As Ban Ki-moon’s Security Ejects Press from Open Meeting, & Ban Takes No Questions, FUNCA Says UN Must Be More Open, With A FOIA, Next SG

June 20 -- When from an open meeting involving the UN Secretary General and Peacekeeping commanders the Press is thrown out by guards, as happened on June 18, the UN has hit a new low. That the ejection was performed by the Secretary General's security detail, and the Secretary General did nothing, makes the decay all the worse. The Free UN Coalition for Access opposes this. Earlier on June 18, amid questions about the Secretary General's Report on Children and Armed Conflict, the SG appeared at read more [...]

The UN Should Not Ban Stakeouts or Handpick Media, Needs A Freedom of Information Act, FUNCA Says

May 2, 2015 -- As the UN began its consultations about Syria in Geneva, it announced that for the full five weeks there will be no stakeouts, no photo­-sprays, no interviews. The Free UN Coalition for Access is opposed to this closing ­off of the UN, which still does not have any Freedom of Information Act procedure. This must change. So too must the UN allowing Under Secretaries General to say they will not answer questions from particular media. These are supposedly public servants. In read more [...]

Press Freedom at the UN Must Include the Right to Information, No Searches, No Set-Asides

   When any UN accredited journalist comes under fire from his or her home country, the UN should live up to its stated commitment to freedom of the press and support the journalist, rather than either take a hands-off approach as recently, or even solicit complaints as occurred and led to the forming of the Free UN Coalition for Access. Given a recent incident in which a UN member state tried to question the accreditation of a journalist for the questions he was asking, it is imperative that read more [...]

In 2015, UN Officials Should Answer Questions, Not Given in Advance, No Set Asides

In 2015 at the UN, senior officials should without exception answer questions from the media. Questions should not be requested or given in advance, the Free UN Coalition for Access posits; if for some reason for example language they are, it should be disclosed. On disclosure more generally, the UN system starting with its Secretariat should have and abide by a Freedom of Information policy. On the right to impart information, the UN should adopt and apply content neutral access and accreditation read more [...]

FUNCA Says All Accredited Media Should Be Treated Equally And Have Input

With media access and substantive answers in decline at the UN, there are also outright inconsistencies. The Free UN Coalition for Access is opposing these. For example, UN embargoed documents should at least be made available to all UN system accredited journalists, not only as just happened to those media organizations which can afford to have a correspondent at the UN in Geneva. When the UN in Geneva on November 24 purported to promote its Committee Against Torture concluding remarks on eight read more [...]