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THE PRESS CORPS: BACKGROUND GUIDE

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Letter from the Secretary – General

Dear delegates,

I am both humbled and honoured to welcome you to the 4th session of the Inventure Model

United Nations.

The Preamble of the United Nations sets out the three pillars on which the organization is run:

Peace and Security, Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Development. Keeping that in mind,

this year, we will be simulating six dynamic committees, namely, DISEC, NATO, CSW, the Paris

Peace Conference, the Press Corps, along with an Ad-Hoc Crisis Committee through which, we

hope to give you exposure to the working of the United Nations and its impact on combating

global challenges.

Push yourselves to think deeply and creatively about all the angles to these topics and also

come up with effective and feasible mutual grounds for consensus. Don't be afraid to speak up,

raise your placard or raise unusual points. I encourage you to listen to your fellow delegates and

have interactive discussions.

Take time to understand how the topics you are deliberating impact people around the world

today, and how the conclusions you arrive at may impact us in the future. Ensure that you know

your foreign policy well, and that you make use of every opportunity to make a mark in your

committee.

Challenge your respective Directors. Encourage them to include problems they haven’t

considered, and accept a solution which astounds everyone. Dare them to think differently.

Most important of all, have fun! Model UN is made interesting by delegates, and is memorable

only if you are proactive in session, and enjoying the path the debate is taking.

I hope that this conference is a valuable learning experience for all of you, and that you take

away and cherish your time at INMUN this year, whether you are first timer, or a veteran at

Model UN.

Tejas Rao Secretary – General, INMUN ‘14

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Letter from the Under Secretary – Generals Dear delegates, It gives me great honour to welcome you all to the 4

th run of Inventure Model United Nations

and I cannot wait to get started. 2014 is a year of major changes to INMUN, and I hope you enjoy each and every one of them. With the committees we have this year, the possibilities for debate seem limitless. What really excites me is the fact that the PPC and Ad-Hoc committees are not actual UN committees or world bodies but have been specially created for the purpose of INMUN 2014. Delegates should expect nothing but the best Model UN experience which we hope to provide. These committees will test you to your core and delegates will certainly learn a lot from this opportunity. INMUN is our little child and since 2013, I’ve been part of the team nurturing it, helping it to slowly grow. Having been an Assistant Director last year, I gained a lot of confidence in the MUN circuit and INMUN has pushed me to do my absolute best. To all new delegates/students and old ones, don’t take INMUN lightly because it is the first stepping stone in a wonderful journey. Utilize your time carefully and prepare well. Feel free to approach any of the Secretariat or executive board as we would love to hear your questions or comments. Don’t stress too much though because representing a country or person is an insane amount of fun. Best regards and hope you guys have a brilliant time,

Anusha Ramji Under Secretary – General,

You can imprison a man, but not an idea.

You can exile a man, but not an idea. You

can kill a man, but not an idea.” -Benazir

Bhutto.

That’s all INMUN was when it was

first conceptualized, just an idea. It’s really quite

remarkable to see how far INMUN has

progressed over the past few years. From being

just a three committee, one day event to being a

six committee event, spanning 2 whole days that

is at the heart of Inventure Academy’s extra-

curricular activities.

There is going to be an extreme ramp up in the

level of competition at INMUN’14 following the

entry of external individual delegates. My

passion for Model United Nations has been

fuelled by the belief that it serves as a great

platform for us to discuss pressing world issues

and build on their negotiation.

INMUN is a chance for us children to step up

and face the pressing issues (such as climate

change, terrorism, gender inequality, abuse of

human rights and economic uncertainty) that

plague the entire earth. If history should serve

as a reminder that it is young people who have

the greatest power to change the rivers course.

The 21st century has seen the greatest

population of worthy youngsters with the power

and ambition needed for global development.

I hope INMUN provides the best experience for

each of you, as you discuss, negotiate and

resolve world problems,

Siddharth Saxena,

Under Secretary-General

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Letter from the Director

Dear Delegates,

My name is Anusha Ramji and I am very excited to be working with you at INMUN

2014. I have done Press thrice before but this is my first time chairing it. I have been

actively taking part in Model United Nations since grade nine but I realized my true

passion for Press in grade nine and I have never looked back since.

I find that Press is by far the most fun committee because press delegates never have a

moment to remain idle! You will never sit still, whether it’s racing down the corridors to

reach your committee or to typing furiously in order to meet that deadline. I for one

delight in riling up the delegates with my outsider’s harsh perspective.

On the other hand, it’s always a struggle to get all those nitty gritty details and to figure

out what exactly you aim to do with your article. Do you want to stir up a controversy or

simply refresh the minds of the committee about the daily occurrences? You can count

on us to do just that...and more.

In the International Press Corps, reporters will be representing specific agencies and

must report based on the political stance. This is a true test of literary prowess. Can you

write according to your paper? Not to be forgotten, we will of course use all kinds of

media possible. I look highly upon anyone who can think out of the box and create

something spectacular, whether cartoon or written report.

The role of the International Press in this year’s conference is crucial and I hope you all

deliver your absolute best. This guide contains pointers and hopefully the answers to all

your questions.

Good luck

Anusha Ramji,

Director,

The Press Corps

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Introduction

Importance of Media

The role of Media in today’s society is pivotal and of the utmost importance. It has the

power to shape opinions, induce ideas, and keep you informed about the on-goings in

your country and around the world. It also gives people a platform to showcase their

talents and gets the message across to a wider audience.

The various forms of media – primarily television, newspapers, radio and the internet –

spread and disseminate information.

Media is in charge of :

Information

Education

Entertainment

Advertising

Unifying the various sectors of society

In all honesty, it is the media that can make or break a situation. With the advent of the

21st century, media is accessible to anybody and everybody. Even in countries such as

North Korea, which have high censorship of information, there is some form of media.

This proves how necessary media is to daily life. No matter how difficult or dangerous

the situation is, one can be sure that the Press will be there to cover it. Reporters

sometimes risk their lives to fulfil and facilitate the general public’s right to information.

Without media, it is for certain that the world would be a much more corrupt and ruthless

place.

How it works

At INMUN 2014, the press has an integral role. The press will ensure that committee

sessions go fairly and smoothly by enforcing the idea that “the truth will prevail”. The

reporters will provide a screen to prevent fallacies and lies from passing through. In

order to do so, press delegates will use written reports, photos, cartoons, interviews,

polls and all forms of media possible - the more innovative, the better. All material

submitted by delegates will be posted on the official press website. It will be integrated

with the conference so that delegates have a chance to review the committee’s

sessions of that day or to gain another perspective.

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In committee sessions, press delegates will remain observers throughout. The Press

cannot raise moderated or unmoderated caucuses- they basically may not participate in

the debate. However, reporters are allowed to pass chits during moderated caucus in

order to ask questions, get quotes,etc. The Press must not misuse this privilege. Press

delegates should prepare questions they have during the course of committee. If the

chair recognizes the Press when time has elapsed for a speaker during a moderated

caucus, the Press may then ask a question.

Reporters are the only delegates allowed to bring in laptops and cameras during

session. Reporters can also use the internet at their own discretion but may not provide

information to delegates of their agency’s country at any point.

During sessions, reporters are expected to take notes and work on their articles. During

unmoderated caucus, they may interview delegates or ask for information for articles.

Chairs/Reporters themselves may also request press conferences. There will be a

maximum of 4 press conferences per committee. In each conference, the two press

delegates assigned may ask 5 questions in total. These can be in relation to foreign

policy or the committee’s proceedings. Choose your questions wisely.

Requirements

Throughout the course of the whole conference, delegates are expected to at least

meet the basic requirements. Any additional efforts will be taken into consideration for

the awards.

1. One pre-summit report

2. One Opinion Pieces

3. Two Print/News

4. One interview

5. A photo with each article

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Otherwise, delegates may feel free to use any form of media to ensure that their point

comes across or to simply make the conference more fun. Some examples are

1. Cartoons

2. Videos

3. Polls

Remember to ask permission before you take/make videos, photos or interviews of

specific delegates.

Types of Articles

1. News/Print: These articles are basically a report on a committee session’s

proceedings. These pieces are informative and factual. These are meant to be

composed of details on proceedings, general speaker’s list, moderated

caucuses, interviews, unmoderated caucuses,working papers, resolutions, key

players, blocs forming and basically any important points that have come across

in the session. Articles can range from a minimum of 250 to a maximum of 500.

Keep in mind that delegates won’t want to read extremely length pieces. Make it

short, crisp and to the point in order to catch their attention. Bring out funny

anecdotes that make you question the competence of delegates. Look at a

situation from all angles, not just one. Reporters need not consider foreign policy.

2. Opinion Piece: These articles aim to question the delegates, foreign policy, the

committee proceedings, the resolution, etc. A good reporter can give delegates a

different perspective on a situation, thus allowing them to approach a resolution

from a different angle. Think of it as giving an outsider’s perspective- someone

who is not directly involved in committee procedures. This is your chance to stir

up something big. Give your viewpoint on the current situation and be critical.

Rule number 1: The International Press cannot be questioned. Press has the

freedom to be mean, vicious, harsh and as cold as possible. Try not to hurt any

delegate’s sentiments personally though. For these pieces, a maximum of 400

words is expected. Be ingenious and surprise us with your provocative stances.

However, you must respect your country’s political standings which means

you must bear a certain viewpoint according to how your country would

favour its allegiances towards. For example, A Chinese reporter cannot

recognize Taiwan as a sovereign entity. A Chinese opinion piece would be

much more conservative and leaning towards China. Please keep this in

mind.

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Pre-summit report specifications

A pre-summit report tells us about you as a writer. It is meant to test press delegates to

see how they can write between the lines of factual and biased.

1. The report is meant to answer the given question.

2. The report has to adhere to a word limit of 600 words.

3. You may use photographs and captions - these are not included in the word limit

4. You may be as creative as possible. The more original your report the better.

There is no specific format the report must take. You can write it in a different

style altogether. For example, a speech format. The chairs strongly favour

reporters who think out of the box.

5. Include facts but give us strong insight.

6. You need not stick to your foreign policy.

Below are the topics for each country’s pre-summit report.

Country Topic

China Is Russia justified in annexing Crimea?

India Did Hitler help Germany more than destroy it?

Iran Did the USA really help in Afghanistan?

North Korea Is martial law necessary to keep Thailand together?

UK How is Shari’a Law beneficial to Saudi Arabia?

USA Why isn’t the UN dealing with Boko Haram effectively enough?

South Korea Is Narendra Modi too controversial a Prime Minister?

Syria Was Russia or USA the cause of the Cold War?

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General Tips

In the meantime, here are some tips from HMUN 2011 Press Corps guide that reporters

should keep in mind as they prepare to report on the conference:

- Always write News pieces in third person

- Make sure you have an interesting title to capture the reader’s attention.

- Don’t ask yes-or-no questions, as these probably won’t produce very

interesting quotations. Leave your questions open-ended and give your

subject the chance to explain himself in his own words

- In general, it’s best to use short sentences and short paragraphs. Each

sentence should be concise and convey some new information, and often in

news writing, paragraphs will contain only one sentence.

- Accuracy is crucial. Be sure to quote delegates accurately, spell names of

delegates and countries correctly, and check your facts online before your

print them.

- Reporters should read news articles in preparation for the conference to

- get a feel of the writing style.

- Always introduce yourself when you conduct an interview. Let your subject

know that you’re a member of the press and that they are speaking on-the-

record. (That is, what they say might be quoted and appear in your story.)

- Get a diverse set of interviews for every story. If you only interview one

person, your article is likely to seem one-sided, boring, or both. Generally,

aim for having at least three interviews in all your articles.

- News pieces—be they print or video—should be ideologically neutral and

should only report the facts. Any commentary in these pieces should come

from the individuals being interviewed and not from the reporter himself. If a

reporter has very strong views on an issue being discussed in committee, he

can write an opinion piece instead.

- Beware of using slanted diction even in opinion pieces and pay attention to

the overall tone.

- The introduction of an article (also called the “lede”) should grab readers’

attention. If a story is more lighthearted, the lede should be clever or pithy,

while if a story is more serious, the lede should give the main idea of what

happened. After the lede, include the most important details towards the front

end of the story, and expand upon them as necessary.

- Interviews are key to a good news story. Try to pick delegates who seem to

be very active or who have provided either interesting or unusual

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perspectives. Remember, the dais staff of committees could also be

interviewed and may provide an interesting angle for your story.

- Prepare questions for an interview ahead of time. It can be tough to think on

your feet sometime when you have to keep coming up with new questions.

Don’t feel that you have to stick to the list of questions you’ve prepared ahead

of time though. Feel free to engage the interview subject in a discussion and

ask follow-up questions.

- During interviews, try to write down as much of what the delegate is saying as

possible. If you hear a phrase that you think would be especially useful as a

quotation in your article, write it word-for-word, and if necessary, ask the

interview subject to repeat himself.

- If in writing up a story you’re not sure if a quotation is accurate, or you can’t

remember exactly what a delegate said, don’t make up your own words. Go

back to the committee and, when there’s an opportunity, ask the delegate to

repeat the quotation.

- Don’t use too many quotes.

Sample Articles

Here you will find sample articles written by Press Corps reporters of HMUN India 2014.

I. Sample Print/News Federal Reserve Debates Repurchase Agreement

REUTERS

Anticipating the opening of the New York financial markets Monday morning, the

Federal Reserve urgently debated the intricacies of a working paper proposing a

repurchase agreement removing toxic, asset-backed securities from certain banks and

financial institutions.

The working paper comes after unidentified financial institutions approached the Board

yesterday in the hopes of transferring their overvalued assets to the Federal Reserve.

The paper outlines a plan in which the Fed would transfer properly valued asset-backed

securities currently in its possession to said institutions in exchange for the institutions’

toxic assets.

The Fed would determine which amount of undervalued assets to cover ”on a case-by-

case basis.” Acknowledging the “fragility” of the current financial climate, the paper

noted the need for banks to repurchase their assets at some undetermined point in the

future.

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Critics of the working paper — Chicago Bank President Charles L. Evans, Boston Bank

President Eric S. Rosengren, and Cleveland Bank President Sandra Pianalto — were

especially concerned about the vague terms under which the re-transferring of assets to

their original institutions would occur.

While Dr. Rosengren argued for a long-term date “20 to 30 years” into the future to

ensure current market conditions are unaffected, Dallas Bank President Richard W.

Fisher worried that such a wide horizon might be unwise since the assets and concrete

infrastructure on which said assets are based may be obsolete or nonexistent by such a

point. Bank Governor Daniel K. Tarullo offered a compromise between both concerns,

suggesting the Fed incentify the buying back of assets.

Referring to an area of the paper, which he saw as lacking, San Francisco Bank Interim

President John Moore additionally questioned the Board’s ability to determine the

exchange rate between the value of assets from the Federal Reserve and the value of

toxic assets from relevant banks and financial institutions. He also hoped to clarify what

proportion of troubled assets the Fed would receive. While the Federal Reserve has not

yet judged these matters substantively, Mr. Moore’s misgivings are likely to color

subsequent debate.

II. Sample Opinion Piece

OPINION: Biased and Stagnant Proposals Slow Up Progress in the General Assembly

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

As the General Assembly continues to work towards ending and resolving the Soviet

invasion of Afghanistan, its progress is being held up by a few loud voices who continue

to refuse to accept the conclusions and decisions of the remainder

of the committee. As delegates from around the world work to solve perhaps the

greatest international conflict of this moment there has been surprisingly little

disagreement in the committee on what a successful resolution of the Afghanistan

“problem” would look like. The vast majority of countries seem to support a plan

involving multilateral action to encourage (if not force) the USSR to remove troops from

the country and following that removal, humanitarian aid to the Afghani people and the

establishment of some sort of provisional government. However, progress is being

seriously impeded by those who refuse to accept that the USSR, despite past treaties to

the contrary, is a hostile force in Afghanistan and not a benevolent one and that the will

of the Afghani people should be the ultimate determinant of international policy on the

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issue. Unfortunately, while nearly all delegates have accepted these two conclusions as

incontrovertible fact, the delegations of several major players on the world stage,

notably the United Kingdom and a coalition of Warsaw Pact members including Bulgaria

and the Ukraine, continue to impede progress by declaring that the USSR ought to have

a long term role in Afghanistan, either in administration or humanitarian aid. The

delegates from these countries are doing a disservice not only to Afghanistan but also

to the international community as a whole by refusing to put aside the divisions of the

past and the realities of a divided world in order to stand together, regardless of

allegiance, to act on the social, economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

One principle point of contention from these delegates is that the USSR should be the

primary source of humanitarian aid following the withdrawal of troops. This proposal

completely misses the point. The USSR is in Afghanistan as a hostile force. The

“problem” in Afghanistan is of the USSR’s creation, and therefore it is preposterous to

suggest that the very nation that has been responsible for the oppression and

subjugation of the Afghani people should suddenly turn into a humanitarian force. As

Robert Kivell, the delegate from China put it, “Having the USSR give aid defeats the

point of forcing them out.” His colleague, the delegate from Egypt was quick to agree:

“should the USSR remain (if Afghanistan), civility in Afghanistan can in no way occur.”

Similarly, while all delegates agree that some sort of provisional government will need to

be set up following the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the debate over what form that

government should assume is fierce. The answer to this issue too is simple and is

grounded in the principles on which the United Nations operates: following the

withdrawal of USSR troops, the international community must make a faithful effort to

support the creation of a provisional government that matches the desires of the

Afghani people. If that means the involvement of the Mujahideen

then the international community has no rightful jurisdiction to object.

What these delegates fail to realize is that this is not a complex issue. The USSR has

grossly violated the national sovereignty of Afghanistan,heaped untold injury on the

Afghani people and engaged in war conduct that merits the

strong denunciation and not the patience and acquiescence of the international

community.

The delegates from France, Egypt and China,among others, deserve commendation for

their commitment to reaching consensus on a solution that is based in the realities of

the situation, and the needs of Afghanistan, rather than in politicized and biased desires

of individual countries that are not directly connected to the situation. The delegates

from the United Kingdom, the Ukraine and Belarus however, and any others that

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support the proposals they have advanced deserve only the condemnation of the

international community for allowing longstanding biases to stand in their way of

working collaboratively to come to a

solution and for basing their proposals in blatantly false idealizations rather than the

realities of the situation. Their proposals are neither feasible nor sensible – and they

have no place in the deliberations of the committee.