film the entrance to the Council. But it will not have sound. Inner City Press has dubbed them "drone cameras." Thursday morning there was a delay in installation, as the single key to the now storage space under the stairs could not be found. Then when the work began it was abruptly stopped as too loud for the Council.

The Press' working conditions above the library continued to deteriorate, with all phone conversations audible and the decision to cancel in-house telephone calls to UN missions in the field not rescinded. A meeting with Capital Master Plan chief Michael Adlerstein and others on these subjects, delayed so that Ahmad Fawzi's replacement Eric Falt could attend, then conflicted with a stakeout by the International Civilian Aviation Organization. Now it is announced that Mr. Falt is already leaving, to take a post at UNESCO in Paris. Bon voyage.

Here is the stairway message send out to reporters:

Please find below the rules for press access in the Security Council area, including the stairs. This information was provided by the Japanese Mission, which is holding the Security Council presidency for the month of April.

- The press will, in principle, stay in the closed off area to the right of the stairs.

- The press will be able to call out to a PR (or a member of a delegation) and ask if s/he can follow that PR (or a member of a delegation) up the stairs to continue their conversation. If the PR (or a member of a delegation)

agrees, the member of the press may leave the closed off area, follow that person up the stairs, turn “LEFT” to go out to the entrance and resume their conversation.

- The press will not be able to go beyond a certain point from the stairs (something will be put up to indicate how far they can go).

- When the conversation is over the press will go back down the stairs and go into the closed off area.

- The press will not be allowed to roam around on the 1 st floor or the top of the stairs (Delegates' Entrance area), nor will they be allowed to accompany someone coming down the stairs.

- These restrictions are all for safety reasons.

- The Kuwaiti boat area (the area to the “RIGHT” of the stairs if you are going up) will be for delegates only.

Ah, safety. One wondered how this would be policed: with ankle bracelets on the journalists? Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/sc7unreform042210.html

Before Global Model UN, Financial Sponsors' Names Disappear, Malaysia on Refugees

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/gmun1malaysia020410.html

UNITED NATIONS, February 4 -- As the UN promotes its upcoming Global Model United Nations, to be held in Malaysia, questions arose about previous corporate sponsorships of the event, and of some participants' travel. Inner City Press asked UN official Eric Falt about listed 2009 "sponsors" including Nestle and AIG affiliate C.V. Starr. Video here, from Minute 31:13.

Falt said he thought the deal with Nestle had fallen through, and hadn't heard of "the other" sponsor, AIG's C.V. Starr. Later he sent the following explanation:

With regard to Nestle, we had been in discussion with them last year to possibly sponsor students from developing countries who could not afford to attend the first conference in Geneva. In this end, this did not happen but the information relating to their expected sponsorship somehow remained on the website. As an admittedly late update, Nestle's name has now been removed from the website as a sponsor.

Since students are responsible for paying their own expenses (i.e., travel and accommodations), we encouraged them to seek their own funding from local enterprises. The names of other sponsors you mentioned who were also listed as “SPONSORS who provided financial assistance to Global Model UN Delegates” were provided to us by the students themselves. The United Nations did not have any direct connection with any of these sponsors. In any case, I would agree that this is potentially confusing and we have therefore removed this list of "secondary" sponsors from the website as well.

We're not sure that the solution to this "confusion" is to remove information about who is paying to fly delegates to the Global Model UN. If AIG (or Nestle) is paying, it should be known.

During the press conference, Mr. Falt said that the UN reviews potential corporate sponsor under rules promulgated by the UN Global Compact -- it's not "anything goes," he said. But the Global Compact has as a member, for example, PetroChina which is under fire for its engagement with the Al Bashir government of Sudan. If there are standards, what are they? And is the solution removing the names of sponsors, even "secondary" sponsors, from the UN's website?

Inner City Press also asked Malaysia's Ambassador about human rights complaints against his country for treatment of refugees, and crackdowns on free press. He graciously responded that these must be seen in the "context of the country itself... we have three major groups, and many smaller." He said that although Malaysia has not joined the Refugee convention, it still implements. But there are stories of mistreatment of asylum seekers, for example from Myanmar, here.

Will these type of issues -- UN engagement with corporations like Nestle, AIG or even PetroChina, and the host country's treatment of asylum seekers, for example from Myanmar -- be allowed to be debated at the 2010 Global Model UN? We'll see. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/gmun1malaysia020410.html

Speaking for UN Past and Future, Nesirky Appears, Outsourcing Denied of Planet UN's Tours

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/dpi1begend112309.html

UNITED NATIONS, November 23, updated -- Those who praise the UN are in turn repaid. Hence for the pro-UN filmmaker and author Romuald Sciora, a book signing event in the UN Bookstore on November 20. Sciora was introduced by the chief of the Department of Public Information Kiyo Akasaka. Also present was the head of DPI's Outreach Division Eric Falt, in charge of the bookstore and tour guides (as well as photo ops, click here).

Inner City Press asked a question, and Sciora's response was, "I know you, last time I was here you were mean to me." Mechant was the word he used, in French. In his response, the word "siege" -- meaning a seat on the Security Council -- was mistranslated as headquarters, as in moving the UN's to Europe.

Sciora's film praised the UN, and Inner City Press asked if it considered abuse by peacekeepers. Afterward a crew member of Sciora's contacted the Press, and said he had never been paid. And when he complained, he was told he was being petty, to ask for promised payment for a work about UN.

A few weeks ago, UN tour guides told Inner City Press some of their work was being outsourced. Inner City Press asked two UN officials, both of whom denied it. One of them asked dismissively, where do you hear these things?

Now it is confirmed: the UN has hired a firm to offer audio tours of the UN, without any tour guides present. The outside vendor provides team leaders who "are not allowed to interact" with those on the tour, according to DPI. So, less cost, less staff: outsourcing. But the UN calls this good.

A gaggle of Chinese spokespeople filled the UN's briefing room last week, and outgoing UN spokesperson Michele Montas gave them a long talk. Inner City Press asked to attend, but was told to leave the room. Looking through the frosted glass, one wondered what lessons the UN's stonewalling Office of the Spokesperson might have for China, where a information purveyor working with the parents of children killed in the Sichuan earthquake was just given a three year jail sentence.

Martin Nesirky, who never directly replied to a request from the Press on the morning of November 17 that he confirm his new position, and whose fluency in UN working language French has been questioned in the briefing, starts on December 7. And in between?

At the noon briefing of November 23, Mr. Nesirky made an announced appearance, to state on language that he speaks German, Russian and English, and "a little bit of Korean" as well as a bit of French. He dost protest too much?

Mr. Nesirky left the rostrum without taking any questions, and left the briefing room before the Humanitarian Coordinator spoke. He will apparently be available on November 24 for an hour, no indication on what basis. In the interim questions have been submitted, since in the UN briefing room, usually if someone makes a statement, they then take questions.

Update: And the response / auto-responder: "I am out of the office until Friday 27 November. For OSCE-related matters please contact" OSCE. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dpi1begend112309.html

At UN, Americas Videos and U.S. Soldiers, Trooping Off to High Schools and a Moving Speech

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/undpi1comms101609.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 16 -- To many the UN seems stand-offish, not connected with its host city New York, viewing the Internet as a one-way medium for propaganda. On Friday the UN announced that in the coming week, ten of its top officials will go speak in New York schools. It announced the five winners of its YouTube competition for videos addressing world leaders. And Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke to student, at the UN's own school, and said he'd like to move his office there, the applause was so loud.

Even in this there was criticism. A commenter on the UN's YouTube channel page wrote

"TO UN: I can't understand why all the winners are from North, South of America. Do yo think that's fair? How about other continents such as Africa, Asia? Sorry but I am totally disappointed about this judgment. It's not about me, but If you had any winners from any dictator countries, It would encourage people of these countries to have better feeling that they can spread their voice through the world."

At a press conference announcing the winners, Inner City Press read out the above and asked for the UN's response. Eric Falt of the UN's Outreach Division replied that he didn't disagree -- in naming the Canadian winner, he'd said the person lives in Tokyo -- and later provided these criteria:

• How relevant is it to the challenge: “how do we make this world a better, safer place”?

• How creative is the entry in form and content?

• Do you feel the entry merits attention from “world leaders”?

• Bonus points for aesthetic value and originality

Each was worth a maximum of five points.

Inner City Press asked if, unlike in some UN hiring, geographic balance played no part. Falt subsequently answered that "We were certainly hoping for geographic balance and hope that, next year, with more advance publicity through our network of UN Information Centers and perhaps peacekeeping operations, we can have more videos from more countries and therefore a better balance at the end."

Meanwhile, Inner City Press was among the only UN correspondents of any kind covering Ban Ki-moon's "Stand Up Against Poverty" speech at the UN International School on Friday morning. The head of the Department of Public Information Kiyotaka Akasaka was waiting in the school for Mr. Ban, along with Ban's speechwriting Michael Meyer. Ban arrived in a black luxury car, trailed by a 4 by 4 of security. Ban stopped and greeted the Press, then proceeded up to a second story auditorium. The students burst into applause. Ban said it was nice to start the day this way.

He spoke, barely looking at notes, about how lucky the students were to be able to go to school, to be in the greenhouse of primary school and then college's ivory tower. But then you must face the world, he said. He led the students in a pledge about poverty. It was not unmoving.

Four of Ban's Under Secretaries General, and six Assistant Secretaries General, will speak in schools next week:

Top lawyer Patricia O'Brien and investigator Inga-Britt Ahlenius, both of whom rarely speak to the press, will speak in Brooklyn and Manhattan, respectively. Ibrahim Gambari, arriving one imagines on Metro North from Westchester, will speak in Manhattan. Sergio Duarte will speak in The Bronx.

Among ASGs, Controller Jun Yamazaki will speak in Brooklyn, as will Warren Sach. Manhattan gets Franz Baumann and Peter Taksoe-Jensen. The Bronx claims Capital Master Planner Michael Adlerstein and Thomas Stelzer. All told, 44 schools in all five borough will have UN staff speaking. Outside of New York, children and armed conflict expert Radhika Coomaraswamy will be speaking in Kansas City, albeit at the university along with Newt Gingrich and others.

Inner City Press asked Mr. Akasaka where he would be speaking. He will be in Kuala Lumpur. What about the peacekeepers, or Political Affairs' Lynn Pascoe? Or Angela Kane who will, it's said, appear for a press conference next week?

Another Friday event at the UN about communication was an informal briefing to twenty some U.S. military personnel on their way to be spokespeople in Iraq. A representative of the U.S. mission spoke -- it is not entirely clear how the event was set up, or if all member states could do it -- along with invited journalists including Inner City Press. The questions ranged from how to deal with "bloggers" -- which the UN staffer directed to Inner City Press, while saying that the UN does not accredit bloggers, only online media -- to how to make friends with "the Arab press."

The answers involved occupation and Guantanamo Bay. Inner City Press advised the prospective spokespeople to, unlike some in the UN, actually provide answers to questions. Just another day at the UN, trying to avoid what Israel called the Goldstone report on Gaza, a tale of sound and fury -- told by an idiot -- signifying nothing.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undpi1comms101609.html