As UN Guterres Met Egypt's PR and Gave Warm Regards to Sisi, UN Told ICP Not To Film

By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos, Periscope

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 – When UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres met Egypt's new Ambassador Mohamed Fathi Ahmed Edrees on February 28, Inner City Press went through the UN's tourist entrance and then UN Security on the 37th floor to cover it. Still, before Guterres expressed his warm regards for Sisi, who is arresting all opponents, the UN Security officer who has already checked Inner City Press' microphone told it it could not record audio. This is censorship, and it is ongoing - they have not answered a petition with thousands of signatures. Meanwhile Guterres and his Global Communicator Alison Smale have purported to assign Inner City Press' long time UN work space to Sisi's no show state media, Sanaa Youssef of Akhbar al Yom. We'll have more on this. Six days before when Guterres met Ecuador's Vice President María Alejandra Vicuña on February 22 it was supposed to be at 11:50 am. But another Inner City Press arrived half an hour before, by the time it was allowed in at 11:44 am the meeting was already underway. There was no handshake, and  the Press was quickly ushered out. With Guterres was a single UN staffer: Katrin Hett. On the elevator down from the 38th floor, UN Department of Political Affairs deputy Miroslav Jenca was just arriving, and UN Photo missed the shot again. This is a pattern. The evening before on February 21 when Guterres met Cote d'Ivoire foreign minister Marcel Amon-Tanoh on February 21, Guterres changed the time twice. First from 5 pm to 6:40 pm - for this, notice was provided - and then without notice moving it up to 6:34 pm such that both the Ivorian photographer and even UN Photo missed it. It seems Guterres is only interested in accommodating those who can help him - he has been happy, for example, to have the investigative Press restricted for his entire tenure, with no explanation of what the rules are. No show state media in, investigative press, through the tourist entrance, minders required. This is "Big Tony's" United Nations, do as I say, not as I do. Big shots are getting over with sexual harassment, while directives go to underlings. The Global Communicator Alison Smale, censor in chief, is involved. At the February 21, restricted Inner City Press was the only media which asked any questions, on Justin Forsyth multiple abuser, now at UNICEF, about mis-statements about immunity in India, another no-answer on Tanzania. The only media asking, and the only media restricted by Guterres and Smale. We'll have more on this. Amon-Tanoh, by the way, spoke well in the Security Council, before having the time(s) changed. Present on the UN side were Katrin Hett and Khassim Diagne, who's said Paul Biya is doing a good job in Cameroon - when Biya's been in Geneva for four and a half years, cumulatively. We'll have more on this. Back on February 2 when Guterres before his multiple junkets met Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, he had with him his outgoing head of Political Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman. (Inner City Press exclusively reported on January 25, in connection with Feltman's US replacement in the post, Dina Powell, here. Now some say Powell turned the post down, as so many have, under Big Tony.) The Qatari minister joked that his Ambassador told him Feltman was back from an interesting place - presumably a reference to North Korea, where Feltman wants to score Guterres a high level meeting, perhaps with Kim Jong Un, in connection with having accepted as a UN Junior Professional Officer in his Department the son of a DPRK Workers Party official.