05.21.17
Media and Staff Association Elections at EPO and WIPO Are Compromised
Knocking down two essential pillars of a modern democracy
“Freedom of the Press,
if it means anything at all,
means the freedom
to criticize and oppose”
–George Orwell
Summary: A campaign of abuse (legal bullying) and gifting to the media, combined with a wide-ranging assault on critics who represent the interests of staff, have led WIPO and EPO down the route to totality
WIPO is a tool of mega-corporations which is neither international nor fair. Its attacks on media recently got the attention of some media that had hitherto more or less ignored WIPO scandals — in the same way that a lot of media still ignores many EPO scandals. It often seems that the media starts caring — at least a little — only when it too comes under attack (basically for doing its job).
The failure of ILO and the EPO (further to our previous post) is part of a broader problem which I first became familiar with half a decade ago. There is no access to justice. People at the UN told me so and shared documents to support these assertions. It has gotten so bad that they now bully the press with impunity (ILO could, in theory, attempt to bully bloggers) and citing all sorts of articles such as this, SUEPO took note of WIPO’s abuses (also UN), citing a several pages long PDF about the latest at WIPO. See the article “WIPO Boss Seeks to Silence Press Critics and Whistleblowers” — a report which starts with some background:
On January 25, 2017 the Staff Association of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) headquartered in Geneva, demonstrated to protest the recent actions of Francis Gurry, the agency’s Director General. Unhappy with the duly-elected Staff Association Council, Gurry organized his own elections and simply replaced the legitimate Staff Council with his preferred slate of officers.
Besides the obvious problem of management selecting candidates for Staff Association elections, there were apparently numerous irregularities manifest in this process, and the duly-elected Council of the Staff Association is pursuing legal remedies. These take time, however, and in the meantime, Gurry’s preferred slate has taken over the offices and functions of the legitimate officials.
The “problem of management selecting candidates for Staff Association elections,” as the above puts it, is already a reality at the EPO. There is veto power for management when it comes to staff representation and even the disciplinary committees are controlled and composed indirectly by Team Battistelli, assuring that justice will be just a mirage. At the EPO, the Central Staff Committee is going to change pretty soon and “most people are too frightened” to stand for election, an insider recently told us.
When the media loses its voice and staff too loses its voice we are left to deal with autocratic entities. When these are disconnected from national laws, i.e. enjoying immunity, what we have is a “toxic mix” or “dangerous cocktail”. That’s what Gurry and Battistelli both pursued separately and actually got at the end. Who will end this? Can ECHR put an end to that? █
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