At UN, Press Access Banned to GA Stakeout, FUNCA on French-Only Briefing Enabled by UN

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, September 26 -- Press access at the UN has continued to decline under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. 

   During this week's General Debate, journalists haven't even been able to go to the General Assembly stakeout without an escort from the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit -- an escort that often does not come on time, or come at all.

  On September 25, the office of Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced there would be a question and answer stakeout at 3 pm. Inner City Press immediately ran there, but was banned from getting in. As the Free UN Coalition for Access, the problem was tweeted, and not only journalists but diplomats have been responding to it. But nothing from Dujarric or MALU.

  In fact Dujarric played a part in, at least defending, a French-only briefing in the UN Press Briefing Room.

On September 23, the entourage of French President Francois Hollande repeatedly but unsuccessfully ordered the UN accredited Press to leave the UN's Press Briefing Room.  Video here.

  On September 25 when the Free UN Coalition for Accessasked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who peaked out from the VIP / Green Room behind the Press Briefing Room, about the incident, he said sometimes countries try to reserve the Room.

   Asked if other countries had done so during this General Assembly, Dujarric said yes.

   Inner City Press then asked Dujarric which other countries, beyond his native France:

“based on your answer at today's noon briefing, 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?”

 This has been Dujarric's response:

Subject: please state which countries..
From: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org
Date: Thu, Sep 25, 2014 at 1:06 PM
To: Inner City Press
Cc: funca

I don't 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.

Stephane Dujarric (Mr.)
Spokesman for the Secretary-General
United Nations Headquarters

   FUNCA is left wondering: ARE there any other countries? The question has been asked again by FUNCA, elsewhere. And it has been on HuffPost Live, here. Watch this site.

Footnote: the old UN Correspondents Association, which is given privileged status and set-aside first questions nearly always used for softballs, has done nothing to improve or even defend press access. In fact, members of UNCA's Executive Committee have tried to get the investigative Press thrown out of the UN, and there have been no reforms since. It's become the UN's Censorship Alliance. They provide Ban Ki-moon with photo ops playing soccer with them. This is today's UN - andFUNCA is fighting to hold the UN to its stated principles.

   

As UNSC Renovation Limits Press Access, Who's to Blame, DPI and UNCA

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 15 -- When Norway crows about the UN Security Council renovation, there should and will be critique of the reduction in press access. But those chiming in late on this issue should wonder: how was it allowed to happen, and who's to blame?

  At the south entrance to the Security Council, the area near the window which used to be for the press is no more. And X-ray machines have been installed, further delaying access to the stakeout area. There is, for now, no table to work at. These are all losses.

  Journalists' fair access to the UN has until now supposedly been handled between the UN Department of Public Information and the UN Correspondents Association, now known as the UN's Censorship Alliance.

  The new more accurate moniker is because UNCA's Executive Committee spent most of its meetings in 2012 trying to throw Inner City Press out, for articles it wrote about UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous -- now shown to havedefended the flight of genocidaires from Rwanda in 1994 -- and about Sri Lanka.

  So UNCA was distracted. When it finally tried to claim to be pushing DPI, nothing was done. In fact, UNCA's Pamela Falk of CBS and Louis Charbonneau of Reuters spent a February 22, 2013 meeting with DPI telling Inner City Press“the problem is your website” and demanding not to be written about.

  DPI's Stephane Dujarric, in turn, wrote Inner City Press a formal letter that it should not have reported about the February 22 meeting -- at which Inner City Press said, “you are on the record” and Falk said, “he's going to write this up”-- but has not increased media access one bit.

  At the existing Security Council stakeout, when Ladsous directed his spokesman to seize the UN Television microphone to try to avoid an Inner City Press question about the 126 rapes in Minova by the Congolese Army, his partners, Dujarric did nothing publicly, merely speaking quietly to Ladsous' spokesman after a complaint for the Free UN Coalition for Access.

  As noted earlier today, FUNCA is pushing forward -- but NOT through DPI. Let's be honest: DPI didn't do anything to preserve what access the media had; UNCA collaborated in the reduction. It's time for a new approach, and failing to identify what happened in the past and why only ensures its repetition. Watch this site.

After Hurricane, UNSC Moves Out of Chamber for Somalia Vote, Public So Press

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 31 -- Among the collateral damage, or effects, when Hurricane Sandy hit New Yorkwas the closure of the UN and its Security Council. 

  But with the legal mandate of its Somalia mission expiring at the end of the month, the Council had to meet in person, even to adopt a seven-day rollover of the mission.

  With the basement Chamber the Council has been using waterlogged, the meeting was moved to the UN's Temporary North Lawn Building. 

   Outside on 47th Street there were downed trees. Inside, two guards tried to block Inner City Press from covering the meeting. Some had even reported that it could not be covered. But since votes must happen in meeting that are not only in-person but also public, reason won out.

  From the back row of Conference Room 4, where only last week Israel and Syria traded insults, the room was barely one quarter full. Along with delegations from the Security Council's 15 members, diplomats from incoming Council members Rwanda and South Korea were present. They attend as a form of training until they fully join in January.

  October's Council president Gert Rosenthal began with words for the City of New York, then regretting that the October 29 debate on Women, Peace and Security had to be canceled. France had promoted the arrival of its minister, but for what?

 Rosenthal said that a short text to roll-over the Somalia mandate was ready, but that France had asked for time to check and read -- or translate? -- it, "to see if they can accompany us." No one Council member seemed to have such language concerns.

  The director of UN Women, Under Secretary General Bachelet, moved up to the podium for the read-out of the Presidential Statement on Women, Peace and Security, S/PRST/2012/23. But she did not give a speech.

  Finally the seven day Somalia extension was voted on, 15-0. The building would fall silent again. Watch this site.

Footnote: Again, a supposed improvement to UN Television webcast has made it so it is not viewable, at least on Android phones (unlike, for example, the UK House of Commons). And this freeze-out was before Sandy. Will it be fixed?

Update: while the UN has sent to email the plans out, there will be meetings at the UN on Thursday. But access must be pushed for: it's ostensibly a public institution, and these are public meetings. Watch this site.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How?

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

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

Here is the stairway message send out to reporters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- These restrictions are all for safety reasons.

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

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

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

UN Mulls Reducing Press Space and Raising Costs, Reducing Access

Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at UN
www.innercitypress.com/dm1press071708.html

UNITED NATIONS, July 17 -- As the scheduled emptying and multi-year fix-up of the UN headquarters building draws closer, top officials in the UN's Department of Management are actively brainstorming on how to make the UN less attractive to the press. Previously, reporters based at the UN had been told they would be relocated to comparable offices in what is now the UN's library, and would then return to similar space where they are now, on the third and fourth floors of the UN.

But in a July 15 memo, "Principal Officer" Lena Dissin says that "Angela" Kane, the new Under Secretary General for Management, "has asked us to quickly get some benchmarks from other organizations to see what facilities if any they may make available to the press," and on what basis. Inner City Press is informed by multiple sources that consideration is being given not only to less space for journalists, but also charging enough money for it to drive some of the press out. Reporters at the UN have been shown blueprints of planned new offices, and have been briefed about the comparable "swing" space in the library.

At the UN's noon briefing on July 17, Inner City Press asked Deputy Spokesperson Marie Okabe

Inner City Press: One more thing, an in-house kind of thing. We're told there's a move afoot by the Department of Management, both Ms. [Angela] Kane and Lena Dissin, to look at comparable space to see how other institutions provide space for the press. The press here have been told that things will stay the same after the Capital Master Plan but there's now a letter in which the Department of Management is seeking to see whether other places provide space at all. Can you ask the Department of Management to state whether there's any change in policy?

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: Sure, but as you know, the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), I think, has been in close contact with the Capital Master Plan people on the planning. So I think you are directly involved as an officer.

Inner City Press: That's why this letter was so surprising.

Deputy Spokesperson: And you also have a functional role that you can take this up outside this briefing.

Inner City Press: Okay, but since Ms. Kane has been the head of the department for a while, maybe she can give us a briefing..

Deputy Spokesperson Okabe: That's a good idea. I'll ask her.

Later in the day, the Spokesperson's office told Inner City Press that "the Secretariat is looking at all space issues, and that it is always interesting to see how other organizations handle these issues." What's not said is that the inquiry involves reducing the number of spaces for journalists, and raising costs to drive some out.

About the Capital Master Plan more generally, at a town hall meeting on July 16, Ms. Kane called this a "historic" moment. Trying to limit press access would certainly lead to stories. CMP head Michael Adlerstein, when asked about contractor Skanska having triggered methane gas by its drilling by the UN's foundation, as exclusively reported by Inner City Press, responded that he knows about all pipes under the UN. But why then did he call the Con Edison utility when the methane smell arose? Questions, questions. As noted, it's time for a briefing by Management honcho Kane.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/dm1press071708.html