The InterDependent

How will the media be able to properly cover a Security Council meeting at the presidential level on Sept. 24 when correspondents are barred physically from even seeing the main participants?

An arbitrary measure taken earlier this year, prodded by the council’s permanent five members, has cornered the media under the stairs leading to the council’s temporary space in the basement in the Secretariat building, partly surrounded by three walls and facing an artificial barricade that is opened selectively.

Delgates can thus arrive and leave their private interim chambers unseen by journalists unless any of the council members cares to address the waiting crowd.

John McIlwaine/UN Photo

During the UN's renovation, the Security Council has relocated to the basement of the Secretariat. In this setting, the horseshoe shape has been preserved.

A council rotating member confided that the original intention was to not only to confine the media but to also prevent even other delegates who are not council members from attending unless officially invited to present an agenda item. The spokesman of the secretary-general, who is expected to brief the press, was similarly prevented from attending meetings. He managed to persuade his chief recently to take him along occasionally under his wings.

The extent of access by the media, particularly accredited United Nations correspondents, has always been subject to negotiations, especially after television cameras were introduced as a regular presence. Yet, freedom of access was never questioned. Valuable free space was offered to encourage reliable, informed coverage. In fact, the Security Council chambers had special seating in an elevated area with notepad chairs designed for journalists.

Eventually, more confidential consultations and less formal sessions evolved into a different but continual exchange between delegates and correspondents. It was common knowledge that some key people on both sides fed each other. There was a case when a senior Secretariat political affairs official who admonished the council to avoid leaking his briefing found it reproduced hours later by a news agency. In the early 1990s, it was often suggested that Ted Turner’s CNN was the 16th council member.

Legitimate limits were respected by most of the media, although some understandably tried to push the boundaries in pursuit of a story. To avert misunderstandings and ease access, a joint agreement was negotiated, taking into account UN basic policy and the media’s professional requirements. It was signed by two consecutive presidents of the UN Correspondents Association, Ragheda Dergham of Al-Hayat and Ian Williams of The Nation, and by me as head of the Department of Public Information at the time. The arrangement seemed to work until last year, when some officials in the Secretariat sought more restrictive measures

While some people in delegations and in the Secretariat may shortsightedly feel that restricting access to the media may help avert potentially embarrassing stories, like ones on Myanmar, Darfur, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is almost painful to see how the current UN correspondents have taken their arbitrarily designated status as a fourth wall for granted.

It certainly hurts overall coverage of the UN in national media outlets, too. And that hurts everyone.