NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS ARRANGEMENTS FOR CORRESPONDENTS IN CONNECTION WITH VISIT OF POPE JOHN PAUL II TO UNITED NATIONS
His Holiness Pope John Paul II will visit United Nations Headquarters on Thursday, 5 October, to address the General Assembly and the United Nations staff. Following are the arrangements that have been made by the Department of Public Information (DPI) to assist correspondents. The Headquarters will be closed that day to the general public. The Pope's itinerary is contained in Note No. 5300 issued 2 October.
Non-accredited correspondents are required to obtain their passes in advance for the Papal visit from the United Nations Accreditation Centre, located at 304 East 45th Street, from 2 to 5 October, upon presentation of a letter of assignment and two valid photo identification documents. The hours are Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Wednesday from 9:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. and Thursday, 7:30 a.m. until 12 noon.
Representatives of the information media, in order to enter the building, will have to have either regular United Nations accreditation cards, currently valid, or special photo ID issued by the Media Accreditation Office for coverage of the Papal visit. An estimated 2,500 representatives of the information media are expected to be present that day.
The designated press entrance will be the playground entrance located at the south-east corner of First Avenue and 48th Street. The gate will be opened at 6 a.m.
At the perimeter gate, United Nations Security Officers will verify the grounds passes and direct members of the press to the screening tent. Standard United Nations issued press grounds passes are required. All press personnel and equipment will be screened. The method of screening will be by magnetometers, x-ray machines and explosive-detection canines. Upon completion of the screening, members of the press will be directed to the first basement (1B) entrance to the Conference Building (the glass doors at the end of the garden). This is the only authorized press entrance into the building from 6 a.m.
There are a very limited number of seats available for media representatives in the Press Gallery of the General Assembly Hall. The pass alone will not entitle its holder to enter the General Assembly Hall, where Pope John Paul II will address the Assembly at 11 a.m. Special tickets will be distributed on a first come first served basis starting at 11 a.m. on 4 October in room S-250 and at 9 a.m. on 5 October in Conference Room 2.
In addition to the facilities available to the press on the third floor, a media centre will be established for the use of the visiting press and the United Nations press corps. The following technical services will be provided in Conference Rooms 2 and 3:
Conference Room 2: Main Press Centre. Will offer the following facilities:
-- Television sets carrying live proceedings on closed circuit television in English;
-- Sound distribution boxes, with floor audio and full interpretation in the six official languages;
-- Press announcement system used, for among other things, to page the media covering pools;
-- Telephone lines (at commercial rates) and electrical outlets (110 Volts) to enable journalists to use their lap-top computers with modems;
-- Designated gathering areas for still photographers;
Conference Room 3: Broadcast Centre. Will offer:
-- Television sets carrying live proceedings on closed circuit television in English;
-- Visual and sound distribution boxes with provision for language selection (floor, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) to facilitate dubbing of any of the proceedings;
-- Telephone lines (at commercial rates) for telephone feeds.
After the Pope's speech all delegates in the General Assembly will go out through the second floor via the side entrances and the United Nations staff will enter the General Assembly from the visitors' entrance by elevators and the ceremonial staircase. The Pope will address the United Nations staff at approximately 12:30 p.m. Those staff members who could not be accommodated in the General Assembly Hall will be accommodated in the Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Chambers and in Conference Rooms 1 and 4 (floor only) where the Pope's address to the staff will be screened live.
United Nations Audio-Visual Materials
Photographs will be available to delegations for a nominal fee and to accredited correspondents free of charge during the afternoon of the same day. Please direct inquiries and requests to: United Nations Photo Library, room S-805L; Fax: (212) 963-1658; Tel: (212) 963-6727. Photo Librarian: (212) 963-0034; Photo Librarian Assistant: (212) 963-5637.
Videotapes will be available for a fee in NTSC only, in the VHS, U-matic (3/4"), and Betacam SP formats. Tapes ordered in advance will be available for pick-up immediately following the speech. Tapes ordered afterwards will be available by the next day. To request videotape of the speeches, contact: (212) 963-7652. Live feeds are available through commercial carriers; contact (212) 963-7650 for information. Please note that unilateral television production services will not be available from United Nations Television.
Audio cassettes will be available free of charge, from the United Nations Audio Library, located on the first basement concourse level (1B) in room GA-27; Fax: (212) 963-3860; Tel: (212) 963-9272/4186. Speeches are normally available in the original (*floor) language in which they were delivered. Special requests for the recording of the interpreter's version in one of the six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) should be made in advance, and are subject to the limitations of the recording facilities.
Accredited correspondents are provided with audio cassettes of news items free of charge. Delegates may request one cassette of each speech free of charge (additional copies are subject to charge and are handled by the Sound Recording Unit, room GA-13C, (212) 963-7658).
Pool coverage. Owing to logistics and space considerations, nearly all visual media coverage will be done by selected media pools. These pools are reserved exclusively for United Nations Television, United Nations photographers, international wire services and photo agencies. In case of print media the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) will notify the Department of Public Information or its representatives.
Visual coverage in the General Assembly Hall. The official photographer and documentary film crews will have an opportunity to cover the speeches of the Pope from the press booths surrounding the General Assembly Hall. A limited number of still photographers, escorted by DPI liaison staff, will also be allowed to take photographs from the "bridge" at the back of the General Assembly Hall during the speech. These operations will be coordinated from the third floor liaison desk.
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