Tuesday, October 20, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Embattled U.N. Chief on Charm Offensive, Says Press Corps
- When an Asian ambassador hosted a sumptuous lunch for more than a dozen U.N. correspondents in his swanky New York apartment many moons ago, he confessed he had a hidden agenda.
“We will soon be in the Security Council,” he told U.N.-based reporters representing Western and Third World publications, “and we would like to have coverage of our activities.”
The envoy added jokingly, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” And one of the correspondents shot back, amidst howls of laughter, “Mr. Ambassador, there is also no such thing as a free press.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is reeling under negative reviews in the press, has been hosting a series of lunches, mostly with the mainstream and Western media.
But the free press cannot be bought over with free lunches, says Erol Avdovic, a Bosnian journalist who covers the world body for Radio Deutsche Welle.
Ifthikhar Ali, a veteran U.N. correspondent who covers the world body for the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), recounts the glory days of former secretary-general U. Thant (1961-1971), who was more open to the press than any other U.N. chief.
"I came to the UN in September of 1971, when U. Thant was in the last year of his secretary- generalship," Ali said.
During September through December, Ali met the secretary-general at least three times as he occasionally dropped by at the cafeteria for lunch.
"It was a great thing for me - a very young journalist - to meet the secretary-general on my very first visit. He would come unannounced and take a seat in the middle of the cafeteria and those present would start joining tables with his, until it became a giant luncheon table."
Those around him, said Ali, were journalists, U.N. officials and some diplomats "and we had a full hour of questions and answers."
U. Thant appeared relaxed and enjoyed himself. In those days, the U.N. was a respected institution and the secretary-general was simply revered, he added. And the press corps was also much smaller than today.
There were no scandals and the U.N.'s focus was completely on the issues of the day.
After U. Thant was gone, those who followed him adopted various techniques to get their message through: some invited top journalists individually and in small groups - initially most journalists covering the U.N. were Western.
It is in the mid-80s when the number of journalists from the Third World started to grow.
Some U.N. chiefs invited journalists they considered important to their home country - in groups or individually.
"I remember when BCCI [Bank of Credit and Commerce International] brought out - with great fanfare - ‘The South’ magazine, and it's editor-in- chief Altaf Gauhar, who knew me because he had served as information secretary of Pakistan, called me from London to request an appointment with [then Secretary- General] Kurt Waldhiem [of Austria]."
"I made the request to Francois Guiliani, his spokesman. To my utter surprise, Guiliani told me a couple of days later the secretary-general would meet him for lunch at his residence. When I informed Gauhar, he was simply elated."
The secretary-general obviously wanted to build bridges with the Third World.
"We had an excellent working lunch with him. There has been never been a hard and fast rule, but all secretaries-general made it a point to entertain journalists."
“But why only the mainstream and Western media?” asks Avdovic, who also writes for the biggest daily in Sarajevo, Dnevni Avaz.
Saeed Shabazz, who covers the United Nations for the ‘Final Call,’ a newspaper founded in 1979 and published by the Nation of Islam, told IPS the secretary-general is probably not aware of the 1922 ‘Teapot Dome’ scandal (one of the first major bribery scandals during the U.S. presidency of Warren Harding) which was reported by a small newspaper, not the mainstream media.
“I would be surprised if ‘The Final Call’ received an invite,” he said.
Shabazz, one of the few African-American journalists in the U.N. press corps, said “Ban Ki-moon should know that sucking up to the Western media won’t save his job, because reporters prize their sources amongst diplomats more than the secretary-general, as a valuable source.”
At a press briefing Friday, Masood Haider of the Pakistani daily ‘Dawn’ specifically asked U.N. spokesperson Martin Nesirky to confirm a rumour that Ban Ki-moon was, in fact, hosting a select group of journalists for lunch – particularly in view of the fact the secretary-general was reported to be on vacation.
A testy Nesirky responded: “No, he hasn’t been taking them out to lunch. He has invited some journalists to lunch. Do you have a problem with that?”
Haider: “No, I don’t have a problem. For my own information I just wanted to verify if it was true and not a rumour. That’s all.”
“I am choosing my words carefully here”, Nesirky continued. “The secretary- general is in town. The secretary-general is working, as usual, on all manner of topics, and he makes it his business to meet with a whole range of people in different ways.”
That can include having lunches with people, Nesirky said. “Not just journalists, but with all kinds of people to get to know them better.”
Avdovic told IPS that “it is nice the secretary-general is inviting journalists for lunches, but lunches are off-the-record.”
“Only interviews are on-the-record, and they could help to put more light on the thinking of this secretary-general, who, somehow, after almost three years is still a mystery to many of us,” says Avdovic, who points out he has been unsuccessfully seeking an interview with Ban for many months now.
“We do not have straight answers to many straight questions that we put to him,” Avdovic added. At Friday’s briefing, Avdovic asked Nesirky: “What are the criteria that the secretary-general is using when he is inviting journalists for lunches? And who are these journalists?”
Nesirky: “I get all kinds of questions in this briefing room. And I’ll answer any question. That’s my job… But it strikes me as a little off for you to be worried about who the secretary-general has lunch with. If it’s a question of why you weren’t invited, for example?”
To which, Avdovic responded: “I would prefer an interview with the secretary- general rather than lunch.”
U.N. staffers, Avdovic told IPS, may have to sing for their suppers, but journalists don’t have to.
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