After Internship in UN Auctioned for $26,000 for RFK Young Leaders, Buyer Might Not Be Let In, ICP's Told, Forms Reformed?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- An internship in the UN was auctioned off, ultimately for $26,000, in a process extensively covered and questioned by Inner City Press. The UN said it was embarrassed by the auction or the "optics," and resisted Inner City Press' questions about the sale.

After Inner City Press asked several times about, the description of the internship being auctioned was "amended," as the UN spokesman put it, to read:

"Take advantage of this exclusive opportunity for a 6-week internship in NYC working for Bruce Knotts, Chair of the UN-NGO Committee on Human Rights. You will gain inside knowledge of just how the UN really operates and have tremendous opportunities to make invaluable connections. This truly is the ultimate internship opportunity for any college or graduate student looking to get their foot in the door!"

The auction, on CharityBuzz.com, said it was to benefit the RFK Young Leaders. Press inquiries to that entity and its parent, the RFK Center, did not yield any answers. But today, at least, we have a detailed answers about how such internships or grounds-passes work, from the Director of the UN Department of Public Information's Outreach Division, Maher Nasser.

  Inner City Press, along with another DPI question to which it is still awaiting the answer -- why was UNTV shut off while Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat was giving a speech on Monday morning -- asked Nasser, "I heard when you told DPI-NGO orientation that it makes the UN look bad, and that the UN is not obligated to let the person ('m. alam') who purchased the internship into the building. Is that the case? And you could keep me informed on this, when the purchased internship is to begin and what the UN / DPI does?"

  To his credit, Nasser provided Inner City Press with the most detailed UN response to date on the auctioned internship:

Subject: Question re the auctioned internship, thanks
From: Maher Nasser [at] un.org
Date: Mon, May 20, 2013 at 2:38 PM
To: Matthew Russell Lee [at] InnerCityPress.com

Hi Matthew, On the internship issue, as you know from the relevant website, this was for an internship with an NGO, not an internship at the UN. The optics of it and use of the UN's image implied otherwise, which is why I flagged it in the orientation with newly associated NGOs as something that hurts the UN and is not acceptable.

Every NGO associated with DPI is entitled to only six yearly passes, two of which are for youth representatives. The names to whom the passes are issued are provided by the president/head of each NGO. By providing the names, the NGO certifies that these names represent the NGO concerned. Up till now, we have had no reason not to grant a pass to people designated as representing an NGO. An old system of temporary passes issued throughout the year was discontinued by DPI several years ago.

With reference to the six names provided, and as I said above, this has not happened in the past, if we find out that someone had to pay or buy a slot on that list, we would take it up with the concerned NGO and depending on the feedback, not endorse that name for a pass.

In view of the case of the auctioned internship, we are preparing language to be added to the forms to be completed by DPI associated NGOs to avoid such possibilities in the future.

  So at a minimum, the "m. alam" on whose behalf $26,000 was bid for this internship might not be endorsed for a pass to actually enter the UN. Would they get a refund? And what do the UN-NGO Committee on Human Rights and the RFK Center have to say? Watch this site.

Footnote: While we await another division of DPI's promised answer to the Free UN Coalition for Access about how and why UNTV shut off during Saeb Erakat's speech, we note complaints received about the press corps move-back to the Secretariat building, particularly among broadcasters about special charges, special deals, special inquiries. The DPI official in question is aware of several of these complaints; watch this site.

As UN Bungles Press Move-Back, No Keys, Wi-Fi or TV, Tells Only Its UN Censorship Alliance, FUNCA Protests

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 --That this UN can't solve problems from Syria to Guinea Bissau is reflected closer to home in the bungled move-back of the UN press corps to the Secretariat building.

It was delayed for months, then set to occur on May 10. But when the day arrived, there were still no keys for the offices being moved back to. 

  (There were also extensive complaints that the largest and most private offices were granted to the Executive Committee members of the UN Correspondents Association, a questionable and questioned grouping with which the UN exclusively and secretly negotiated office assignments.)

  Journalists were told that a new television system called EZTV would replace the old cable system. But as of May 10, when Inner City Press tried the referenced eztv.un.org, it did not work. Nor did the wi-fi in the third floor press area.

  Now on the Sunday before the Monday "move in," the UN has offered apologies not to the entire press corps, but only to UNCA Executive Committee insiders, trying to use them who have been so well served by this secretive planning to molify others.

  By no means all UN correspondents are represented by UNCA, despite recent false statements by UNCA president Pamela Falk of CBS, broadcast propaganda-like on UNTV in the UN's lobby, to the contrary.

  Falk's Rasputin-like First Vice President, Louis Charbonneau of Reuters last seen palling around with UN official Stephane Dujarric in the UN lobby, has been move involved in trying to get the Press thrown out of the UN, as recently as March 8 of this year, than with any protection of press rights at the UN. 

  

The Free UN Coalition for Access notes that Reuters grabbed for itself a private office with five spots (for two people) while another wire service got pushed with two other media. Maybe that explains Reuters' increasingly bogus UN coverage.

  So where is the on the record mea culpa to all UN correspondents? Journalists were told to turn in their keys to their former cubicles and move on May 13. But it is not ready, and there are no keys to the new spaces. Investigative journalists have commitments to their sources, and will not leave any records unlocked. 

 (The UN's Department of Public Information conducted a non-consensual raid on March 18 on the cubicle Inner City Press and the Free UN Coalition for Access, but both fought back, countered in anonymous leaking and comments by UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance.)

This is UN incompetence, and perhaps more. FUNCA has written to the chief of the UN Department of Public Information requesting his explanation. Watch this site.

Footnote: amid all this, UNCA's Executive Committee has continued and increased its campaign of anonymous social media posts, of which UN's DPI is intimately aware. It has gotten worse and worse in 2013 and we will have more on, and in response, to this.

UNSC Moves Back for April, Rwanda from Genocide to Presidency, UNCA Delays & Attacks Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, March 14 – When Rwanda takes over the UN Security Council president on April 1, it will be back in the second story chamber where during the April 1994 genocide, France managed the retreat of the genocidaires to safety in Eastern Congo.

  The move-back of the Security Council, UN sources told Inner City Press on March 13, will be begin on March 28 and continue over the three-day weekend that follows.

  The UN press corps, however, will not as originally promised move back to offices on the third and fourth floor. Why not? In essence, a small number of big media, using their UN Correspondents Association, have taken precedence over other reporters. 

  They seek to convert UNCA into what one member called a “piggy bank” for big media, to “transfer money for fibers.” The back and forth has twice pushed back the rest of the press corps' moving date, without any vote ever being taken.

   On Rwanda, the UN press corps in 1994 cover the Rwanda genocide far too little. A correspondent present at that time tells Inner City Press, “we believed Herve Ladsous” – at that time France's Deputy Permanent Representative, now the head of UN Peacekeeping, the fourth Frenchman in a row to control DPKO – “but now? He's gotten so much worse.”

  But still there are UNCA “leaders” like Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, as well as Reuters' correspondent, who serve as pass-throughs for Ladsous. 

  On 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, which DPKO supports, Ladsous' DPKO on March 7 served up to these more friendly journalists half answers to questions Inner City Press put to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on March 5.

   When Witcher hissed the words “lies and distortions” to Inner City Press on March 8, Inner City Press replied “lapdog.” The exchange, including with Reuters' correspondents Michelle Nichols, was entirely verbal. 

  But on March 11, UN Security came to tell Inner City Press that Witcher and Nichols had filed a purported security complaint. Inner City Press has requested a copy, as well of the UN's ruled for due process and on frivolous and false complaints.

   UN official Stephane Dujarric has refused, since the NY Civil Liberties Union asked his Department of Public Information on July 5, 2012, to disclose any due process rules. 

   But, Capital Master Plan sources tell Inner City Press, he and Ban Ki-moon's spokesman did recently “sign off” on a physical barrier or railing by the renovated Security Council. On behalf of whom? Watch this site.