The UN says that a journalist is someone who is necessarily hierarchically subordinate to an editor.
And, the new head of the UN Department of Public Information on the purpose of his job? Protecting the SG.
These revelations are reported by Matthew Lee on 28 July on his Inner City Press Blog:
“In late June in Madrid, the head spokespeople for 37 UN agencies met and planned how to best communicate the work of the UN to a worldwide audience. While claiming to want to engage with new media, including blogs, a UN summary of the meeting obtained by Inner City Press shows a proposal by at least some UN agencies to exclude any media without a traditionally hierarchical editing process — that is, to exclude blogs and most participatory media.
While the minutes blandly record the UN Communication Group’s intention to continue to monitor the issue, multiple sources say, and experience confirms, that at least three UN agencies at that time adopted a policy of no longer answering any questions from Inner City Press, described by the New York Times of April 30 as the only blog accredited at UN headquarters. So much for engagement with new media, said one UN communications professional requesting anonymity in order not to lose their job.
The UN agencies which, since the June 21-22 meeting in Madrid, have refused to answer a single question from Inner City Press including the UN Development Program and the World Health Organization. UNDP, which is embroiled in scandals about its close relations with regimes in North Korea, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Uganda, has also taken to calling the editors of journalists who ask questions, ostensibly to verify the reporter’s assignment and deadline. Several reporters recount a Catch-22 with UNDP in which a tight deadline results in no answer due to timing, while a longer deadline results in no answer due to lack of immediacy.
The World Health Organization, which was identified in the July 22 New York Times as having its vaccination funding diverted to military use in Ethopia’s Ogaden region, has refused to answer basic questions about its purported investigation into the charges — and about its participation in and positions adopted at the UN Communications Group meeting in Madrid.
Some participants of the meeting contacted Inner City Press and, along with requesting anonymity, warned about the naming-of-names at the meeting, and of attempts at the meeting to deem bloggers, and even one particular blogger, persona non grata at the UN agencies. At UN headquarters in New York on July 2, Inner City Press asked Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s deputy spokesperson
Inner City Press: I have heard about this meeting of the UN Communications Group in Madrid, recently. Supposedly, among the things discussed was: What is a journalist? I am wondering if you could confirm this meeting of the UN Communication Group, and also give some kind of a readout, particularly on that topic, but also on other topics discussed.
Deputy Spokesperson: Sure.
A written answer was added to the UN’s transcript, that
The Deputy Spokesperson later told the correspondent the following:
The United Nations Communications Group, which is composed of 40 United Nations system entities, holds an internal annual meeting of heads of public information and communications at rotating locations to discuss issues related to United Nations information policies and programs. Thirty-seven United Nations entities participated in this year’s meeting, which was hosted by the World Tourism Organization in Madrid. The main focus of this year’s annual meeting was to discuss the ‘One UN’ initiative and its impact on United Nations public information and communications at the global and local levels… The United Nations Communications Group this year also discussed the phenomenon of new media, including webzines, podcasts, wikis and blogs, and how to engage and use these new media, together with traditional media, in communicating the work of the United Nations to a worldwide audience.
This bland summary is contradicted not only by accounts of participants in the meeting, but even by the more diplomatic minutes of the meeting, which Inner City Press obtained last week. The minutes came accompanied by a three-page cover letter from the head of the UN’s Department of Public Information (DPI) Kiyo Akasaka mentioning the need “to review guidelines for managing relations with new Internet-based media.”
Mr. Akasaka has told UN correspondents he views his job as “protecting the Secretary-General,” which may or may not run into conflict with providing (new) media access to the work of the UN. A written request to Mr. Akasaka to release a basic document entitled List of Staff of the UN Secretariat, and to follow through on previous UN commitments to implement a Freedom of Information procedure, have yet to be acted on. The June 21-22 UNCG minutes state that
“In regard to new media, UN Headquarters provides explicit criteria for the accreditation of webzines. It was agreed that it was important for the United Nations family to engage with all forms of new media, but that some, such as blogs, presented particular challenges for accreditation…
UNCG members stressed the importance in accreditation decisions on the need, among other evaluation tools, to ascertain that there is an established editorial process in the media organization concerned that ensures copy goes through an editing process and which provides recourse to the UN to respond to factual inaccuracies, misrepresentations, etc. Consideration could be given to include alongside published accreditation criteria a statement that the respective organization would hold accredited media accountable to a journalistic code of conduct.”
It’s worth noting by contrast that the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007, pending in the U.S. Congress, defines journalism as “the gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, reporting, or publishing of news or information that concerns local, national, or international events or other matters of public interest for dissemination to the public.” The UN’s focus on its own “recourse” is self-serving and ignores the structure of independent media, not only now but decades ago for example in I.F. Stone’s accountability reporting.
While the June minutes conclude only that the ‘question of explicit criteria for accrediting blogs should be kept under review’, sources say that UNDP and WHO moved beyond review to adopt a policy of not answering bloggers’ questions.”
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