This has proven false: Inner City Press has been Banned from covering meetings on Security Council reform, Next SG selection, Sri Lanka andWestern Sahara, to name a few.
But this lawless attempt to seize Inner City Press' long time office and files is illegitimate. Consider for example that one of the UNCA board members, used by Dujarric for a shameless colloquy about Inner City Press' accreditation status on the day Inner City Press was told it was Banned from all UN premises, barely if at all writes any articles: on the website of Pakistan's Daily Dawn it says, "Could Not Find That Page."
So if Inner City Press like him did nothing, wrote nothing, merely collaborated with the UN in attacking more active and less cooperative journalists, it too could continue with an office in Gallach's corrupt UN system.
Under Gallach, tellingly, South South News which was exposed as corrupt at latest in October -- when Inner City Press questioned Gallach, on October 19, video here, as has been timely raised to the UN Ethics Office, she should have recused herself -- has been left with office space, while Inner City Press which most actively pursues the UN corruption story in order to try to clean up and improve the UN is ousted.
Well, no. Beyond further exploration of the links of South South News and the indicted with the UN including Gallach's Department of Public Information, which she is bringing low, it is time to explore "what it takes" in her system to retain office space awarded under her predecessors. It will be, to coin a phrase, a new (Daily) Dawn.
On Wall Street, seats with Ban sold for $6,000; Bans and Pioli, at right, credit UN Photo/Amanda Voisard
And if being where a journalist supposedly should be is the pretext to oust Inner City Press without due process, what about those UNCA board members including but not limited to Pioli who have routinely been allowed by the UN to slouch and parade around the so-called Turkish Lounge, where the published rules say they should only go when invited by a diplomat? We'll have more on all this. Watch this site.
When Inner City Press came to the UN on February 22, with another journalist there to sign Inner City Press in as a guest, UN Security said, “You are Banned from the UN.” Audio here.
Inner City Press left the UN pass office, and set up shop in the Isaiah plowshares park across from the UN. Several Permanent Representatives, at least two Under Secretaries General (the same rank as Gallach) and many staff came to express outrage at the UN's censorship.
But in the UN Press Briefing Room, which was "lent" to the UN Correspondents (or Corruption) Association back on January 29, the reaction was different.
In an embarrassing colloquy, long time UNCA board member and Daily Dawn-er Masood Haider asked Spokesman Dujarric about "the blogger Matthew Lee" who has been "spewing on the Internet reports whether false or not." Vine here; Video here; UN transcript here:
UNCA Question: Stéphane, can you please tell us about the blogger, Mr. Matthew Lee, who has been very active on the internet spewing all kinds of reports, whether false or not? What is the status now?
Spokesman: Mr. Lee has available to him a non-resident pass for four months and which, last I heard, he had not claimed, but that's what he has available. I know there were reports that we had “seized his files”. Completely untrue. His office remains untouched. And we await him to return so he can vacate his office. Thank you.
Yeah - thank you for the set-up question to put propaganda in to the UN record.
On February 19 Inner City Press asked to get its passport and most important files but was pushed out onto First Avenue by UN Security Deputy Chief Michael McNulty without either. That's not seized? That's OK?
And the extortionate offer - no access unless with much reduced rights - is entirely disproportionate to the non-existent "crimes," which was to seek to cover an event in this same UN Press Briefing Room, by UNCA which took money from indicted Ng Lap Seng's and Frank Lorenzo's South South News then gave Ng Lap Seng a photo op with Ban Ki-moon.
UNCA President Giampaolo was there, leaving first from the February 22 Press-less press conference; another UNCA board member slapped Dujarric on the back. Great job!
Bloggers are, of course, hacked to death in Bangladesh, a country on whose free press record USG Gallach never even replied to a detailed email from the Free UN Coalition for Access, for protection for a Bangladeshi journalist then in the UN. Spewing indeed.
Dujarric took the opportunity to deny that the UN had seized Inner City Press' files -- the reality is, when Inner City Press asked on February 19 to take the most important of them, and its passport, it was denied by UN Security. On February 22, UN Security said Inner City Press is Banned from all UN premises.
Dujarric said, as if it's ok, that Inner City Press is being "offered" much reduced access, for four months. But Inner City Press did nothing wrong, and the "investigation" by Gallach which led to its ouster did not involve a single conversation with or reaching out to Inner City Press.
Any reduced access to loss of office space -- which Masood Haider, who hardly writes articles, has, and UNCA President Giampaolo Pioli has, a private office, while writing about Morgan Freeman -- is unfair and is to cast a chill of freedom of the press. No staged colloquy can hide that. We'll have more on this.
Later, after being told to leave even the UN Pass office, a UN Under Secretary General told Inner City Press Gallach had told other USGs that Inner City Press was in fact in the building - that AFTER Inner City Press was told by UN Security, twice, that it is banned from all UN premises and was told to leave the UN Pass office.
Gallach, and Ban Ki-moon and his chief of staff Edmond Mulet to whom Inner City Press wrote on February 19, still without response, has received a legal letter with a
"demand that Mr. Lee be immediately reissued with the resident correspondent accreditation that he has enjoyed for many years. I request these remedies pending an examination of the entire matter by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression or by any other mutually agreed and independent review mechanism.
In reaching the decision to perfunctorily revoke Mr. Lee’s resident correspondent accreditation, a number of accepted principles of natural justice and rules of administrative law were breached. These principles include, inter alia, the right to be informed before the imposition of administrative measures, the right to make representations before being subjected to those measures and the right to appellate review of such measures. Mr. Lee was denied all of these procedural safeguards which are commonplace in most democratic societies and which are routinely vaunted by the United Nations itself."
As Inner City Press sits in the park across from the UN using its phone as a hot spot -- hence no Periscope -- there has been no response.
Ban Ki-moon's Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who'd also told those who questioned him that Inner City Press could end and cover “his” briefing on Monday.
False. UN Security then said, you cannot wait in the pass office, you are banned from all UN premises. Trying to cover the UN Security Council meeting on Syria from the Isaiah plowshares park across from the UN, various Ambassadors came to say they were appalled. But Gallach's office has told then, nothing will be done.
This is disgusting censorship by an increasingly corrupt UN.
As Inner City Press at the UN pursues unfolding stories of corruption, peacekeepers committing rapes in the Central African Republic, UN inaction in Burundi, South Sudan and Yemen, on February 19 with two hours notice UN Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach ordered Inner City Press to be ousted. Letter here.
On the evening of February 19, UN Security Deputy Chief Michael McNulty, who refused to provide his name (audio), pushed Inner City Press out onto First Avenue (audio), having cut off its Periscope video livestream (video) and not allowed it to get its files, coat or passport from its longtime shared office. Gallach wants the office back, to retaliate and so the UN Correspondents Association can, in essence, sell the UN space just as it sells access to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
On February 20, Inner City Press posed four questions to Dujarric and his deputy Farhan Haq, with a copy to Gallach --which 24 hours later have not been answered or even acknowledged (while both Dujarric and Gallach were wildly spinning to those who contacted them, includingNobel Laureate Jose Ramos Horta, see here, who was told there was no problem taking over Inner City Press' office and undermining its ability to report, edit videos, conduct interviews. There is a big problem. Here are the questions:
"Please state the status and condition of all of my papers and property in my office, Room S-303A, including investigative papers, communications from sources including whistleblowers and my passport and when I will have the access to them that I was denied on February 19 and since.
Please state when the Resident Correspondent UN pass I have had for years, but which was torn off my neck on Feb 19, will be returned, in connection with 1, above, and the UNSC meeting(s) and UN Noon Briefing on Monday February 22.
Please state and explain the role of the Office of the Spokesperson of the Secretary General in the deprivations in 1 and 2, above.
Finally, for now, please state the Secretary-General's position on UN Security Deputy McNulty on February 19 threatening twice to have me “handed over to NYPD” (including the concomitant acceptance by the UN of the NYPD's jurisdiction), of UN Security officers grabbing my phone which was live-broadcasting Periscope video at the UN Security Council stakeout and turning it off.
I have other questions but these are most pressing, for immediate answer."
And as yet, no answer. Watch this site.
While Inner City Press was writing up a UN Security Council meeting on Syria that went into the evening, and Periscope broadcasting, UN Security guards walked up, grabbed Inner City Press' laptop, blocked its Periscope camera and turned off the livestream. Video here.
Then eight UN Security officers led by Deputy Chief McNulty tore off Inner City Press' UN ID badge and carted off Inner City Press' laptop and camera, returning these by throwing them on the sidewalk of First Avenue. Audio here.
They did not allow Inner City Press to get coat or sweater, or the files in its office. No provision was made for this.
The ejection letter was signed by the Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Galach of Spain but ultimately Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in charge. Ban and his chief of staff Edmond Mulet and Deputy SG Jan Eliasson were all written to with details as this took place.
When Inner City Press was thrown out onto First Avenue, standing waiting, laughing and filming, was Voice of America's Margaret Besheer and another board member of the UN Correspondents Association, whose president Giampaoli Pioli told Inner City Press if it didn't remove a (truthful) article about his screening of a war crimes denial film for a tenant of his, Sri Lanka's then ambassador Palitha Kohona, he would get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN.
But who is running this asylum? Ban Ki-moon, his spokesman also involved Stephane Dujarric (who threw Inner City Press out of the UN Press Briefing Room on January 29, also trying to turn off ICP's Periscoping phone), and, some surmise, some who don't like Inner City Press' questions. We'll have more on this.
The pretext was Inner City Press three weeks earlier seeking to cover a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room by an organization which has taken money from now indicted Ng Lap Seng and Frank Lorenzo's South SOuth News, then gave Ng Lap Seng a photo op with Ban.
(As Inner City Press reported, Gallach attended the South South Awards with Frank Lorenzo, photo here, just before his indictment. She should have been recused from any decision-making on this.)
UN Security demanded ICP's pass - and later tore it off.
UNITED NATIONS, February 25-- UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric on February 9, when asked by Inner City Press how now-indicted Frank Lorenzo came to use and have his photo taken in the UN Press Briefing Room on September 8, 2011 while it never appeared in the UN Media Alert, simply refused to answer. Video here.
“I'm done answering questions,” Dujarric said, cutting Inner City Press off and calling on Voice of America's correspondent (see previous correspondence here) for an unrelated, mere scheduling question.
On February 19, moments after Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Dujarric about UN cover-ups in South Sudan, lack of transparency on Burundi and financial mismanagement -- its UN identification pass was flagged as "deactivated" and would not open the gate to access the UN Security Council stakeout.
Then Inner City Press was given two hours to leave by USG Cristina Gallach, was thrown out into First Avenue by UN Security, and Banned from all UN premises.
After two lawyer's letters, a petition and more, Inner City Press re-entered on February 25 with unfairly reduced access by asked Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: Can you say now when the… the… the long-delayed OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services] audit of the contacts between Ng Lap Seng, Frank Lorenzo, Global Sustainability Foundation and Sun Kian Ip Foundation and UN-affiliated entities will be completed?
Spokesman: My understanding on the OIOS investigation on this… in the Secretariat should be ready next month.
We'll see.
Inner City Press back on February 10 asked Dujarric what questions it is, what he and the UN will not answer. Video here, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I'm trying to figure out what questions will be answered and which ones won't be answered. So, I'm going to preface this in an entirely different way. As you know, Frank Lorenzo has been indicted. The allegation is that his South-South News funneled money and was part of a bribery conspiracy at the UN. There is a photograph of the Secretary-General receiving from Mr. Frank Lorenzo an award statue in October 2011 after an event [in the UN Press Briefing Room, not on the UN Media Alert.] Either, do you have any comment or, logistically, is there any thinking within the Secretariat of what should be done with gifts given by this now controversial organization, part of the indictment?
Spokesman Dujarric: As you know, we are conducting an audit of the relationship between a number of those people who were named in the indictments and UN entities. That is ongoing. Hopefully, it should be finished soon, and we'll see where that leads us. Okay.
We'll have more on this.
Lorenzo is a major figure in the corruption scandal surrounding the UN under Ban Ki-moon, along with former President of the General Assembly John Ashe and Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng, who after funneling money the UN Correspondents Association (including through Lorenzo's South South News) got a photo op with Ban at an UNCA event at Cipriani.
So how can Dujarric, the spokesman, simply refuse to answer factual questions about how Lorenzo gained access to the UN Press Briefing Room without being listed in the UN Media Alert, to which Dujarric begrudgingly referred Inner City Press on February 8? How has the UN sunk this low?
On February 8, Inner City Press asked Dujarric for the list of times he or his Office have “lent” out the UN Press Briefing Room, since he said on February 1 that “who gets to use this room is really my decision.”
But Dujarric refused to provide the list, instead telling Inner City Press that a list of “public” uses of the room could be compiled from UN MALU (Media Accreditation and Liasion Unit) Media Alerts. Video here.
Inner City Press asked Dujarric why he participated in the September 23, 2014 event by French President Francois Hollande from which Inner City Press was asked to leave, video here -- Dujarric did not answer this, more on this to come -- and about one sample use of the Press Briefing Room.
Frank Lorenzo, now indicted for bribery at the UN and found not to be immune, was for example in the UN Press Briefing Room on September 8, 2011, about the South South Awards / South South News, funded by also indicted Ng Lap Seng and a funder of the UN Correspondents Association.
Dujarric said go look at the MALU Media Alerts. But digging up the MALU Media Alert for September 8, 2011, there was NO mention or Lorenzo or South South News or Awards. Dujarric's answer, even by its own terms, doesn't hold water. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.
On February 5 Inner City Press asked Dujarric's Deputy Farhan Haq about the ruling in the UN corruption cases that Frank Lorenzo is NOT immune. (John Ashe is also claiming immunity.) Inner City Press asked Haq if the UN Press Briefing Room, already “lent” to another fundee of indicted Ng Lap Seng, UNCA, was ever lent to Lorenzo. Video here.
Haq replied, again without checking, that “if” Lorenzo had ever been in the UN Press Briefing Room, it would have been as Deputy Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic. But Lorenzo also led Ng-funded “South South News,” which gave money to UNCA; the indictment and ruling are based on things Lorenzo is described as doing NOT in his official capacity as DPR of the Dominican Republic. We'll have more on this.
UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq on February 4 instead of even purporting to answer Inner City Press' questions openly guessed at the motivation of the questions. Vine here, full video here. The question concerned Ng Lap seng, indicted for bribery at the UN; Haq said if you can look into corruption at the UN Correspondents Association (a Ng fundee who was lent the room on January 29), go do so.
But the UN has said it is auditing Ng's and Sheri Yan's dealings with and at the UN, which must include UNCA, which is given a large UN room, and the Press Briefing Room too, off the record sit-downs with Ban Ki-moon (two of whose closest associates were at the founding of Yan's Global Sustainability Foundation), and sells seats with Ban for $6,000.
Haq refused to answer. Inner City Press aksed, When does Stephane [Dujarric, the lead spokesman who said who gets to use the Press Briefing Room is really his decision] get back? "Whenever he wants," Haq said. This is today's UN. We'll have more on this.
On February 3, Inner City Press for the second day in a row asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq to provide a list of to whom his office, or simply lead UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, “lent” the UN Press Briefing Room. Haq on February 3 now said there is no list, but they have the information.
So Inner City Press asked a question about the information: has the UN Press Briefing Room been “lent” to any affiliate or fundee of Ng Lap Seng or the Global Sustainability Foundation, named in the US Attorney's corruption indictment.
Haq said, “No.” But since the UN Press Briefing Room was, Dujarric said, “lent to UNCA” on January 29, and UNCA has taken funds from Ng Lap Seng's entities, Inner City Press asked Haq if he was sure.
Haq insisted that money is not asked for to lend the UN Press Briefing Room. But that was not the question: has it been lent to a grantee of Ng Lap Seng.
As Inner City Press was still asking, Reuters' UN correspondent Michelle Nichols, holding Reuters' apparently Permanent seat on the UNCA board, cut in, saying “You're clutching at straws.” Video here
Inner City Press was not asking Reuters any question. On February 2, the former Reuters UN bureau chief cut in, as did the Agence France Presse correspondent Carole Landry (who is also on UNCA's board). We'll have more on this.
Dujarric didn't show up at the February 2 noon briefing, so Inner City Press had to ask his Deputy, Farhan Haq. The UNCA representative, Reuters retiree Evelyn Leopold, immediately tried to cut off the question with a loud, “Here we go again.” (This was echoed afterward by Carole Landry the English language correspondent of Agence France Presse, silent when the UN Press Briefing Room was given over to Hollande and others were asked to leave). Here's Periscope of the glass box the AFP scribe "reports" Inner City Press was "hidden" in; here's February 2 video:
This shows why there should be a UN Freedom of Information Act, something which while requested by the Free UN Coalition for AccessBan Ki-moon has tellingly done nothing about during his opaque tenure.
Instead of providing this basic information, Haq claimed Inner City Press is “mudding the waters” of having covered the January 29 meeting of UNCA, including about this group's offering of space in the UN to those who pay it money, from an entirely visible, glassed in box, from which Inner City Press live-tweeted and live-streamed Periscope video.Here's saved Periscope video of what this “hiding place” looks like.
We'll have more on this - and will continue to pursue the list of UN privatization of the Press Briefing Room. Watch this site.
But UN Spokesman Stepane Dujarric on February 1, when Inner City Press asked him under what rule he had given over the UN Press Briefing Room to the UNCA groups which charged $6,000 to sit with Ban, said “who gets to use this room is really my decision.” Vine here.
Really? The use of the UN Press Briefing Room is decided, without any rules, by this one individual? The same individual who often dodges Inner City Press' questions by saying “It's up to member states”?
But there are other problems here. After Dujarric previously lent the UN Press Briefing Room on September 23, 2014 to the entourage of the president of Dujarric's native France Francois Hollande, video here, it was then indicated that it wouldn't happen again.
Then on September 25, 2014 when Inner City Press asked Dujarric “please state which countries during this UNGA have used the UN Press Briefing Room for briefing not open to all UN correspondents, other than France at 11 am on September 23. (Also, what was your role on September 23 around 11 am in the room behind the Press Briefing Room podium?)”
Dujarric replied, in writing, “I dont have the information on the first point for you. On the second, I'm not sure that I understand it except that I was just looking into the room. I tend to be a curious person.”
Dujarric “didn't have the information” on private use of the UN Press Briefing Room, which use he says “is really my decision”? We'll have more on this.
On Wall Street in December 2015, the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) sold seats with Ban Ki-moon for $6,000 ($12,000 for a full table). Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric how this could be and was first told, As long as it's transparent.
UNCA previously took money from Macau-based casino magnate Ng Lap Seng, now under house arrest for bribery at the UN, and gave him a photo op with Ban. Now the UN or at least Dujarric gave this UNCA, now the UN Corruption Association, its UN Press Briefing Room -- and on January 29 threw out the Press seeking to cover this meeting of a group that has sold the UN and Ban, amid scandals.
On February 1, Inner City Press went to the next UN noon briefing to asked Dujarric what the rules for throwing media out of the UN Press Briefing Room are, and to explain his poking at Inner City Press' phone to stop its Periscope streaming broadcast of the event in the UN Press Briefing Room, video here, transcript here.
Dujarric cut off questions, including about his "lending" of the UN Briefing Room to the entourage of France's Francois Hollande - which will continue. In fact, the UN omitted or censored Inner City Press' entirely audible question about Hollande from the transcript. Dujarric made a threat. This is today's UN.
Sitting in a glassed in booth live-tweeting and livestreaming Periscope video cannot be called "hiding," even in the UN.
Inner City Press pointed out the obvious: this booth is entirely glassed in and visible from the podium he spoke at, and from the rostrum used on January 29 by UNCA's head Giampaolo Pioli and two board members (one from US government Broadcasting Board of Governors, as is relevant to the censorship bid contrary to the US First Amendment.)
Dujarric cut off Inner City Press' follow up question; uniquely the entire first row of the briefing room was this day filled with UNCA board members, two from Agence France Presse (they asked nothing), and Pioli, who also asked nothing. One wondered if Dujarric, who on January 29 told Inner City Press it should "join UNCA" arranged or collaborated with this dubious "show of force."
At least, unlike January 29, Dujarric did not jab at Inner City Press' camera, and the Reuters correspondent who twice blocked the camera with paper on January 29 did not do so this time.
One is left wondering if the UN's Dujarric believes he can eject any media, at any time, from any event in the UN Press Briefing Room, and if he, Reuters or UNCA will try the same camera-banning they engaged in on January 29 in the UN Press Briefing Room at the UN Security Council stakeout. Watch this site.
At the January 29 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Dujarric about Ban's paid / sold appearances, transcript here.
On January 29, UNCA leadership including Giampaoli Pioli, two scribes for the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, one from Reuters and others demanded that Inner City Press not cover a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room.
Suspending their meeting in which they discussed among other tawdry topics selling UN space to those who pay them money, UNCA called in UN Spokesman Dujarric and his deputy and then UN Security, who are the request of Dujarric asked Inner City Press to leave.
There were ironies aplenty. Not only about a group of "correspondents" trying to close and make secret their meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room, but also that it was Dujarric who told Inner City Press that the UN Press Briefing Room would not again be "lent out," after Inner City Press challenged the lending out to French President Francois Hollande.
Dujarric, deploying the F-bomb, Vine here, told Inner City Press, Yes, I am ordering you out, you can put it in your story. Vine here. He tried to turn Inner City Press' camera phone off. Vine here.
His deputy, pointing at Inner City Press, told some of the scribes, "He lies a lot" -- after providing patently false answers about UN peacekeeping and other topics.
The Voice of America correspondent Margaret Besheer, last seenclaiming there were Liberians in Burundi, to which in an untransparent process she (and Reuters and AFP) accompanied the recent Security Council trip, made comments which most contexts are deemed antithetical to free press. She's done it before (see this letter to Dujarric); she said "go on your meds."
With the UN embroiled in scandals including the indictments of the former President of the General Assembly John Ashe and Macau businessman Ng Lap Seng and the founder of South South News, on December 14 the UN Correspondents Association sold seats with Ban Ki-moon for $6000. Periscope I here;Periscope II here.
UN corruption, never reformed, rises from the Ashes, courtesy of UNCA, now the UN Corruption Association.
And yet, from inside Cipriani Wall Street, one of the musicians paid to play has an open mind, and when shown reporting on UN corruption asks, Should I make a scene? Tweet here.
Just ask, who here paid $6000 as solicited by UNCA to sit with Ban Ki-moon. And why pay it? With Ng Lap Seng, it's clear.
Is it journalism to solicit and take money from those you ostensibly cover? Where does it go? We'll have more on this.
Earlier on December 14 UNCA lobbed three softball questions to Ban -- none on Burundi, for example -- from the former president of UNCA Pamela Falk, then the current vice president and finally the current questioner for UNCA. Inner City Press loudly asked a question about the killings in Burundi, which Ban declined to answer. Vine here.
Inner City Press for the new Free UN Coalition for Access asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the propriety of UNCA selling seats with Ban. Dujarric said, "As long as it's transparent." Is that the standard?
One would expect the UN press corps, even the entity the UN itself chooses to set aside first questions for, to be pursuing rather than be involved in the scandals.
One might also expect UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to be more cautious of colluding in events in which access to him has been sold.
But with the UN Correspondents Association, this year more than ever, that is not the case. The group or its leadership, headed by Italian paparazzi scribe Giampaolo Pioli who after trying to get the investigative Pressthrown out of the UN now covers actors like Morgan Freeman while others at his paper cover the UN, is selling seats with Ban Ki-moon for $6,000.
In response to Press questions about this UNseemly sale of access, Ban's spokesman said "as long as it's transparent." Will that keep the indictments from expanding?
This year's sale of Ban, like to Ng Lap Seng in 2011, is an Italian job, run by pazarazzi / "correspondent" / landlord Giampaolo Pioli.
How does this UNCA sleaze fest differ from the South South Awards, inextricably linked to the indictments of Ng Lap Seng, South South News' Frank Lorenzo and former President of the General Assembly John Ashe? Hardly at all. So what will happen? We'll have more on this.
For now we can report that at the December 11 closed door session on "Revitalization of the General Assembly," both the UN's Controller and Ban Ki-moon's new chief of staff Edmond Mulet made arguments for post-Ashe reforms that a number of member states found far too little. And Ban is slated to have seats next to him sold for $6000. We'll have more on this too.
On December 10, days after Pioli used the large room the UN gives to UNCA, its UN Censorship Alliance, to campaign for a Security Council seat for his native Italy by giving out free meats, the view into the Club was blocked. So much for transparency.
While calling for an audit of sale of UN access under John Ashe, should Ban openly allow access to him to be sold? He appears intent on doing so, or operating by inertia, on automatic pilot. Inner City Press now learns that Ban's twice delayed report on the cover up of peacekeepers' rapes in the Central African Republic will be pushed further back, after the sell-out, buried. We'll have more on this.
UNCA's awards, such as they gave to South South News for money, include awards and payments to entities who've served on their own Board.
The United Nations Correspondents Association is honored to invite you to participate and contribute to the 20th annual UNCA Awards event with guest of honor U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, recipient of the 2015 Global Advocate of the Year Award for climate change. Exclusive raffle prizes include business class airline tickets around the world with hotel accommodations and a grand prize FIAT 500X car. As your esteemed presence will ensure the success of this event, we are pleased to send you the below opportunities to attend the gala dinner:
Mission Table Special Price / $6000 (half-table) 5 seats at VIP table at the gala event
Special Ambassador Contribution / $2,000 -1 VIP ticket for Ambassador with premium seating to dinner + 1 complimentary VIP ticket for spouse or guest -Special acknowledgement of the Ambassador and the Mission in the UNCA Awards Journal of the evening -Additional tickets for UN Diplomats of the Mission can be purchased at the special price of $750 each
Giampaolo Pioli, UNCA President Please make all checks payable to 'UNCA Awards Committee' Contributions to the UNCA Awards Committee are tax deductible. The UNCA Awards Committee is a 501-c(3)"
This is precisely the type of sale of access involved in the indictments of Ng, Sheri Yan and Frank Lorenzo.
While others are announcing audits and freezing such contacts, UNCA under Pioli is bulling forward, charging ever more money, getting ever further from journalistic purposes.
On November 20, Pioli's UNCA circulated a list of candidates with no competition for any of the six officer positions. It also pre-announced its awards, including to Reuters (on its Board) and others. We'll have more on this.
For the three running unopposed for five president slots, two were already on the UNCA board during the relevant time period; the other isPioli's former protege at Quotidiano Nazionale. It's an Italian thing.
On February 8, Inner City Press asked Dujarric for the list of times he or his Office have “lent” out the UN Press Briefing Room, since he said on February 1 that “who gets to use this room is really my decision.”
But Dujarric refused to provide the list, instead telling Inner City Press that a list of “public” uses of the room could be compiled from UN MALU (Media Accreditation and Liasion Unit) Media Alerts. Video here.
Inner City Press asked Dujarric why he participated in the September 23, 2014 event by French President Francois Hollande from which Inner City Press was asked to leave, video here -- Dujarric did not answer this, more on this to come -- and about one sample use of the Press Briefing Room.
Frank Lorenzo, now indicted for bribery at the UN and found not to be immune, was for example in the UN Press Briefing Room on September 8, 2011, about the South South Awards / South South News, funded by also indicted Ng Lap Seng and a funder of the UN Correspondents Association.
Dujarric said go look at the MALU Media Alerts. But digging up the MALU Media Alert for September 8, 2011, there was NO mention or Lorenzo or South South News or Awards. Dujarric's answer, even by its own terms, doesn't hold water. We'll have more on this. Watch this site.
On February 5 Inner City Press asked Dujarric's Deputy Farhan Haq about the ruling in the UN corruption cases that Frank Lorenzo is NOT immune. (John Ashe is also claiming immunity.) Inner City Press asked Haq if the UN Press Briefing Room, already “lent” to another fundee of indicted Ng Lap Seng, UNCA, was ever lent to Lorenzo. Video here.
Haq replied, again without checking, that “if” Lorenzo had ever been in the UN Press Briefing Room, it would have been as Deputy Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic. But Lorenzo also led Ng-funded “South South News,” which gave money to UNCA; the indictment and ruling are based on things Lorenzo is described as doing NOT in his official capacity as DPR of the Dominican Republic. We'll have more on this.
UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq on February 4 instead of even purporting to answer Inner City Press' questions openly guessed at the motivation of the questions. Vine here, full video here. The question concerned Ng Lap seng, indicted for bribery at the UN; Haq said if you can look into corruption at the UN Correspondents Association (a Ng fundee who was lent the room on January 29), go do so.
But the UN has said it is auditing Ng's and Sheri Yan's dealings with and at the UN, which must include UNCA, which is given a large UN room, and the Press Briefing Room too, off the record sit-downs with Ban Ki-moon (two of whose closest associates were at the founding of Yan's Global Sustainability Foundation), and sells seats with Ban for $6,000.
Haq refused to answer. Inner City Press aksed, When does Stephane [Dujarric, the lead spokesman who said who gets to use the Press Briefing Room is really his decision] get back? "Whenever he wants," Haq said. This is today's UN. We'll have more on this.
On February 3, Inner City Press for the second day in a row asked UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq to provide a list of to whom his office, or simply lead UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, “lent” the UN Press Briefing Room. Haq on February 3 now said there is no list, but they have the information.
So Inner City Press asked a question about the information: has the UN Press Briefing Room been “lent” to any affiliate or fundee of Ng Lap Seng or the Global Sustainability Foundation, named in the US Attorney's corruption indictment.
Haq said, “No.” But since the UN Press Briefing Room was, Dujarric said, “lent to UNCA” on January 29, and UNCA has taken funds from Ng Lap Seng's entities, Inner City Press asked Haq if he was sure.
Haq insisted that money is not asked for to lend the UN Press Briefing Room. But that was not the question: has it been lent to a grantee of Ng Lap Seng.
As Inner City Press was still asking, Reuters' UN correspondent Michelle Nichols, holding Reuters' apparently Permanent seat on the UNCA board, cut in, saying “You're clutching at straws.” Video here
Inner City Press was not asking Reuters any question. On February 2, the former Reuters UN bureau chief cut in, as did the Agence France Presse correspondent Carole Landry (who is also on UNCA's board). We'll have more on this.
Dujarric didn't show up at the February 2 noon briefing, so Inner City Press had to ask his Deputy, Farhan Haq. The UNCA representative, Reuters retiree Evelyn Leopold, immediately tried to cut off the question with a loud, “Here we go again.” (This was echoed afterward by Carole Landry the English language correspondent of Agence France Presse, silent when the UN Press Briefing Room was given over to Hollande and others were asked to leave). Here's Periscope of the glass box the AFP scribe "reports" Inner City Press was "hidden" in; here's February 2 video:
This shows why there should be a UN Freedom of Information Act, something which while requested by the Free UN Coalition for AccessBan Ki-moon has tellingly done nothing about during his opaque tenure.
Instead of providing this basic information, Haq claimed Inner City Press is “mudding the waters” of having covered the January 29 meeting of UNCA, including about this group's offering of space in the UN to those who pay it money, from an entirely visible, glassed in box, from which Inner City Press live-tweeted and live-streamed Periscope video.Here's saved Periscope video of what this “hiding place” looks like.
We'll have more on this - and will continue to pursue the list of UN privatization of the Press Briefing Room. Watch this site.
But UN Spokesman Stepane Dujarric on February 1, when Inner City Press asked him under what rule he had given over the UN Press Briefing Room to the UNCA groups which charged $6,000 to sit with Ban, said “who gets to use this room is really my decision.” Vine here.
Really? The use of the UN Press Briefing Room is decided, without any rules, by this one individual? The same individual who often dodges Inner City Press' questions by saying “It's up to member states”?
But there are other problems here. After Dujarric previously lent the UN Press Briefing Room on September 23, 2014 to the entourage of the president of Dujarric's native France Francois Hollande, video here, it was then indicated that it wouldn't happen again.
Then on September 25, 2014 when Inner City Press asked Dujarric “please state which countries during this UNGA have used the UN Press Briefing Room for briefing not open to all UN correspondents, other than France at 11 am on September 23. (Also, what was your role on September 23 around 11 am in the room behind the Press Briefing Room podium?)”
Dujarric replied, in writing, “I dont have the information on the first point for you. On the second, I'm not sure that I understand it except that I was just looking into the room. I tend to be a curious person.”
Dujarric “didn't have the information” on private use of the UN Press Briefing Room, which use he says “is really my decision”? We'll have more on this.
On Wall Street in December 2015, the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) sold seats with Ban Ki-moon for $6,000 ($12,000 for a full table). Inner City Press asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric how this could be and was first told, As long as it's transparent.
UNCA previously took money from Macau-based casino magnate Ng Lap Seng, now under house arrest for bribery at the UN, and gave him a photo op with Ban. Now the UN or at least Dujarric gave this UNCA, now the UN Corruption Association, its UN Press Briefing Room -- and on January 29 threw out the Press seeking to cover this meeting of a group that has sold the UN and Ban, amid scandals.
On February 1, Inner City Press went to the next UN noon briefing to asked Dujarric what the rules for throwing media out of the UN Press Briefing Room are, and to explain his poking at Inner City Press' phone to stop its Periscope streaming broadcast of the event in the UN Press Briefing Room, video here, transcript here.
Dujarric cut off questions, including about his "lending" of the UN Briefing Room to the entourage of France's Francois Hollande - which will continue. In fact, the UN omitted or censored Inner City Press' entirely audible question about Hollande from the transcript. Dujarric made a threat. This is today's UN.
Sitting in a glassed in booth live-tweeting and livestreaming Periscope video cannot be called "hiding," even in the UN.
Inner City Press pointed out the obvious: this booth is entirely glassed in and visible from the podium he spoke at, and from the rostrum used on January 29 by UNCA's head Giampaolo Pioli and two board members (one from US government Broadcasting Board of Governors, as is relevant to the censorship bid contrary to the US First Amendment.)
Dujarric cut off Inner City Press' follow up question; uniquely the entire first row of the briefing room was this day filled with UNCA board members, two from Agence France Presse (they asked nothing), and Pioli, who also asked nothing. One wondered if Dujarric, who on January 29 told Inner City Press it should "join UNCA" arranged or collaborated with this dubious "show of force."
At least, unlike January 29, Dujarric did not jab at Inner City Press' camera, and the Reuters correspondent who twice blocked the camera with paper on January 29 did not do so this time.
One is left wondering if the UN's Dujarric believes he can eject any media, at any time, from any event in the UN Press Briefing Room, and if he, Reuters or UNCA will try the same camera-banning they engaged in on January 29 in the UN Press Briefing Room at the UN Security Council stakeout. Watch this site.
At the January 29 noon briefing, Inner City Press asked Dujarric about Ban's paid / sold appearances, transcript here.
On January 29, UNCA leadership including Giampaoli Pioli, two scribes for the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, one from Reuters and others demanded that Inner City Press not cover a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room.
Suspending their meeting in which they discussed among other tawdry topics selling UN space to those who pay them money, UNCA called in UN Spokesman Dujarric and his deputy and then UN Security, who are the request of Dujarric asked Inner City Press to leave.
There were ironies aplenty. Not only about a group of "correspondents" trying to close and make secret their meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room, but also that it was Dujarric who told Inner City Press that the UN Press Briefing Room would not again be "lent out," after Inner City Press challenged the lending out to French President Francois Hollande.
Dujarric, deploying the F-bomb, Vine here, told Inner City Press, Yes, I am ordering you out, you can put it in your story. Vine here. He tried to turn Inner City Press' camera phone off. Vine here.
His deputy, pointing at Inner City Press, told some of the scribes, "He lies a lot" -- after providing patently false answers about UN peacekeeping and other topics.
The Voice of America correspondent Margaret Besheer, last seenclaiming there were Liberians in Burundi, to which in an untransparent process she (and Reuters and AFP) accompanied the recent Security Council trip, made comments which most contexts are deemed antithetical to free press. She's done it before (see this letter to Dujarric); she said "go on your meds."
Ban's interaction with this UN Corruption Association are NOT transparent. The new Free UN Coalition to Access, which on January 27 thanked the New York State Comptroller and others at a 1:15 pm press conference with no one in UNCA's "holy seat," has repeatedly critiqued this lack of transparency, as journalists should.
Amazingly, while this UN Corruption Association routinely tries to lure briefers away from the UN Press Briefing Room, now the UN gives it that room for this meeting: UN Censorship Alliance. We'll have more on this.
On January 20, Inner City Press received a solicitation:
"UNA-UK is delighted to invite you to an event with H.E. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on the morning of 5 February 2016... We are giving UNA-UK members and supporters the opportunity to book their place before tickets go on general sale and also recognising your ongoing support by offering a discounted rate (tickets will be £10 reduced from £15).
Click here to book your place - use the code [removed upon UNA-UK request] to claim your discount."
So you can only hear Ban Ki-moon on London for 15 pounds - or 10 pounds if you join the organization. In New York, UNCA charges money (and only distributes information the UN gives it to those who pay its dues) - and still charges to sit with Ban.
With the UN embroiled in scandals including the indictments of the former President of the General Assembly John Ashe and Macau businessman Ng Lap Seng and the founder of South South News, on December 14 the UN Correspondents Association sold seats with Ban Ki-moon for $6000. Periscope I here;Periscope II here.
UN corruption, never reformed, rises from the Ashes, courtesy of UNCA, now the UN Corruption Association.
And yet, from inside Cipriani Wall Street, one of the musicians paid to play has an open mind, and when shown reporting on UN corruption asks, Should I make a scene? Tweet here.
Just ask, who here paid $6000 as solicited by UNCA to sit with Ban Ki-moon. And why pay it? With Ng Lap Seng, it's clear.
The new EU representative naively said, First UNCA; the Turkish mission tweeted a photo of Ban (after its Perm Rep hob-nobbed with him in front of Monaco's painting, ignoring the invasion of Iraq, whose Ambassador arrived in tux to the Corruption Ball, we excuse him.)
Since UNCA previously at such an event at Cipriani sold photo ops with Ban Ki-moon to now-indicted Ng Lap Seng, who will be this year's Ng Lap Seng? Into Cipriani, this time the one on Wall Street, passed many tuxedoed individuals never seen at the UN. What were they buying? What safeguards had been added since Ng Lap Seng and John Ashe? None.
New PGA Mogens Lykketoft arrived, as did Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson and David Nabarro, who stopped in the rain to speak with Inner City Press, as did another Under Secretary General. How can the UN and its group of scribes remain so UNreformed, despite indictments and public scandal?
Is it journalism to solicit and take money from those you ostensibly cover? Where does it go? We'll have more on this.
Earlier on December 14 UNCA lobbed three softball questions to Ban -- none on Burundi, for example -- from the former president of UNCA Pamela Falk, then the current vice president and finally the current questioner for UNCA. Inner City Press loudly asked a question about the killings in Burundi, which Ban declined to answer. Vine here.
Inner City Press for the new Free UN Coalition for Access asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the propriety of UNCA selling seats with Ban. Dujarric said, "As long as it's transparent." Is that the standard?
One would expect the UN press corps, even the entity the UN itself chooses to set aside first questions for, to be pursuing rather than be involved in the scandals.
One might also expect UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to be more cautious of colluding in events in which access to him has been sold.
But with the UN Correspondents Association, this year more than ever, that is not the case. The group or its leadership, headed by Italian paparazzi scribe Giampaolo Pioli who after trying to get the investigative Pressthrown out of the UN now covers actors like Morgan Freeman while others at his paper cover the UN, is selling seats with Ban Ki-moon for $6,000.
In response to Press questions about this UNseemly sale of access, Ban's spokesman said "as long as it's transparent." Will that keep the indictments from expanding?
This year's sale of Ban, like to Ng Lap Seng in 2011, is an Italian job, run by pazarazzi / "correspondent" / landlord Giampaolo Pioli.
How does this UNCA sleaze fest differ from the South South Awards, inextricably linked to the indictments of Ng Lap Seng, South South News' Frank Lorenzo and former President of the General Assembly John Ashe? Hardly at all. So what will happen? We'll have more on this.
For now we can report that at the December 11 closed door session on "Revitalization of the General Assembly," both the UN's Controller and Ban Ki-moon's new chief of staff Edmond Mulet made arguments for post-Ashe reforms that a number of member states found far too little. And Ban is slated to have seats next to him sold for $6000. We'll have more on this too.
On December 10, days after Pioli used the large room the UN gives to UNCA, its UN Censorship Alliance, to campaign for a Security Council seat for his native Italy by giving out free meats, the view into the Club was blocked. So much for transparency.
Here is a photo of the Clubhouse:
The flier on the glassed-in bulletin board, under the "election" results, is of fine recently deceased journalist Haider Rizvi. Inner City Press'obituary hinted at it, but now we're compelled to say: UNCA, or its sidekick, tried to get him thrown out of the UN. There'll be a memorial for Haider, which can be participated in online, on December 12 - in Lahore. Truth is what journalism is about. But here's Pioli on Morgan Freeman:
This UNCA "leadership" represents Italy and France, and old media -- tellingly, those new media which chose to run (Inner City Press quit UNCA after its censorship bid) for lesser UNCA seats were not selected. Also tellingly, the UN Spokesperson's office promoted the scam election, using its loudspeaker to try to get out the vote (for candidates who had no opponents.)
The ringmaster, Giampaolo Pioli, came through the UN Security Council stakeout not to ask any question or even listen to answers on South Sudan or Syria; he glad handed his unopposed slate and then headed to the UN bar. He has arranged more Italian toasting, seeingly part of Italy's actually-opposed campaign for a Security Council seat (more on this in future dispatches).
While calling for an audit of sale of UN access under John Ashe, should Ban openly allow access to him to be sold? He appears intent on doing so, or operating by inertia, on automatic pilot. Inner City Press now learns that Ban's twice delayed report on the cover up of peacekeepers' rapes in the Central African Republic will be pushed further back, after the sell-out, buried. We'll have more on this.
UNCA's awards, such as they gave to South South News for money, include awards and payments to entities who've served on their own Board.
The United Nations Correspondents Association is honored to invite you to participate and contribute to the 20th annual UNCA Awards event with guest of honor U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, recipient of the 2015 Global Advocate of the Year Award for climate change. Exclusive raffle prizes include business class airline tickets around the world with hotel accommodations and a grand prize FIAT 500X car. As your esteemed presence will ensure the success of this event, we are pleased to send you the below opportunities to attend the gala dinner:
Mission Table Special Price / $6000 (half-table) 5 seats at VIP table at the gala event
Special Ambassador Contribution / $2,000 -1 VIP ticket for Ambassador with premium seating to dinner + 1 complimentary VIP ticket for spouse or guest -Special acknowledgement of the Ambassador and the Mission in the UNCA Awards Journal of the evening -Additional tickets for UN Diplomats of the Mission can be purchased at the special price of $750 each
Giampaolo Pioli, UNCA President Please make all checks payable to 'UNCA Awards Committee' Contributions to the UNCA Awards Committee are tax deductible. The UNCA Awards Committee is a 501-c(3)"
This is precisely the type of sale of access involved in the indictments of Ng, Sheri Yan and Frank Lorenzo.
While others are announcing audits and freezing such contacts, UNCA under Pioli is bulling forward, charging ever more money, getting ever further from journalistic purposes.
On November 20, Pioli's UNCA circulated a list of candidates with no competition for any of the six officer positions. It also pre-announced its awards, including to Reuters (on its Board) and others. We'll have more on this.
For the three running unopposed for five president slots, two were already on the UNCA board during the relevant time period; the other isPioli's former protege at Quotidiano Nazionale. It's an Italian thing.
UNITED NATIONS, October 21 -- As the scandal unveiled in thecorruption charges against former UN General Assembly President John Ashe, Ng Lap Seng, Jeff Yin, Sheri Yan, Francis Lorenzo of South South News and others continues to expand, the compromised position of the UN Correspondents Association has come to the fore.
On October 21, the day after John Ashe, Francis Lorenzo, Ng Lap Seng, Jeff Yin and Sheri Yan were indicted, Inner City Press asked the UN's deputy spokesperson about the indictment and how Yan got or bought her father Yan Zhen a UN art show (through a UN Department of Public Information committee was the answer). Video here. From the UN's transcript:
Inner City Press: The Grand Jury has returned an indictment against Ng Lap Seng, John Ashe, and others, and they've added new charges including money laundering. So I wanted to know now that it's not just the prosecutor but a Grand Jury has itself embraced these charges and added to them, what is, is the UN, who… as this process goes forward, does the UN look at these new charges and say, you know, even pending our audit how do we close these apparent holes that exist in our system? What's your process? What's your comment on the indictment?
Deputy Spokesman: Our comment on the indictment is that we certainly hope that the legal process that's under way in the United States can get to the bottom of this. We feel that there is a major need to determine what the truth is and what could be a very serious issue. As you know, the Secretary-General made very clear that this goes to the heart of how the United Nations works and we would try to do anything we can to make sure that the truth can be determined. As we have made clear, we've offered our cooperation, as if so needed by the authorities, and if we get a request, the relevant request, from the U.S. authorities, we would follow up on that.
Inner City Press: Sure. I wanted to ask you about another event here. Sheri Yan, who is also among the indictees yesterday, there was a painting exhibition. I actually remember it well. It was in September 2014 in the Secretariat lobby where the coffee shop is now, and basically it was presented as, you know, art exhibition. It's still… the video is still on UN TV, but the artist was, in fact, Sheri Yan's father. So some people are asking: Is this how the UN works? What is the process, if you could explain it generally speaking, in order to have a, quote, UN art exhibit? And is it appropriate, can someone just flash cash and get their relative to have a show inside the UN?
Deputy Spokesman: No, not in the least. There is a Committee that deals with exhibitions, and exhibitions are vetted through that Committee. At the same time, in terms of determining how the specific exhibition went, as you know, the Office for Internal Oversight services is doing an audit and we'll see whether it turns up any information about how any of these particular projects or events occurred here.
Inner City Press: Is it a DPI Committee or a Department of Management? What is that Committee?
Deputy Spokesman: The Department of Public Information has the key role in that.
This UN and DPI continue to partner with UNCA.
In 2011 until now, Inner City Press has exposed UNCA for taking funds from Ng Lap Seng vehicles, to which it gave awards, and arranging Ng Lap Seng photo op(s) with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. UNCA has not provided any explanation; the UN through Ban's spokesman has said for example that many people get photographs with Ban. But people like Ng previously found in US Senate reports to have made irregular campaign contributions, and co-owning hotels links to prostitution?
On October 20, Inner City Press asked UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq about Ng, and about how much money the Global Sustainability Foundation gave for the UN's “Ark of Return” (anti) slavery memorial. Haq wouldn't give the dollar figure - it's at least $60,000 -- and seemed to says it doesn't matter where the UN takes money from, only how the UN uses it. Video here. From the UN's October 20 transcript:
Inner City Press: I wanted to ask one question about Global Sustainability Foundation, one about Mr. Ng Lap Seng. Seems that the Global Sustainability Foundation held a luncheon for and raised funds for this Arc of Return, it's a monument to the recollection of transatlantic slavery. And I wanted to know, one, I mean, pending… this just seems it's a fact, it's on their website they basically present themself as a major sponsor of the monument, which isn't really my understanding, but can you find out without, it's not an audit. It's just a financial question. Did they, in fact, give money to it, and why did they sponsor the luncheon for it? What was their, in what capacity did they do that?
Deputy Spokesman: Again, this is one of the topics for which we expect any relevant information will come out through the audit, so we would await that…
Inner City press: Can't you answer just a simple financial question…
Deputy Spokesman: No, I'm not going…
Inner City Press: This is a monument for which the Secretary-General raised funds…
Deputy Spokesman: I'm not going…
Inner City Press: …how much did they give?
Deputy Spokesman: I'm not going to do the work that the auditors are doing. We're waiting for the auditors to go about their work, and we'll see what they have to say. If there's any additional avenues we need to pursue after that, we can do that at that point.
Inner City Press: Okay. I want to ask you another question. Mr. Ng Lap Seng, who's now out on $50 million bail, it seemed he sort of penetrated the UN system, including several photo ops with Ban Ki-moon against a blue background in Cipriani's, I wanted to ask you, a major financial newspaper, just on cursory research, said he's a co-owner of the Fortuna Hotel, which has… quote, this is all from their promotional material, table dancing by strippers, boasted attractive and attentive hostesses from China, Singapore and Korea, and erotic girls from Europe and Russia. And I wanted to know, given, given everything that's said from this podium about UN Women and the need to take these issues seriously, how is it possible… how is it possible that this, an individual engaged in these activities, came… came to such a position of prominence and, and, and closeness to the Secretary-General?
Deputy Spokesman: Matthew, we do not speak for David Ng Lap Seng or his group or his business holdings. Any questions on that have to go to his organizations. The United Nations does not deal with any of the, of the entities, with entities like the ones that you've described.
Inner City Press: The money from it was donated to various UN causes. That’s why I'm asking you to respond to this pending, this unending audit, what do you think of this?
Deputy Spokesman: The nature of corporations is that any corporation can have many, many different holdings. I'm not going to comment on all of the holdings of different groups, depending upon what they do with the UN. What we're trying to monitor is how the funds from these groups affected the UN and the dealings with the two entities that we've been talking about. That's being audited, and we'll follow up on that. But the group's activities as a whole, that's an issue for other authorities. It's not…
It's not an issue for the United Nations…
Inner City Press: I understand what the audit is…
Deputy Spokesman: It has nothing, it actually has no actual relevance to the work we've done.
Question: It's just how the money is spent by the UN, not where the money came from?
Deputy Spokesman: The audit is designed to follow up on what effect, what impact, the activities the groups and of the monies that they spent have and that's what we're following up on...
Inner City Press: Is it, are you, is the Secretariat yet viewing the… Secretariat viewing the charges of the Southern District of New York as mostly or entirely related to the PGA [President of the General Assembly]? I guess I'm asking this because things like South-South News... Yesterday, I'd asked Stéphane at the founding of the Global Sustainability Foundation, there was Mr. Nambiar. There was the spouse of the Secretary-General. There was not Mr. Ashe anywhere to be seen. So I just want to be clear. Is this an audit about two… merely two entities, but as relates to the UN Secretariat or just to the PGA's office?
Deputy Spokesman: No, no, it's as we have, it's as we described in the statement before. It's about the UN as a whole.
Background: Ng Lap Seng was found to have brought the same bags of cash later deployed at the UN into the US earlier, in the late 90s, when his Fortuna hotel was linked to organized crime and even human trafficking. From the WSJ:
“Who is Ng Lap Seng, and what did he want? According to several well-informed sources in Hong Kong and Macau, Mr. Ng is a mysterious figure with extensive business in China, where he also held a minor post as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in his hometown of Nan Hai in Guangdong province. In Macau, his most visible interest is his ownership of the Fortuna Hotel, a garish high-rise in the gambling district, featuring a 20,000-square-foot nightclub with 'table dancing' by strippers, as well as a massage parlor and, according to its brochure, 'over 30 independent karaoke rooms, all luxuriously decorated with the most advanced sound system for any one interested in performing his favorite songs.' The brochure also boasts 'attractive and attentive hostesses from China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Burma together with erotic girls from Europe and Russia, certainly offer you an exciting and unforgettable evening with friends or business associates.'”
So what does UN Women, which has still to comment on UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous linking rapes to “R&R,” same about Ban's UN (through UNCA) accepting “pimp and trafficker” Ng Lap Seng into the UN, and into UNCA's Cipriani ball for photos with Ban and his spouse? We'll have more on this.
Just as UNCA "leaders" from Voice of America and Reuters(censorship bid here) tried to use the UN to get the investigative Press out, now the UN responds to questions about UNCA selling Secretary General Ban Ki-moon photo ops to Ng Lap Seng by suggesting that the questioner, because present, "condoned" the sale.
Now, with UNCA still silent on its links with South South News and other Ng Lap Seng vehicles, here is video Inner City Press published in December 2011 of UNCA's murky photo ops for Ban at Cipriani, which UNCA seeks to reproduce this coming December.
Even then in December 2011, Inner City Press' accompanying story reported that it
"filmed what it could of the photo op -- those arranging it kept telling the Press it had to leave -- and afterward several in Ban's circle said they had no idea who the businessmen had been. There was dark talk about one David Ng, a businessman who has bankrolled 'vanity' media projects given awards that night -- people funded by Ng used the word "vanity," so we use it here."
Inner City Press published that in December 2011 about Ng and South South News; it quit UNCA and with another Executive Committee member who quit in disgust co-founded FUNCA, the Free UN Coalition for Access. UNCA continued taking funds from South South News. We'll have more on this.
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 in December 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 -- but now does.
UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, when Inner City Press asked on October 13 about what it had seen, said perhaps Inner City Press had "condoned" it. Video here. But Inner City Press quit UNCA afterfinding conflicts of interest in it, and being "ordered" to not report on this. From the October 13 transcript:
Inner City Press: I want to ask inevitably about the revelations about Mr. [John] Ashe and Frank Lorenzo and others. And just as you… as the lead Spokesman, a person that travels around with the Secretary-General, how… what would you say to the photos that exist of the Secretary-General with David Ng, who was since indicted, and Frank Lorenzo and, particularly, in instances where it appears that groups that receive contributions from the two and then put them in a room to have photographs with the Secretary-General? Is this something that… how does the Secretary-General view this in retrospect, and what's going to be done in the future?
Spokesman: First of all, a photo of the Secretary-General with any individual should in no way be interpreted as a sponsorship or agreement. It's just a photo. The Secretary-General is very much a public figure, attends a lot of public events where there are a lot of people. Sometimes people come up to him and ask to have their photo taken. And it's done within the… within, obviously, the security constraints that need to be had. I think whether it's the Secretary-General of the United Nations or anyone in leadership position, you will find when you travel with them that a lot of people want to have their photo taken with them. Inasmuch as that is… we try to control that, sometimes it's difficult to do so. I think the Secretary-General is as shocked as anyone in this building at the charges that were levelled at these two individuals. And he's very disappointed at the accusations towards the United Nations.
Inner City Press: obviously, to business interests having an actual kind of formal handshaking one, I guess I'll just say that that is worth something to them. That's why they…
Spokesman: I'm not… I'm not debating that point… [cross talk] I'm just saying that having a picture of the Secretary-General with any individual should in no way be seen as a sponsorship, approval, making them BFF's or anything.
Inner City Press: I guess I just want to be more specific. If an event… and there's one that actually, as it turns out, I witnessed in Cipriani. If the Secretary-General enters a large space and is then taken to a smaller space for such photographs, what's the basis for that, as opposed to people with selfies? I mean, I understand what you're saying…
Spokesman: I think, you know, if you were there, then maybe you condoned the event as well. The issue is the Secretary-General attends a lot of events. Sometimes there is a VIP reception. None of it should be construed as anything as the Secretary-General having his picture taken with anyone.
Inner City Press: it's been a number of days now; I'm assuming that, if not you, OLA [Office of Legal Affairs], someone has read through this long FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] affidavit. And I want to just ask you again, because in it, it says that, after the… the… the official UN document about the Macau centre was procured, there was a separate payment to Mr. Ashe, separate communications with a UN official number one, who reissued the document as a… amended… revised for technical reasons, with the name of the company in it. And it seems to me, even before you waiting for an OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services] investigation, the scope of which wouldn't touch that, who in the UN is actually… how does it work, first of all? Who… which part of the UN amends documents after they're released? Is it DGACM [Department for General Assembly and Conference Management]…?
Spokesman: Listen, I'm not going to talk about the specifics of the case. But it is clear that if the President of one of the legislative bodies in this Organization which controls the agenda, or a sponsoring country for resolution, asks the Secretary-General to amend a text, we serve as the Secretariat. It's not… it's… it doesn't entail sponsoring of what's inside that text.
While Inner City Press' answer to the spokesman's "if you were there, then maybe you condoned the event as well," is that Inner City Press quit UNCA after finding conflicts of interest in it, and being "ordered" to not report on this, we'll have more on this.
On October 13, Inner City Press asked this follow up:
Inner City Press: I just want to directly ask you about the idea that it's sort of people struggling to get photos with the UN officials. There was a… there was a peacekeeping day concert that was… for which solicitation of… you know, sponsorship was sought by a group called World Harmony Alliance, and it had nothing… the group has nothing to do with peacekeeping, but they paid for day. They… they… in fact, the funder complained that he didn't get the promised photograph with Ban Ki-moon, but I wonder, what was… what's the UN's understanding when they take outside financial sponsorship for such a day? I mean, former UN official [Ibrahim] Gambari was seen with the same group taking photographs on the fourth floor in the Millennium Hotel. What's it all about? What’s happening?
Spokesman: What former officials do in hotels is really not of my purview.
Inner City Press: Sure. What about UN peacekeeping?
Spokesman: I would take a look at that actual programme, but I would expect every part of the UN to do due diligence when it partners with an outside organization. And just… I'll leave it at that.
On October 12, Inner City Press asked Ban's deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq, video here, transcript here:
Inner City Press: in light of these charges against John Ashe, Frank Lorenzo, and others, it's emerging that the Secretary-General, if not met, had staged photo opportunities with a number of the individuals charged. And I wanted to know, in looking at this, do you have some kind of a comment on how these occurred, particularly in instances where they may have been arranged by a third party, been arranged by an organization that invited Ban Ki-moon and then received funds from South-South News or others and then put the two together on photograph? Was that appropriate? And what would be your response to… to OIOS [Office of Internal Oversight Services] looking at that or otherwise?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, regarding that, as you're aware, the Office of Internal Oversight Services will do an audit. They've been requested to do that, and so we'll be able to see whether there was any effect from either the relationship with these various groups, these two groups, the Sun Kian Ip Group and the Global Sustainability Foundation, and any of the monies received. So, we'll await what they have to say about any of this.
Inner City Press: But, given that Mr. Frank Lorenzo has been charged and he's now out on $2 million bail, he was head of South-South News, which spread $12 million, according to the documents, throughout the UN system. So, what was, how, what was the criteria used to choose these two NGOs and not either South-South News or International Organization for South-South Cooperation or South South Steering Committee on Sustainable Development? It seems like it's a very limited inquiry and…
Deputy Spokesman: It's not really an inquiry. It's an audit, and this is initial step. If OIOS feels like there is something… there's a direction which they need to go as a result of these initial results, they're certainly free to do that, but we needed to get the ball rolling and have an initial step forward so that we can look into what exactly is the impact of the monies and the relationship with these groups.
John Ashe at UNCA with former president, after and before Pioli click photo for source / credit
Back in December 2011, 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.
Consider: if it gave rise to criminal charges that South South News paid Ashe to get a GA document for Ng to show off in Macau, who about South South News paying UNCA, and UNCA delivering Ban for a photo op with Ng, that Ng could use for related purposes? We'll have more on this.
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.
