By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
UN GATE / SDNY COURT, Nov 26 – The United Nations under SG Antonio Guterres turns people into thieves and censors.
This week's example is the new spokesperson for UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid. Previous UN PGAs John Ashe (who was indicted for corruption then died under a barbell) and Sam Kutesa were shown to take bribes. The UN said future PGAs would disclose who pays each of their staff members.
But Shahid refuses to. His past spokesperson quit. The job has gone to Paulina Kubiak, at one point perfectly friendly at the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit which implemented Guterres throw-out-the-Press order.
She tweeted - as Paulina Greer -- that she was holding a press briefing on November 19. Inner City Press emailed her -- at her listed email and the one she used on November 26, see below - and the Office's Carl Mercer this, at 1 pm:
"Hi - this is a Press question about the UN PGA's office, in light of the previous corruption scandals of PGA John Ashe with Ng Lap Seng, and Sam Kutesa with Patrick Ho of CEFC China Energy, etc It was was in the wake of those SDNY convictions that future PGAs would disclose who paid each of their staff members. But the current PGA says only "The staff of the Office of the President of the General Assembly (OPGA) are identifiable through their biographies on the website." That does not identify funding. Please on deadline provide the funding informatoin, and explain why it was not provided until now. Also, please ensure that Inner City Press which has covered this issues about and in the UN for some time, but is currently banned due to UN censorship, can enter the UN to cover the GA and PGA - please provide your response to this immediately. Please confirm receipt, and thank you for your attention."
A week later, and four more messages with new questions send, and still nothing at all. Then on November 26, this: " I was looking through headlines related to the PGA and came across your post. I never received the questions to which you refer. Could you forward to me here?"
This is more than strange, as her request came from the very email address to which the questions were sent. Could it be that the UN of Guterres, which for a time blocked Inner City Press' IP from even visiting UN website, blocks its questions even to the PGA's spokesperson? We have sent all questions and await substantive response. Watch this site.
It came on a week that the IMF, by contrast, answered Inner City Press' questions on Myanmar, Ethiopia / Tigray, Chad and Zambia, here. Kubiak's is censorship; to take public money to not do one's job is theft.
This is simply stealing public money, particularly given the polite letter from the Quinn Emanuel law firm sent in July to the UN's Melissa Fleming and the UN's partners. No answers, though receipted was confirmed here.
And note that UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, on camera, "We continue to answer e-mailed questions from Mr Lee/ Inner City Press," here.
This is censorship - and theft. We'll have more, much more, on this - as long as it takes. Watch this site.
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