By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Thread Photo
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - CJR - PFT
UN GATE, Dec 26 – Archbishop Desmond Tutu has passed away at 90 - rest in peace - and predictable today's decaying United Nations is trying to associate itself with him.
But as Inner City Press, now banned from the UN by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, repeatedly reported, Tutu was critical of the UN, including on its role in colonizing and covering up the plight of West Papua.
Colonizer Indonesia was on the UN Security Council from 2019 to 2020, supposedly enforcing North Korea and other sanctions while in fact banning the Press during its President of the Council.
In the United Nations from which SG Antonio Guterres has banned Inner City Press 1370 days for asking about his links with Ghislaine Maxwell and the Jeffrey Epstein UN Fellowship, his complicity in the killing of civilians in Cameroon and their mass imprisonment by China in Xinjiang,Inner City Press wrote to the Indonesia Mission, as incoming UN Security Council president, with questions about Cameroon, Somalia and UNsexploitation.
There was no answer from IndonesiaUNNY. As the month went on, the Indonesia Mission blocked Inner City Press on Twitter, amid attacks in Indonesia itself on media criticizing the government for its COVID-19 response, see below.
Then this: condemnation of the visit the United States of serial human rights violator Prabowo Subianto. ETAN urged that any visa be withdrawn and no weapons or training be promised to Indonesia. Prabowo is currently the Minister of Defense of Indonesia and reportedly will be visiting the U.S. from October 15-19. In 2001, Prabowo asked a reporter rhetorically "Do I have the guts. Am I ready to be called a fascist dictator?"
Apparently yes.
For the past 20 years Prabowo has been banned from travel to the U.S. under laws that bar visas for serious violators of human rights. He is the ex-son-in-law of Indonesia’s former dictator Suharto. Prabowo has been accused of involvement in countless rights violations in Timor-Leste as well as West Papua, Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia.
Djani did a stakeout with a dwindling group of sycophant correspondents, who repackaged his bragging about Iran and spin of loss on his one resolution like propaganda. We will continue to report on West Papua going forward.
In early August Inner City Press tweeted the questions, and re-submitted them the comment box on the Mission's website. Nothing. This as Indonesia's foreign minister Retno Marsudi bragged online, "Under the theme “Advancing Sustainable Peace, Indonesia assumes Presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of August 2020."
Apparently Indonesia PR Dian Triansyah Djani could only handle questions from pre-screened in-house correspondents, one of whose media has no story by her since 2017, another with no stories at all, at least one - actually, more -- a repeated #MeToo violator.
He took only six questioners, none on sub Saharan Africa. One of the six was a long retired photographer of UN bribers, who asked about tourism in Bali. As Inner City Press live tweeted, questions came to it about West Papua, on which we'll have more. Djani told a correspondent in a leafy backyard that he, too, lives in New Rochelle, and pitched Batik face masks. It was pathetic. He gave a bonus round for a Maki plant to ask him to trash Armenia about Nogorno Karabakh. We'll have more on this.
With Inner City Press still blocked and banned, the Indonesia mission is bragging about gagging softball UN correspondents in Batik: "Happy to see our colleagues wearing Flag of Indonesia colorful batik masks Smiling face with sunglasses Stay safe & stay healthy everyone! #IniDiplomasi #IndonesianWay #BatikDay."
Those depicted are from Turkish state media, Pass Blue, and even -- totally inappropriately - Melissa Fleming's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit which bans Inner City Press without even explaining why. Get down with oppression. Today's UN is corrupt.
This is a pattern: Media organisations in Indonesia have reported a spate of digital attacks directed at critical coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Indonesia are deeply concerned that the hacking attacks are aimed at restricting critical reporting and suppressing media freedom. At least four media organisations have been targeted in an unprecedented series of digital attacks. On August 21, the Tempo news website was replaced with a black screen with the word ‘hoax’, in bold red font splashed across it. The same day articles, including two articles critical of the Indonesian intelligence agency’s role in the pandemic response, were removed from the website of tirto.id. The Director of the Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers), Ade Wahyudin, on August 21 said the hacking is a legal violation. Wahyudin said there are mechanisms to deal with news reports deemed to be false, which involve submitting the right of reply or filing a complaint to the Press Council.
Indonesia has been president of the UN Security Council. This is the cesspool of censorship into which Guterres has turned the UN.
When Guterres' spokes- / hatchetman Stephane Dujarric holds his noon briefings this month while refusing all questions from Inner City Press despite an on camera promise. And Indonesia? We'll report.
Watch this site.
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