Less Press Access to UNSC Under Ban Ki-moon, While UK May Not Agree, UN's Censorship Alliance UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 -- That press access at the UN is declining by design under Secretary General Ban Ki-moonwas confirmed to Inner City Press Wednesday night by UN official Stephane Dujarric.

  Since the time of Secretary General Kofi Annan, the UN press corps had access to a work table in front of the Security Council, to write stories on laptops and speak with diplomats on their way in and out.

  Now Ban's UN, via Dujarric and the UN Correspondents Association, seek to eliminate that access. Media Access Guidelines shown this week to Inner City Press and the new Free UN Coalition for Access state

"f. The Security Council stakeout area, including the Turkish Lounge, is not to be used as a permanent workspace for the media. When the Council is not in session, correspondents should minimize the amount of time in the area, unless interviewing or conversing with a U.N. delegate or official."

  FUNCA immediately protested this, and numerous other UN correspondents including regular UNCA members agreed on Wednesday. 

   Inner City Press spoke with UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, who will be Security Council president in June, and who listened attentively. Inner City Press has shown him precisely where an unobtrusive work table could be located.

  On the evening of May 22, Inner City Press and FUNCA inquired again with the Department of Public Information. The chief is still away; in his place, Dujarric replied:

"On the guidelines, we gave you a chance to comment and I thank you for those comments. In the end, these are the UN's guidelines. While we give you a chance to input, we reserve the final say. What I can tell you know is that there will be no tables or work stations set up at the Security Council stakeout when we return. That area is reserved for stakeouts. If you need to work you can do that in the office which has been provided to you by the United Nations."

  This confirms the intent to change prior practice, which allowed journalists to work at a table in front of the Security Council. If the incoming President of the Security Council is not of this view, where does it come from? Watch this site.

Footnote: as an indication of that table existed in 2009, click here for Inner City Press story of when a single UN Security officer tried to take it away -- and failed. Inner City Press subsequently had a rapprochement with this UN Security officer, and wishes him nothing but the best. But the story stands, here.

At UN, China Raises Afghan Killings to Block Debate of Myanmar's, Burma Off Month's Council Agenda

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/unsc1civilians100209.html

UNITED NATIONS, October 2, updated -- China has raised the killing of Afghan civilians, in response to a proposal to include Myanmar and Protection of Civilians in the footnotes of October's UN Security Council program of work, Inner City Press has learned.

In connection with what is usually a routine beginning of the month Council meeting, China disputed the possibility that the "umbrella" topic of Protection of Civilians might be loophole through which the activities of Burma's Than Shwe military government could be raised.

So China, as Russia has done in the past, said that the killing of civilians in Afghanistan by the U.S. and NATO is also relevant.

October's Council president, Vietnam, is having to run the debate. The Council members had a customary breakfast, and then retired to the consultation room.

The few reporters at the stakeout drifted away. At 10:39, only Inner City Press remained at the stakeout, under the now vacant space where a tapestry "after" Picasso's Femme Sur l'Echelle used to be. It was entirely silent. Watch this site.

Update of 11:10 a.m. -- A Council diplomat tells Inner City Press that all except China said, Afghanistan is on the agenda anyway, under an ISAF item.

Update of 1:10 p.m. -- When Vietnam's Ambassador held a press conference as Council president, Inner City Press asked about the omission of Myanmar from even the footnotes of the program of work. We operate by consensus, he answered, and it is not in the footnotes. So, those who proposed Burma's inclusion let it drop. We aim to have more on this -- watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/unsc1civilians100209.html

At UN, Press Table Relocated by Implicated Security Official, Under Picasso Pretext, of Porno and Preferential Treatment

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/undss6chaos042709.html

UNITED NATIONS, April 27, updated -- A senior UN security officer, part of promotion irregularities exposed by a memo leaked to this publication by Department of Safety and Security whistle blowers, on Monday morning ordered the relocation of the press table that for three years has been to the side of Security Council entrance.

Captain Mark Hoffman, named for one of the now-questioned promotions in the leaked memo, pointed at the table and Inner City Press and told an officer under his command, that has to move. Asked for an explanation, he said, it is “blocking the Picasso.” There is a tapestry replica of “Femme Sur l”Echelle,” Woman on the Ladder, along the wall.

Inner City Press moved the table away from the front of the replica. Captain Hoffman persisted, no I am going to move it away from the Security Council. Inner City Press suggested that he ask the UN's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, which is charged with ensuring the media access to newsmakers at the Security Council and elsewhere. Hoffman announced his intent to MALU's chief, and had the officer under his command move the table to a back area where diplomats and others are allowed to smoke.

While Inner City Press assisted the officer in moving the table, it appears that Captain Hoffman's reasoning to order the relocation of a table that has been in the same spot for at least three years was retaliatory.

Beyond the promotion irregularity leak, which has given rise to a formal demand by the UN Staff Union for an independent outside investigation including of Captain Hoffman's superior Bruno Henn, last week following the arrest of UN employee for child pornography, Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson to confirm or deny that several senior DSS officers have been informed that they are under investigation for similar -- but non-child -- issues.

Inner City Press asked the Office of the Spokesperson

(5a) The child porn guilty plea, on which I am asking for updates on what the UN does, was by "Jose Antonio Ortega Osona, 40, a Spanish citizen who lives in New York, pleaded guilty Friday in Dartmouth provincial court to a Criminal Code charge of possessing child pornography and a Customs Act charge of smuggling prohibited goods."

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/9011475.html

(5b) Finally, for now, a simple factual question best answered in this format / medium:

please confirm or deny that there are several senior DSS / SSS officers at UNHQ in NY who have received letters of reprimand for pornography, and explain any difference of treatment from that accorded on the same charges to a lower level staff member. To ensure your answer, I suggest you ask OHRM, OIOS and DSS.

While the Spokesperson's Office has yet to answer the question, DSS sources tell Inner City Press that Hoffman is among the officials now belatedly being considered not for promotion but demotion. We continue to await the Spokesperson's Office's answers to the questions asked last week.

A lower level UN official lost his job for viewing and forwarding pornography, as Inner City Press reported. Many now complain that higher ups engaged in the same behavior are being given preferential treatment. To cover the Security Council from a table that has for at least three years been open to all reporters is not preferential treatment. But its arbitrary removal is viewed as retaliation, as yet another sign of lawlessness in the UN, in this case by a purported representative of the law. We will have more on this.

Update of 11:30 a.m. -- after the above report, the table's relocation was partial revoked, and the table moved back to the side of the Security Council entrance. "I got calls from the highest levels," Captain Hoffman came to Inner City Press to say, quite affably. Let's hope it stays that way.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/undss6chaos042709.html