UNITED NATIONS GATE, September 23 – As UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and a team over-paid with public money prepared for a week to present themselves as self-less helpers of the world while covering up corruption and death from Cameroon to Yemen, China to Haiti and Turtle Bay, the New York Post on September 23 ran a piece about Guterres' unprecedented ouster and ban of Inner City Press, here. The article has already been raised to the new President of the UN General Assembly Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, with a formal request to end Guterres' corrupt and self-interested banning of the Press from covering this UNGA "high level" week. For now, a response to this portion of the article: "In the Aug. 17 letter banning him from the UN, Under-Secretary General for Global Communications Alison Smale said his behavior 'gives rise to potential safety concerns for member state diplomats, United Nations staff and other individuals accessing United Nations premises.' One UN staff member told The Post that people are spooked by his behavior. 'It’s chilling,' said the staffer, who did not want to be identified. 'He walks around the halls of the UN at night filming and shouting out questions in front of people’s offices.' Lee has been protesting the judgment, but there is no one at the UN to complain to, he said.'There is no First Amendment on First Avenue,' Lee said." This broadcasting on Periscope on the UN's fourth floor was explicitly authorized by Smale's own Department of Public Information. Inner City Press asked for an escort or minder and was told none was required. Other non resident correspondents routinely stay past 7 pm, including going to the UN Delegates Lounge bar - and the UN knows this. And the content of Inner City Press' fourth floor broadcasts, focused on showing how outrageous it was and is that Guterres targets independent Press while giving offices to no-show retirees, state media and war crimes defenders, all remain online, here. We'll have more, much more, on this. As Guterres prepared to hold a Facebook Live session on September 23 seeking to make his tenure look effective despite failures from Yemen to Cameroon to mounting corruption scandals, he had so little confidence that he had his UN Security rough up and oust Inner City Press and his bureaucracy ban it from the building for life, with no hear or appeal. Ban letter here; US Press Freedom Tracker here. Now New York Post here. His Facebook Live, with questions pre-screened by his and Alison Smale's UN Social Media team - which whistleblowers maintain took money diverted from the UN's Swahili programs shrinking under Guterres - and served up by Al Jazeera, his partner in censorship, had no questions about Cameroon or Burundi or the misuse of public funds for personal travel, by UNEP's Erik Solheim, UNDP and of course Guterres himself, nothing on the expanding China Energy Fund Committee UN bribery scandal, with one defendant now flipping to cooperate. The Al Jazeera moderator invited him to say hello in four languages; not a single tough or even real question. Inner City Press submitted these: "questions for @AntonioGuterres: 1) Was you still listing SaudiArabia as a “good child killer” on Yemen entirely due to the $930 million check you took from them and the UAE? 2) Was your staying silent on Paul Biya's killing in Cameroon entirely due to his Ambassador Tommo Monthe being chair of UN Budget Committee? 3) By what right have you banned from UNGA73 and from the UN for (your?) life Inner City Press which asked and reporting on your silent and misuse of public funds? 4) Did you disclose your son's business links to Angola, Namibia, Sao Tome and Cape Verde and implement the required recusals? If not, why not?" We'll continue to pursue answers, this week from Second Avenue due to Guterres' censorship for corruption. This followed a shameful "press" conference on September 20 in which Guterres' spokes- / hatchet-man Stephane Dujarric gave the first question to South Africa Broadcasting, which asked about South Africa; then Al Arabiya, which trashed the Houthis. Then Voice of America, which which Dujarric has previously corresponded, here; Dujarric'sfavorite Al Jazeera; Reuters to ask about itself (Guterres' hypocrisy ignored); Italy's ANSA to ask about Italy, capped by CBS, constantly gushing praise of Guterres. Dujarric has reversed course: on August 27 he said Inner City Press' ban is about creating a "hostile environment for diplomats;" on September 17 he said it was the decision of Guterres' Secretariat without "any inputs from any member states." Videohere. Dujarric had told another reporter back on July 11 that Inner City Press' “status is being reviewed. My understanding is that he will be having discussions with various parts of this administration." In fact, other than a single basement interview by UN Security before Dujarric said that, there were no discussions, no due process by Guterres' Global Censor Alison Smale, ironically a former Berlin Bureau Chief for the New York Times. Dujarric mis-spoke, to be diplomatic about it. And Guterres is a censor, for corruption. Did he disclose his son's business links in Angola, Namibia, Sao Tome, Timor Leste and Cabo Verde? Are there recusals in place? Amid these questionsInner City Press was unjustly, and increasingly violently, ousted from the UN on June 22 (during a Guterres speech bragging about Mali) and July 3, during consideration of Guterres' budget and reforms, with mixed results. Fox News story here,GAP blogs I and II.
The first question was handed to UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance. Guterres smiled for the camera with the Press violently excluded on July 12. Since Inner City Press alone has asked Guterres and his spokesman dozens of questions about the killings by Cameroon's government, it seems clear the goal of banning Inner City Press is to avoid those questions. What about the China Energy Fund Committee scandal of UN bribery of Presidents of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa - with whom Guterres still deals - and Vuk Jeremic? No one else asked. And what about Guterres' “Global Service Delivery Mechanism” plan, to fire American UN staff in New York (and others in Geneva), and move the jobs to Mexico City and Budapest, respectively? Guterres the way he and Dujarric and Alison Smale have set it up may get a question about Western Sahara - but it would be from the many Morocco state media to which they give office space and full access. There is a lot of that - watch this site, and @InnerCityPress on Twitter. The UN has banned Inner City Press from entering its campus since July 5, claiming that its Lieutenant Ronald Dobbins targeted ouster of Inner City Press from a speech by Secretary General Antonio Guterres on June 22 then from a meeting about his budget on July 3 were "altercations." Now this ban has been extended beyond the UN campus to the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, for a July 10 press conference by the UN affiliated but ostensibly independent World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which as Inner City Press has previously reported helped North Korea with its cyanide patents and retaliated against it staff and media. Inner City Press was e-mailed an invitation on July 2 and replied with an RSVP to cover it. Marshall Hoffman of WIPO's public relations firm Hoffman PR wrote back, "Thanks. We will see at the press conference." After that, Guterres spokesman Farhan Haq was asked why Inner City Press is banned and said it is pending a review of two "altercations" - both of which were improper and unilateral ousters of Inner City Press by UN Security's Dobbins and officers, four of whomrefused to give their names. Soon, there was this follow up e-mail from WIPO's flak Marshall Hoffman: "Dear Matthew, It has come to my attention that your accreditation to the UN has been suspended pending an investigation into an incident. Given the suspension, I regret you will not be able to attend the WIPO press conference." This is more than a little strange - the press conference is not explicitly limited to UN accredited journalists, and Inner City Press has not been contacted once by the UN about the review or any suspension, it was only told at the 46th Street gate that its banned for some undefined time. But now also banned from a press conference at a hotel in Manhattan by an agency for which Guterres spokespeople have refused to answer, saying Francis Gurry (who will speak at the Pierre Hotel press conference along with Soumitra Dutta from Cornell University and Bruno Lanvin from INSEAD) has his own governing board? Something stinks here. We'll have more on this - and on this: how untransparent and inaccessible is Antonio Guterres, as UN Secretary General? The day he canceled his first UN Headquarters press conference in six months, he was ironically the guest of honor of the United Nations Correspondents Association. He was scheduled to make remarks at 6 pm - but it was not in the UN Media Alert. Inner City Press, whose RSVP to UNCA was never responded to, streamed the event from the tourists' balcony, edited here. Then Guterres' UN Security guards physically ousted Inner City Press from covering the UN Fifth Committee's July 3 meeting on his proposal to fire UN staff and move the jobs- then on July 5 banned Inner City Press from entering the UN. Fox News story here,GAP blogs I and II. While Guterres' UNCA fan club said nothing, others did. Guterres blathered on about how he supported the media in Portugal - dubious - and then cuts a cake for his UN Censorship Alliance. Earlier Inner City Press asked Guterres' lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who previously lent the UN Press Briefing Room to UNCA, if the event was open press but he refused to answer and ran off. Inner City Press asked the spokesman from the President of the General Assembly, who is listed as attended but will not speak, why it is not in the UN Media Alert. The spokesman said to ask UNCA. But UNCA never responded to the RSVP of Inner City Press through the Free UN Coalition for Access. In the middle of the event the claim was that UN correspondents didn't have to RSVP - not what the notice said. The event was not even in the June 26 UN Media Alert. Last week, Dujarric spoonfed sound bytes to a prominent UNCA members and is working with them to try to further restrict Inner City Press, here - Inner City Press was in fact ousted on June 22, video here, story here). The Free UN Coalition for Access questions this and the propriety of this explicit focus by the UN Correspondents Association on the UN's "causes" rather than simply covering the UN as it is; it and corruption are among the reasons Inner City Press quit UNCA (and co-founded FUNCA).
The first question was handed to UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance. Guterres smiled for the camera with the Press violently excluded on July 12. Since Inner City Press alone has asked Guterres and his spokesman dozens of questions about the killings by Cameroon's government, it seems clear the goal of banning Inner City Press is to avoid those questions. What about the China Energy Fund Committee scandal of UN bribery of Presidents of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa - with whom Guterres still deals - and Vuk Jeremic? No one else asked. And what about Guterres' “Global Service Delivery Mechanism” plan, to fire American UN staff in New York (and others in Geneva), and move the jobs to Mexico City and Budapest, respectively? Guterres the way he and Dujarric and Alison Smale have set it up may get a question about Western Sahara - but it would be from the many Morocco state media to which they give office space and full access. There is a lot of that - watch this site, and @InnerCityPress on Twitter. The UN has banned Inner City Press from entering its campus since July 5, claiming that its Lieutenant Ronald Dobbins targeted ouster of Inner City Press from a speech by Secretary General Antonio Guterres on June 22 then from a meeting about his budget on July 3 were "altercations." Now this ban has been extended beyond the UN campus to the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, for a July 10 press conference by the UN affiliated but ostensibly independent World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which as Inner City Press has previously reported helped North Korea with its cyanide patents and retaliated against it staff and media. Inner City Press was e-mailed an invitation on July 2 and replied with an RSVP to cover it. Marshall Hoffman of WIPO's public relations firm Hoffman PR wrote back, "Thanks. We will see at the press conference." After that, Guterres spokesman Farhan Haq was asked why Inner City Press is banned and said it is pending a review of two "altercations" - both of which were improper and unilateral ousters of Inner City Press by UN Security's Dobbins and officers, four of whomrefused to give their names. Soon, there was this follow up e-mail from WIPO's flak Marshall Hoffman: "Dear Matthew, It has come to my attention that your accreditation to the UN has been suspended pending an investigation into an incident. Given the suspension, I regret you will not be able to attend the WIPO press conference." This is more than a little strange - the press conference is not explicitly limited to UN accredited journalists, and Inner City Press has not been contacted once by the UN about the review or any suspension, it was only told at the 46th Street gate that its banned for some undefined time. But now also banned from a press conference at a hotel in Manhattan by an agency for which Guterres spokespeople have refused to answer, saying Francis Gurry (who will speak at the Pierre Hotel press conference along with Soumitra Dutta from Cornell University and Bruno Lanvin from INSEAD) has his own governing board? Something stinks here. We'll have more on this - and on this: how untransparent and inaccessible is Antonio Guterres, as UN Secretary General? The day he canceled his first UN Headquarters press conference in six months, he was ironically the guest of honor of the United Nations Correspondents Association. He was scheduled to make remarks at 6 pm - but it was not in the UN Media Alert. Inner City Press, whose RSVP to UNCA was never responded to, streamed the event from the tourists' balcony, edited here. Then Guterres' UN Security guards physically ousted Inner City Press from covering the UN Fifth Committee's July 3 meeting on his proposal to fire UN staff and move the jobs- then on July 5 banned Inner City Press from entering the UN. Fox News story here,GAP blogs I and II. While Guterres' UNCA fan club said nothing, others did. Guterres blathered on about how he supported the media in Portugal - dubious - and then cuts a cake for his UN Censorship Alliance. Earlier Inner City Press asked Guterres' lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who previously lent the UN Press Briefing Room to UNCA, if the event was open press but he refused to answer and ran off. Inner City Press asked the spokesman from the President of the General Assembly, who is listed as attended but will not speak, why it is not in the UN Media Alert. The spokesman said to ask UNCA. But UNCA never responded to the RSVP of Inner City Press through the Free UN Coalition for Access. In the middle of the event the claim was that UN correspondents didn't have to RSVP - not what the notice said. The event was not even in the June 26 UN Media Alert. Last week, Dujarric spoonfed sound bytes to a prominent UNCA members and is working with them to try to further restrict Inner City Press, here - Inner City Press was in fact ousted on June 22, video here, story here). The Free UN Coalition for Access questions this and the propriety of this explicit focus by the UN Correspondents Association on the UN's "causes" rather than simply covering the UN as it is; it and corruption are among the reasons Inner City Press quit UNCA (and co-founded FUNCA).
