By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
UN GATE, August 30 – With Ireland taking over presidency of the UN Security Council on September 1, on August 30 Inner City Press wrote to the Irish Mission to the UN to request access to its September 1 press conference.
The Irish Mission's Alternate Political Coordinator and Spokesperson Eoghan McSwiney wrote back, "We would refer your request for access to the UN and to UN press conferences to the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit of the UN Secretariat." In context, this is Kafka-esque collution in UN censorship. Inner City Press has replied:
"With all due respect, that is not in keeping with your duty as President of the UN Security Council. Inner City Press covered the UN and UNSC under Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon then was thrown out under Antonio Guterres after asking him directly about [, among other things including Cameroon,] the omission from his financial disclosure covering 2016 of his link, through Lisbon's Gulbenkian Foundation which paid him money, to convicted UN briber CEFC China Energy.
This was and is a legitimate journalistic question however Inner City Press has been banned by Guterres and his USG Melissa Fleming.
Your current response is Kafka-esque collusion in light of UN Spokesman Dujarric recently saying, in the briefing room, that there is no commitment by the UN Secretariat to even response to a polite law firm letter seeking access to Inner City Press, see video. See also Press Freedom Tracker and The Independent (UK)
The Irish Mission and Ireland have a duty to not collude in censorship, and to take questions from media. Inner City Press is permitted (in fact, invited) to put WebEx questions to the IMF briefings, see below, and is accredited at the SDNY Federal court here in New York.
So it is up to you and your Mission to provide access. This response make you aware / puts you on notice of the conflict of interest that has resulted in Inner City Press' questions on abandonment of UNAMA staff, sexual abuse by peacekeepers, and corruption by the UN Secretariat being blocked.
You should either get this reversed by the UN Secretariat by Sept 1, or in the interim provide the WebEx code for your press conference(s). On deadline, thank you for your attention."
Watch this site.
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