UN Guterres Swears In US DiCarlo, Susan Rice's Deputy, Excluding Critical Press, Sloppy

By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres swore in Rosemary DiCarlo as his head of Political Affairs on May 9 and only "photo agencies" were permitted to cover it. Inner City Press, which arrived more than 30 minutes early, was excluded. Inner City Press previously published a story on DiCarlo's history as the Deputy to Susan Rice and Samantha Power - the swearing in was newsworthy. It asked Guterres' Spokesman Stephane Dujarric why it was being excluded, and what "photo agencies" area. Dujarric replied, "i’m trying to bring a bit more order and sent to how we do photo ops. 'Photo agencies'  are entities whose  imain purpose is photo coverage." Inner City Press noted this must also exclude Reuters, AP and AFP: their main purpose as entities is not photo coverage. But Inner City Press is informed that already a list of Guterres approved coverers is being prepared. The UN under Guterres has hit a new low. We'll have more on this. Back on April 26, before Guterres' ramped up censorship, he met Cote d'Ivoire Foreign Minister Marcel Amon-Tanoh, and as the two walked down the hall toward Guterres' conference room, Inner City Press was ordered not to take the normal hallway photo. Then Guterres after a perfuctory handshake beckoned Amon-Tanoh into his office, a so called tete a tete. The purpose, as with so much Guterres does, wasn't clear.

On April 25 Guterres me Central African Republic's President Faustin Archange Touadera on April 25, not long after 17 corpses were placed in front of the UN base there, and amid sexual abuse claims against UN peacekeepers. Guterres started the 1:45 pm meeting early; he had already done his fast handshake with Touadera when, at 1:43 pm, two CAR journalists came in. They missed the handshake. One of them neared Touadera with his camera and was brought back by UN Security. Then as fast as it began it was over. "Fast Tony," someone said on the way down in the elevator.  Fast to dismiss the Press, slow to reinstate or even respond. On April 24 Guterres met Juri Ratas, Prime Minister of high tech Estonia, even as his UN evicted and still restricts Inner City Press for using tech to report on the UN, specifically Periscope live streaming an event in the UN Press Briefing Room in pursuit of the UN bribery story. On April 24 Guterres' photo ops got even shorter, as noted by those at the Estonia one, and the Montenegro foreign minister Srdan Darmanovic before it. (Alamy photos here). Guterres goes on one trip after another, while the problems of management, staff relations, censorship and ineffective mediation get worse and worse. More coverage, more streaming, more transparency could do nothing but help. So we'll continue. Five days earlier Guterres met Ethiopia's Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonen, who has been in that job before the recent change of Prime Minister. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? But Guterres' was already looking ahead - right until the 5 pm Ethiopia meeting, Guterres was with his Disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu, and Political (some say, Cameroon) adviser Khassim Diagne, among others. Nakamitsu is going to the upcoming Security Council retreat in Sweden. Inner City Press' story on that is here. On April 13 Guterres met Pedro Roque, as President of Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. Inner City Press, minutes after Guterres dismissively waved off its question about Gaza (Vine here) by the UN Security Council stakeout where UN Security was trying to improperly hinder the Press' filming, went to cover it. Alamy photos here. One in Roque's delegation gave Guterres a thick book, Muslims. Guterres left the conference room saying, I want to make sure to take it to my home. But which home? The publicly funded $50 million mansion on Sutton Place? Or his real home in Lisbon? As to the title, it's ironic while Guterres is proposing to move any UN system jobs to Budapest of Victor Orban, to support or cover up UNCHRC's relocation to Budapest when Guterres ran it (see Inner City Press exclusive here.) Guterres, just back from five days in China is leaving on April 13 to Saudi Arabia, only coming back on April 18. The Press remains restricted, hindered and dismissed even where it is allowed to ask questions. So here's a question: wasn't this book a gift to the UN, and not to Guterres personally? Can he just take such gifts home? And where, we ask again, is the golden statue Guterres took from Cameroon's 36 year president Paul Biya in October 2017? We'll have more on this. On April 4 Guterres met Guyana's Vice President Carl Greenidge and after a quick handshake and visitor's book signing ushered him along with acting chief of UN Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca into his office. Greenidge had days before filed papers with the International Court of Justice on Venezuela's claim to two-thirds of Guyana's land. Some wondered if Guterres would make a similar, come into my office offer to Venezuela. Guterres is rarely in New York: after a four day unannounced trip to Lisbon, he will be taking off again to China, April 6 to 11. Earlier on April 4 he or his Office made the swearing in ceremony of four officials Closed Press, and didn't even have UNTV make a video. Who knows what was said or pledged to. Moments before Greenidge's arrival, Guterres exited his office with his chief of staff and his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed, who interlocutors say downplayed the Note to Correspondents about her trip to Nigeria that was issued after Inner City Press repeatedly asked. Fifteen months of Inner City Press being more restricted than no-show state media like Egypt's Akhbar al Yom, assigned the work space Inner City Press was evicted from for pursuing the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery case, which April 4 saw another guilty plea, here.This is today's UN. Back on March 28 Guterres met Indonesia's Foreign Minister Mrs. Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi on March 28 and did his usual fast and perfunctory handshake - until she made him do it again, so that a member of her delegation could get a photo of it with his smart phone. Periscope video here. One might think Guterres, who so often speaks of learning from women after he took the Secretary General-ship which many said was ready for a woman. But 15 minutes later with the Defense Minister of Cote d'Ivoire Hamed Bakayoko, Guterres did the same fast and perfunctory hand shake. Inner City Press had managed, down in front of the Security Council, to ask Bakayoko about the French "Force Licorne" in his country, and the French "Force Sangaris" accused of child sexual abuse in Central African Republic. Bakayoko gamely answered that the Ivorian army trains its troops; earlier, French Secretary of State attached tothe Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne refused to answer Inner City Press' quite audible question about Sangaris' abuses, choosing to answer about North Korea. Earlier still on March 28 Guterres met German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass at 9:20 am. Some ten minutes before, a gaggle of media traveling with the Foreign Minister came into the UN Department of Public Information office. Despite repeated calls, the requested sniffer dog never arrived. A fast decision led to a fast ascent to the 38th floor to witness an equally fast and perfunctory handshake by Guterres, who called signing the UN Visitors' Book "the price you pay." Mass replied, "It's a small price." Inner City Press' photos on Alamy here; Periscope video here. Beaming on Guterres' side of the table was his side kick and adviser Katrin Hett; outgoing DPA chief Jeffrey Feltman was not there. Nor was Guterres' "Global Communicator" Alison Smale, once NYT bureau chief in Berlin, now in charge of Press censorship at the UN, where she has not responded in months to petitions for content neutral access rules. Will there be a read out? Guterres office already gave at the office, so to speak, a job - see Inner City Press story here. Guterres on March 23 met Karen Pierce, the new Permanent Representative to the UN of the United Kingdom. After both mentioned Boris Johnson, although Guterres without name, Pierce said, "So you still have the Picasso," pointing at the wall of the conference room. Guterres corrected her, "It's a Matisse" and added, "Now we have some Portuguese things." Indeed. Vine here; in full Periscope video here. In his brief remarks, Guterres mentioned human rights. The UK continues arming the Saudi led Coalition that is bombing Yemen, and Pierce's Foreign Office denied in full Inner City Press' recent Freedom of Information Act request about Yemen as well as Cameroon. Before Guterres met with Pierce, he held short meetings with the new representatives of the African Union (photos here) and then Madagascar, the latter so fast that the Malagasy delegation was left on the sidewalk in front of the UN Secretariat building waiting for their car that didn't know to arrive so early. Earlier on March 23 Guterres met Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam, amid the crisis of Rohingya fleeing and chased out of Myanmar. Photos here. Guterres has yet to even name the envoy called for by the UN General Assembly in September, and fully funded and mandated in December. With Guterres were his advisers Khassim Diagne, as on Cameroon, and Katrin Hett, who traveled to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea a/k/a North Korea with outgoing Political Affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman, who leaves March 30. Guterres has yet to name a successor to Feltman. Meanwhile Bangladesh has proposed moving Rohingya to a far away island; unaddressed was the role of Bangladesh's just prior Ambassador Monem in the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery scandal. Then again, the current UN bribery case against Cheikh Gadio and Patrick Ho of CEFC China Energy Fund Committee is unaddressed, with the entity still in "special consultative status" with UN ECOSOC. We'll have more on this. Guterres on March 21 met Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic with snow falling outside so fast one couldn't see Queens across the East River, or any but the nearest buildings looking toward Times Square. Perhaps because of the weather and not having closed the UN, as Mayor de Blasio closed the City's schools, Guterres came into the conference room before Vucic arrived and said, or seemed to say, hello. But he and his Administration no longer even acknowledge letters and petitions sent to his office; he has kept the Press restricted to minders for fifteen months. He put a blue folder down on his side of the table (his back pad had already been carried by a staffer), and soon the brief hand shake took place, Alamy photo here. In Geneva, where Guterres' deputy Amina J. Mohammed is trying to stave off further staff strikes, it's said their mutual reform (or power grab of the resident coorrespondent system) is not looking good. The phrase "simulating reform" rather than "stimulating reform" is circulating like the snow outside. Perhaps that's why, before the Vucic meeting, Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who evicted Inner City Press from the UN Briefing Room, came out with other staffers including pro-Paul Biya Khassim Diagne. The complaints are growing, the censorship continues, and there are no responses. Guterres on March 13met Ecuador's Foreign Minister María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés - who is also one of two candidates to be the next President of the General Assembly. Her opponent is Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake, Permanent Representative of Honduras, a country which she points out has never held the position of PGA, who met on March 9 with current PGA Miroslav Lajcak. After that meeting, Inner City Press asked the PGA spokesman, as transcribed by him: "Asked whether the President had met with the two candidates running to succeed him in the next session of the General Assembly, the Spokesperson confirmed that he had. The President had met with the Permanent Representative of Honduras today and with the Foreign Minister of Ecuador in Geneva last week. In response to further questions, the Spokesperson said that the President still intended to conduct informal interactive dialogues, as mandated by General Assembly resolution 71/323, thus contributing to the transparency and inclusivity of the process.
Asked to explain the format of the dialogues, the Spokesperson said that they would be held in early May and that the modalities were still being worked out. Since this would be the first time these dialogues were being held, there was no set procedure to follow. Replying to additional questions, the Spokesperson added that the new process would be in full respect of the established principle of geographical rotation and General Assembly resolution 33/138. Consequently, the President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly was to be elected from the Latin American and Caribbean Group." So are these photo op - which Guterres refused to hold the day before with H.R. McMaster - essentially campaign events? When has Guterres met with Honduras' candidate? We'll have more on this. Back on March 6 Guterres was scheduled to take a photo and meet with Female Heads and Deputy Heads of Mission at 3 pm. Inner City Press went half an hour early; the UN Security officer who during Guterres' Egypt photo op told Inner City Press it could not record any audio made a point of checking its accreditation card. But once in Guterres' conference room at 3 pm, all the women envoys were there, but not Guterres. Several greeted Inner City Press, among them Leila Zerrougui now head of MONUSCO, Romania's former Ambassador Simona Miculescu (who said it was nice to see Inner City Press smiling) and Mali Deputy Mbaranga Gasarabwe, who said, You're in here. (Despite or actually because of Inner City Press' close coverage of the UN Guterres and his Department of Public Information evicted and still restrict Inner City Press to minders, its office assigned to a no-show Egyptian state media). There was also Susan Paige, Najat Rochdi, Natalia Gherman and others - the UN neglected to give the two photographers there the list. The women kindly rushed to take a photo with Gabriella who had organized it all. And still Guterres, next door in his office, did not emerge. When he did he twice joked that it was impolite for him to sit in the front row with his deputy Amina J. Mohammed (who said, apparently of Joseph Kabila, "How is our friend") and his amiable chief of staff Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti. "You're the boss," someone said. Indeed: not only has Guterres not responded to repeated petitions to reverse the ongoing censorship of Inner City Press - neither has his Deputy or Chief of Staff, or even the head of DPI Alison Smale. Guterres is the boss. But things must and will change. On March 5 when Guterres re-appointed Michael Bloomberg as UN climate change envoy, nearly two dozen media went up to the UN's 38th floor for the press encounter. But Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric had clearly chosen the questions in advance, calling on Agence France Presse and then another media whom he was heard calling by cell phone just before the press encounter. The questions and Bloomberg's remarks were directed at Trump, clearly the elephant in the room. At the end, since this should not be pre-scripted theater, Inner City Press asked if oil companies like CEFC China Energy should be in the UN Global Compact and UN ECOSOC, in which CEFC remains in consultative status months after the indictment of its UN representative Patrick Ho, while buying stakes in oil companies. This was not answered. Periscope here. Back on February 28 when Guterres met Egypt's new Ambassador Mohamed Fathi Ahmed Edrees, 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. Even before Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had finished signing the UN visitors' book, Guterres was indicating that the Press should leave, saying Shukran, presumably to the two traveling Qatar photographer and videographer. Earlier in the day Guterres refused Inner City Press' question if he told the International Criminal Court in advance of his meeting last weekend with Darfur genocide indictee Omar al Bashir. Qatar has played a role in Darfur but the topics with Guterres and Feltman would predictably involve the Gulf and the blockade. While Guterres issues fewer and fewer read-outs, will Qatar? On February 1 when Guterres met Guatemala's Foreign Minister Sandra Erica Jovel Polanco, there was a pre-meeting in Guterres' office including, Inner City Press witnessed, head UN lawyer Miguel de Serpa Soares. While Guterres gives fewer and fewer read-out, and even left his meeting with Darfur genocide ICC indictee Omar al Bashir last weekend undisclosed until Inner City Press asked about it, one assumes on the agenda was the stand-off with President Jimmy Morales about the CICIG, see August story here. But while awaiting the Guatemala read-out there is another question: when did Guterres tell Miguel de Serpa Soares' OLA about meeting with indictee Bashir, and when did Miguel de Serpa Soares tell the Office of the ICC prosecutor? Inner City Press has asked the UN, without substantive answer - just as specific detailed questions to Guterres, his chief of staff, deputy and "Global Communicator" Alison Smale have gone entirely unanswered. (Inner City Press checked with Smale's DPI just before the Guatemala photo op). We'll have more on this. The day before on January 31 when Guterres met his native Portugal's Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security José António Vieira da Silva, he quickly ushered him into his office, where he had been laughing with his staffers including Miguel Graca. José António Vieira da Silva is linked to a Portuguese inquiry into irregularities in the payment and reimbursement for travel; Guterres himself often travels to Lisbon, not disclosed by his spokesmen unless Inner City Press asks, and costs for example of accompanying security undisclosed. But while Correio da Manhãreports on the inquiry by the National Anti-Corruption Unit into if Rareissimas money was used for the travel of Sónia Fertuzinhos to Sweden, that publication is not targeted by the Portuguese government, much less required to have minders. In Guterres' UN, while Inner City Press investigates the scandals of briberyby Patrick Ho and CEFC China Energy, rosewood signatures by Guterres' Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and diversion of Kiswahili funds by Guterre's "Global Communicator" alleged by staff she is firing, Inner City Press is confined ot minders and cannot use its long time UN work space, purportedly assigned to an Egyptian state media which has yet to ask a single question and rarely comes in. It is not known if Guterres wanted to be a censor when he was Prime Minister of Portugul. But atop the UN, he seemingly happily presides over censorship and the targeting and restriction of investigative Press. A petition, here, was sent last week to Guterres, Mohammed and Smale, none of whom have as requested confirmed receipt, much less responded. Alamy photos here; UN Photo was not present. We note that Guterres over the weekend met Darfur genocide indictee Omar al Bashir and did not disclose it until Inner City Press asked, has still refused to say if the ICC Prosecutor was told in advance, as required. Guterres accepted a golden statue from Cameroon's 35 year president in October, and has yet to comment on Biya's role in the "refoulement" of 47 people from Nigeria. We'll have more on this. On January 30 when Guterres formally accepted the credentials of China's new Permanent Representative Ma Zhaoxu, he had his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed with him, and his spokesman on the way. In the run-up, Mohammed told UN Political Affairs official Miroslav Jenca she'd seen news of his trip to Lebanon and gravely cited economics. She praised Ma Zhhaoxu, saying she'd met him in Geneva on health. Then Guterres joked in the hall about charging $1000 dollars, before consenting to the credentials ceremony, Periscope video here. Alamy photos here. The Press was ushered out - earlier, Mohammed had refused an Inner City Press question about Cameroon - and at the elevator, there was UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who explicitly refused to get an answer from Guterres about legal compliance. We'll have more on this. Back on January 22 when Guterres met Mali's Foreign Minister Tiéman Hubert Coulibaly on January 22, it was supposed to happen t 7 pm. But Guterres was still talking in the ECOSOC chamber, a meeting in advance of which Inner City Press had tried to ask him and his Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed a question at 3 pm. Vine video here. They didn't answer, and when Guterres arrived past 7 pm on the 38th floor, at first he forgot to do the standard handshake (grip and grin) with Coulibaly, who has replaced Abdoulaye Diop this year. Alamy photo here; Periscope video here. Then he told Coulibaly that his meeting in ECOSOC was supposed to last two hours but lasted four, leaving his program knocked-over (bouleverse). Coulibaly did a longer than usual these days entry in the UN visitors book, then Inner City Press, the only independent media there, was shepherded out. Down on the second floor, Amina J. Mohammed and her entourage were heading up. But still no answer. Inner City Press has lodged a formal request with the Department of Public Information - or "Global Communications" as Alison Smale called it in the UN Lobby at 6:20 pm - for an end to DPI/GC's censorship and restrictions on the Press. We'll have more on this. Back on January 19 when Guterres met Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman H. Safadi, the meeting began eight minutes before it was scheduled. Inner City Press has arrived early and was screened by UN Security, which asked, Is that camera on? While not filming, it was on - which alone allowed Inner City Press to photograph the perfunctory grip and grin handshake, photohere. Afterward, since Guterres had done the handshake without even his own UN Photo staffer there, Inner City Press was asked where the Jordan mission can find the photos. Well, here. It was confirmed that on January 18, as Inner City Press first reported, Guterres held a dinner and meeting, even negotiation, with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov without putting it on his UN public schedule, even belatedly. Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric why and he called it a "private dinner." Well, with public funds, in the same UN dining room where Guterres complained to Gillian Tett of the Financial Times about the the fish and wine he was served. This is today's UN. On January 18 when Guterres met new Security Council member Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah, photo here, he had with him his chief of staff and long time Middle East hand, for the US and UN, Jeffrey Feltman. Unlike at the just prior photo op with South Korea, for which Inner City Press was the only media not a part of the UN Department of Public Information, for Kuwait there were five cameramen, one of whom recounted just flying to New York from Kuwait via Paris, and returning tomorrow via London. Talk about climate change. In Guterres' side dining room plates for dinner were set up, with name tags including the Russian Ambassador Nebenzia - the dinner presumably with and for Foreign Minister Lavrov. But it was not even listed on Guterres' schedule. We'll have more on this. Earlier, when Guterres met South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam on January 18, photo here, Periscope video here, accompanying him was Feltman, who visited Pyongyang last year and, as Inner City Press exclusively reported yesterday, is said by UN staff to be trying to set up a similar trip for Guterres. Also in on the meet was the UN's head of disarmament, Japan's Izumi Nakamitsu. Nuclear weapons, you might say, were on the table. But the photo op was fast and the Press was shepherded out. Half an hour earlier when Guterres met Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldayev of the Kyrgyz Republic a/k/a Kyrgyzstan, photo here, he was accompanied by one of his rivals to have become SG, Natalia Gherman. Guterres put her in charge of the UN's office for Central Asia and she's in town, along with the region's ministers, for Kazakhstan's back to back Security Council meetings. (The January 19 meeting about Afghanistan, it now seems, will be without the Afghan foreign minister). Just outside Guterres' conference room in a large white paper bag was a gift from Kazakhstan, in a blue velvet box. Will it disappear without explanation like the golden statue Guterres took in October from Cameroon's Paul Biya? Back on January 15 when Guterres - without Natalia Gherman - met Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, he was instead accompanied by the UN Department of Political Affairs' Miroslav Jenca, who used to head the UN's office in Central Asia. The affable Jenca, when boarding the elevator on the 35th floor where the "hot desking" (orwaste) at DPA was visible (along with DPA's sometimes Kenya official Roselyn Akombe), joked You have more freedom than I do and that he hoped his phone would behave at this photo op. Inner City Press quickly said that no harm had been meant in its previous reporting of a news flash from Jenca's phone during a photo op (though that report might be behind Alison Smale's Department of Public Information issuing a Kafka-esque threat to Inner City Press' accreditation, here, and keeping it out of its office, with minders). Press (UN) freedom, as we'll cover in connection with another visit later this week from the region. After the very short photo op, on the way out Guterres' Fabrizio Hochschild walked with Tony Banbury, who did a review of the UN in Iraq, completed in mid-November. And now? We'll have more on all this, including the seeming lack of "hot desking" or imposition of flexible workspace on Guterres' 38th floor. Is it another case of Do as I say, not as I do? Earlier on January 15 when Guterres met Sigrid Kaag, he joked before the Press was ushered out that he could not get used to her new role, as Dutch minister, still seeing her with the UN (from Lebanon to Syria chemical weapons.) In those UN roles, Kaag blocked Inner City Press on Twitter. Notably she stopped the blocking as soon as she left the UN, showing that the UN either encourages or has fewer disincentives to censorship than the private sector. The Netherlands is now on the Security Council, but its Permanent Representative was not seen at Kaag's meeting with Guterres. (He fairness, he is just back from the Security Council's weekend trip to Afghanistan.) A minute before his meeting with Kaag, Guterres came in from his private dining room. He had a listed 2 pm meeting with Rodrigo Maia, President, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, and after Kaag a 4 pm meeting with Spyridon Flogaitis, Director, European Public Law Organization, both of them Closed-Press. The latter was set to be followed by Uzbekistan's foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov at 4:30 and then Lebanon's post Judge Nawaf Salam ambassador Amal Mudallali at 6 pm. Back on January 12 when Guterres met with Norway's Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide, it came the morning after US President Donald Trump's reported comments contrasting Norway to "sh*thole" countries. So Inner City Press came to cover their meeting or at least the photo op. On the way, UN Security officers repeatedly told Inner City Press there would be a problem with its practice of live-streaming Periscope video, or more specifically, audio. On the 37th floor, Inner City Press pointed out that UNTV runs audio. But they're official, was the reply, I'm only telling you what I've been told to say. (Higher-ups from the Department of Public Information of Alison Smale have issued Kafka-esque threats, here.) Still Inner City Press was not stopped from taking its microphone up to the 38th floor. The photo op began almost immediately, Periscope here, and Guterres after shepherding Soreide from grin and grin to sign-in book, sat at his conference table and said, "Thank you very much." It was over. It was said that Soreide would made remarks, perhaps about Trump's comments but it did not happen, at least in Guterres' conference room. Coming up as Inner City Press was hurried out were Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric, and Guterres' adviser, previously the French mission's legal adviser, Tanguy Stehelin. As of the time of the photo op, the UN's only response had been by lame-duck Human Rights Commission Prince Zeid, who has relatedly been quiet on the UN's abuses in Haiti, and Nigeria's abduction of leaders of Southern Cameroons / Ambazonia. But that's another story. Back on December 18 when Guterres met Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico, he joked that Fico must have stopped in to see the President of the General Assembly, fellow Slovak Miroslav Lajcak. Less funny, but as yet unacted on by Guterres, is the November 20 indictment of Senegal's former foreign minister Cheikh Gadio, along with Patrick Ho of China Energy Fund Committee, in a case alleging bribery of Lajcak's predecessor as UN PGA Sam Kutesa, as well as Chad's Idriss Deby. Guterres has not even initiated an audit in response to this UN bribery indictment. As to Fico, given his recent statements on Libya, one can only imagine what a read out of his meeting with Guterres would say. Guterres has stopped issuing read-outs, another cut back in transparency. On the way up to the photo op, Inner City Press witness several gift distributors, from bottles of liquor to envelopes, as well as recently built partition walls on the 30th floor being torn down, in a classic example of UN waste. (See Inner City Press exclusive story, here.) The UN under Guterres has become even more corrupt, and less transparent. Not only is the investigative Press restricted, more so than no show state media like Egypt's Akhbar al Yom (given Inner City Press' long time office but not even present for the day's vote on Egypt's Jerusalem resolution) - on the 37th floor, UN Security made a point of re-checking Inner City Press' badge, then of closing the door to the conference room on 38 so that whoever was coming out of Guterres' office could not be seen. Who was it? Watch this site. Back on November 9 when Guterres met Turkey's PMBinali Yildirim, the Turkish delegation brought their own security officers to the photo op. Periscope video here. Guterres had finished a long afternoon, calling Kenya's Ambassador "sincerely unfair" down in Conference Room 2, and taking photos with UN Police down in the basement. In between he'd come up to meet Sri Lanka's Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Chairperson of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation a day after Inner City Press asked about torture by that country's army. Before that, Jeffrey Feltman who has played a role in the rift between Guterres and Kenya was in Guterres' office, then by the elevators. Will there be a memoir? After the Turkish photo op, mixed results in the International Court of Justice voting. Lebanon's Nawaf Salam won a seat, but India's Bhandari and UK Greenwood will fight another round on Monday. Only at the UN. Back on November 7 when Guterres met Argentina's President Mauricio Macri on November 7, Macri had come from the site of the recent terrorist attack on the West Side Highway bike path. Guterres has just returned from three days in Lisbon, justified by a 15-minute speech. In Guterres' team to meet Macri was fellow Argentine Virginia Gamba, previously on Syria chemical weapons. Down in the Security Council, her successor Edmond Mulet was being asked questions he didn't answer (Inner City Press / Alamy photos of Nikki Haley and Syria's Ja'afari at the meeting, here.) Somewhere on the 38th floor Guterres' Deputy Amina Mohammed was holding two meeting, while her office (and Guterres' spokespeople) never answered a simple Press question for a copy of a speech she gave at a $25,000 a sponsor fundraiser. Inner City Press, already subject to a Kafka-esque threat to accreditation by Guterres' head of Global Communications Alison Smale for using Periscope during photo op(s) on the 38th floor, was surveilled as it prepared to Periscope. Thus it missed what others captured: Guterres' personal back pad being put in his chair, him walking by with notes for the Macri meeting. This is today's UN. On November  3 Guterres accepted the credentials of El Salvador's new Ambassador Ruben Armando Escalante Hasbun on November 1, a successor to Carlos Garcia who was exposed as having helped money laundering in the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN bribery trial in July 2017. Under Guterres, these practices continue - in fact, Guterres has become even less transparent. For example, on November 3 Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who had just cut short Inner City Press' questions about Guterres' inaction on the killings by the Cameroon government, these questions: "is the Secretary General having a one-on-one lunch on 38th floor today? is it with a journalist / editor? is it on or off the record? why isn't this lunch on the SG's public schedule? is it with Gillian Tett?" Dujarric's and the UN's answer on this: "I have nothing to say to the SG’s schedule that’s not public." So Guterres decides which meeting are not public. Inner City Press has asked: "On the lunch, the question is WHY it is not public. Can it be considered "internal"?" Watch this site. On October 31 Guterres met Human Rights Council president Joaquin Alexander Maza Martelli, saying "Bienvenido" repeatedly before ushering the Press to leave: essentially, Adios. That's what the Trump administration is considering saying to the UN Human Rights Council, now after the election of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Council. The UN Secretariat has its own human rights problems. Not only impunity for sexual abuse by peacekeepers and bringing cholera to Haiti, not only praising and accepting gift from human rights abusers like Cameroon's Paul Biya, but also for example disparate treatment and retaliatory restrictions on the investigative Press. Guterres has not reversed this. In fact, on October 20 his Department of Public Information under Alison Smale issued a further threat to Inner City Press' accreditation, citing an undefined violation at a stakeout just like that on October 31. This threat comes just as Inner City Press pursues Team Gutereres inaction on the killings in Cameroon. Guterres met French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on October 30, three days after he took an award from Cameroon's French-supported president Paul Biya. Inner City Press came early for the photo op but was delayed, then hindered. . But Inner City Press belatedly went, and although DPI's Kafka-esque theats made it suspend the Periscope, it can report that with Guterres were his pro-Biya adviser Khassim Diagne, and former French mission legal adviser (an office in the orbit of Beatrice Le Frapeur du Hellen, Inner City Press scoop here). Under DPI's censorship orders, we'll wait to report more, including on the push to get the US to pay for the G5 Sahel force - except what was in plain sight, Guterres' personal back rest being installed in his chair. Guterres met Spain's Secretary of State Ildefonso Castro López on October 16, hours after Spain won a seat on the UN Human Rights Council with no mention of its crackdown in Catalonia. Guterres has also been scheduled to meet the foreign minister of Togo Robert Dussey just before, but that meeting or at least photo op got canceled, as did a stakeout by Guterres that UNTV had been setting up for in the morning. As Inner City Press has exclusively reported, Guterres or his Global Communications chief aim to make this upcoming trip to Central African Republic a litmus test of how to present the UN in a positive light - despite the sexual abuse by peacekeepers. We'll have covering, rather than covering up, that. On October 12 Guterres belatedly swore in three senior official on October 12: Vladimir Voronkov, USG for Counter-Terrorism, Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament, and Mark Lowcock, Emergency Relief Coordinator. Photos of each here. Inner City Press arrived early for the photo op, but found itself in a long line with tourists at the metal detectors on 45th Street.