By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Q&A Video
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
UN GATE, Nov 8 – Each day, the current United Nations gets worse. Usually we focus on Secretary General Antonio Guterres moving from concealing his links to UN briber CEFC China Energy to banning the Press that asks, to failures on Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Haiti, Honduras (JOH) & Nigeria (Nnamdi & Igboho).
This year the UN lost a journalist of integrity, Apostolis Zoupaniotis, who retired to return to Greece. Even after the UN in retaliation threw Inner City Press out of its UN office, Apostolis offered the use of his cubicle.
By contrast the insiders of the UN Correspondents Association, while purporting to praise this journalist among with UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric have neither responded to or offered any explanation when a lawyer's letter - to each UNCA Executive Committee member - urged them to have a dialogue about ending the UN's banning and censorship of Inner City Press. No answers - video here.
Instead they are taking UN system money - from the "Alliance of Civilizations" no less - to give prizes to their own members, at overprice Cipriani by Wall Street on December 8:
"Guterres will be the guest of honor of the evening. We are also pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 UNCA Awards and the 2021 Dag Hammarskjold Journalism Fellows below. They're giving prizes to their own James Bays, who worked with Stephane Dujarric to get Inner City Press banned, their own Mauricio Guerrero who first resisted but their censored, Pass Blue, and others to be named.
Beyond its role under current management as the UN Censorship Alliance, here's a recent pitch: "UNCA is extending an invitation to the online launch of the third annual Hyundai Motor ‘Re:Style 2021’ Sustainable Fashion Collection, introducing 12 fashion items created with discarded wearable materials from vehicles, launching in partnering shops in Seoul and Paris. Hyundai Motor Company will donate all profits from the project to charitable programs of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Valeria Robecco President, United Nations Correspondents Association." Cars for the environment.
And like Guterres, attempted scam re-election, this time with no-shows who pay dues while restricted from entry unlike UN-friendly retirees:
"UNCA will be holding Elections for its officers and board for 2022 in November
The final list of candidates for the 2022 UNCA Executive Committee will be sent out to all members via email and posted on the bulletin board. VOTING In order to vote for the 2022 UNCA Executive Committee, your annual UNCA dues must be paid. If you need to pay dues for 2021 please visit the UNCA Office with your cash or check for $100
Voting for the 2022 UNCA Executive Committee will take place on Monday, November 22nd, Tuesday, November 23rd, and Wednesday, November 24th from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm in the UNCA conference room.
Since we do not have the capacity or resources to create an online voting procedure, voting will only be possible in-person in the UNCA room. For non-resident correspondents without access to the building, UNCA has coordinated with MALU to authorize a limited number of Green P's each day to enter the UN as long as they send an RSVP 24 hours in advance to contactus [at] unca [dot] com, and include the date they wish to visit the voting polls in the UNCA conference room (absentee or regular voting dates). please keep in mind that the UN has enforced vaccination requirements for all media to enter UNHQ. Final election results will be posted on the UNCA bulletin board on Wednesday, November 24th.
Actually asking the UN about its under-performance, and the slaugher in places like Cameroon, is not the focus, not allowed. Just pay money to enter by RSVP and recoronate censors who can't even answer a major law firm's letter about media access at the UN.
Watch this site.
The letter was received by the UN's Melissa Fleming, Maria Luiza Vioti and Tal Mekel and to each UNCA Executive Board member, to them citing UNCA's stated goals that it has a charter to supposedly uphold.
What's next? Since the letter, Inner City Press has published exclusive stories not only from the U.S. court systems but about the United Nations, including its agencies UNOPS, UNFPA, UNITAR and UNESCO. (Also credited in AP, Daily Mail, and Nigeria's Sahara Reporters, amid answers from the IMF.)
But none of its written questions have been answered by the UN Spokespeople, and it remains banned from entry to the UN's briefings. This must end.
Having asked for a colleagial discussion, and while still offering it, things must turn to the law. UNCA is a New York State non-profit which has not only not abided by its stated goals - it has tortiously interfered with a journalist's right to cover the United Nations. The United Nations itself propounds Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and has other legal duties that must be addressed by national courts, particularly in the UN's host country...
Those in receipt of the first, friendly letter: melissa.fleming@un.org, marialuiza.viotti@un.org, mekel@un.org, malu@un.org, and UNCA
Valeria Robecco, ANSA News Agency, Nabil Abi Saab, Al-Araby, Jianguo Ma, Xinhua News Agency, Edith Lederer, Associated, Giampaolo Pioli, Quotidiano, Linda Fasulo, Ibtisam Azem, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Ali Barada, France 24, Asharq Al-Awsat; Oscar Bolanos, OMB News, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, SABC South Africa - Alexander Hassanein, The Tokyo Shimbun, Maria Khrenova, TASS, Philippe Rater, Agence France-Presse, Kaori Yoshida, Nikkei, Betul Yuruk, Anadolu Agency
We'll have more on this. Watch this site.
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