from managing crises in Iran and Sudan and adopted
a series of measures that would impose greater
control and secrecy over the body's deliberations.
The 15-nation council has barred a note-taker from
the U.N. secretary-general's press office from attending
the council's consultations, and asked the U.N. reduce
the number of experts it sends to Security Council
meetings. At the same time, U.N. diplomats not serving in
the council have been prevented from entering the council's
inner sanctums to await the council's decisions.
The changes underway come as the United States and other big powers have
expressed growing disquiet that the details of the council's closed-door
sessions are too-frequently leaked to reporters. Taken together, their
actions could result in the strongest setback to transparency in the
council's actions in years, according to some U.N. officials and council
diplomats.
The steps have been implemented as the council moves from its landmark
conference room with its iconic horseshoe table to a temporary suite of
rooms in the U.N. basement. The move has also restricted the press's access
to a cordoned section -- dubbed the "play pen" by one U.N. official -- with
no chance to buttonhole U.N. diplomats exiting the chambers. The
arrangement was to remain in place until the renovation of the U.N.'s
glass-and- marble headquarters is completed in three years.
The whole process has been shrouded in secrecy, and diplomats have provided
varying accounts of who's ultimately responsible for specific changes. But
some of the 10 non-permanent members of the council said say they were
unaware of some of the most restrictive measures -- for instance, who made
the decision to bar diplomats from using the Security Council lounge, a
privilege that non-members held in the previous council suite. But they
suspect the council's five permanent members, the United States, Russia,
Britain, China, and France, are behind it.
A diplomat from a country with a permanent seat on the council challenged
that view, saying the entire council had already been pressing for a
smaller U.N. presence in consultations. The diplomat cited a December 2007
statement by the president of the Security Council urging the U.N. to
"exercise restraint" in sending staff to Security Council talks. "A
designated representative of the spokeperson for the secretary-general may
participate in informal consultations at any time, unless the council
decides otherwise."
But the five big powers have also privately defended some of the changes,
citing security concerns, the need for greater confidentiality in their
deliberations, and in the case of France's U.N. ambassador, Gerard Araud, a
desire to exit the chamber without having to cross a gauntlet of prying
reporters. "The diplomats get irritated when they come close to
journalists," quipped one council diplomat.
The move has prompted a public outcry from the U.N. press club, which
convened an emergency meeting earlier this week to address press
restrictions. The Committee to Protect Journalists, which typically
criticizes repressive governments, has weighed in on behalf of the U.N.
press corps, saying it is "hypocritical" for a U.N. body to promote press
freedom around the world while curtailing it here.
"It sure seems like the Security Council [is trying] to put in place really
major restrictions," Giampaolo Pioli, the president of the U.N.
Correspondents' Association, complained to Security Council President Yukio
Akasu of Japan in a press conference after the new rules became clear. "We
don't know why. I'm asking you if the Security Council is afraid of the
freedom of the press."
Takasu insisted that was not the case, but voiced sympathy with the
reporters' plight and has since stepped in to try negotiate a compromise
that would allow the press to regain some privileges lost in the move. The
council's political directors are holding meetings this week to address
some of the complaints.But he also noted that the cramped space where the
new U.N. council is situated would not allow for the same degree of free
movement as before. The question of "press access has to be revisited," he
said. He pledged to try to replicate the previous rights of access held by
the press before the move, or at least to the extent possible.
The fight over press access coincides with a parallel effort by the United
States, Russia, and other big powers to use the move to reassert greater
control, and secrecy over the council's activities, and to stop the
informal flow of information that routinely takes place between diplomats,
U.N. officials, and reporters after closed-door council sessions.
Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has raised
questions about the need for what she viewed as excessive numbers of U.N.
secretariat staff in the council's deliberations, according to council
diplomats. Rice has previously complained about leaks of sensitive Security
Council documents, and the fact that the content of internal consultations
is immediately shared with reporters. "I think there were concerns that
leaks would be coming out of that end," said a council diplomat.
On Monday, the United States and other permanent members informed officials
at the United Nations that the U.N. spokesman's office would be barred from
participating in the U.N. consultations, ending a practice that has existed
as long as the U.N. press department can remember. "If you ask me it looks
like the [five permanent members of the council] want to control
everything," said a council diplomat. "And they are trying to keep the
journalists at bay."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has not weighed in on the crisis. But
his chief of state, Vijay Nambiar, asked the council in a letter to
reconsider its decision, saying that Ban's press office needed to follow
the consultations as part of its support for the council's presidency. But
he promised to minimize the number of U.N. secretariat staff participating
in U.N. debates, and said he would abide by the council's orders if it
chose to ignore his advice.
The United States maintains that it has sought to ensure maximum access for
reporters. "The U.S. mission's goal is that press have in the new space the
same access to officials and diplomats they did in the old Security Council
space," said Mark Kornblau, the spokesman for the U.S. mission to the
United Nations. "The U.S. mission views the international press corps as
crucial players in the world of the U.N. Reporting done by media based in
headquarters ensures the general public be informed about general
developments at the United Nations, and that member states and U.N.
officials are held accountable for the results of the work."
The chief objection of the U.N. press club (this reporter is not a member)
is that the new press arrangement does not provide any space where
diplomats and reporters could informally mingle, which the press maintains
is vital to its ability to cultivate relations with diplomats and to
receive informal briefings on the nuances of Security Council policies
beyond the klieg lights of the public stakeout. It also allows the council
diplomats to exit the council chamber without passing by the press corps.
After initial protests, the U.N. press corps was given another cordoned
section closer to the council chamber without any chairs.
But the U.N. security chief, Gregory Starr, who previously ran the State
Department's security services, continues to bar reporters from a centrally
located stairway that leads from the new Security Council to the diplomats'
limousines. U.N. diplomats say that Starr is concerned about possible
congestion on the stairs if diplomats stop to talk to reporters.
The U.N. press corps has continued to insist that they be given access to
the stairs. "The public will see straight through the argument that
delegates' safety is enhanced by keeping them shielded from the press,"
said Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect
Journalists. "Both diplomats and reporters are already inside a secure zone
with visible ID. The United Nations should be a beacon for the human rights
it was established to uphold. Those include freedom of expression and a
free media. To deny reporters access to public officials would be
hypocritical."
On the first day of the first Security Council session, Araud raised
concerns about the unregulated movement of press outside the chamber,
saying the council "needed some privacy, so we can leave without every step
being watched by the journalists," according to a council diplomat. But his
remarks quickly leaked to the press, placing France on the defensive. Araud
subsequently backed down, and has since urged the council to seek an
accommodation with the reporters.
The U.N. has gradually restricted press access through the U.N.
headquarters since the September 11, 2001, attacks, initially barring press
from entering the building through the main diplomats' entrance, and
cutting off access to the delegates lobby. At the request of Sergei Lavrov,
Russia's former U.N. ambassador, the U.N. once erected a glass barricade to
bar press from approaching a now defunct bar outside the Security Council.
Then Secretary-General Kofi Annan tore down the wall after reporters
complained it would limit their ability to talk to diplomats.
Pioli, the president of the U.N. press club, sent an angry letter to this
month to Japan's Takasu, demanding the council back down from imposing
"unjustifiable restrictions" on press access. Paolo said the proposed
restrictions "would represent an unprecedented an unacceptable curtailing
of the ability of reporters" to do their job. "We understand that several
permanent members of the Security Council voiced their concerns about press
access to delegations and support reducing our access under the guise of
improving their delegates "safety."
U.N. officials say they cannot recall a serious terrorism incident
involving a U.N.-accredited correspondent, but one official recalled at
least two disturbances involving U.N. reporters in the 1990s. One involved
the assault of a reporter by a colleague, and another involved a reporter
stealing his colleagues' equipment, one official recalled.
In the early 1990s, an investigation by New York counterterrorism officials
once led to diplomats assigned to the Sudanese mission. Asked if he
remembered the case, Sudan's U.N. ambassador Abdalhaleem Mohamad smiled and
urged Turtle Bay: "Please, don't recall that." He went on to say that the
allegations were "part of the fabrication" by the United States against his
country.
But the crisis has provided him with an opportunity to take a poke at the
council, which was meeting to raise concerns about a crackdown on the
press, among other things, in the run-up to Sudan's national elections.
"Every day, the council is speaking about the need to lift press
restrictions in certain countries of their choice. They themselves are not
delivering what they are calling on others to do."
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