UN GATE, Nov 19 – On World Press Freedom Day, the United Nations of Antonio Guterres claimed to be in support of journalists being able to do their work without hinderance.
But UN Global Communications chief Melissa Fleming put out a video of Guterres equating what he (and she) characterize as disinformation as the threat to press freedom, Guterres has banned Inner City Press from entering the UN since 2018, when it exposed the omission of links to bribery firm CEFC China Energy from his financial disclosure.
On June 19, 2025, Inner City Press submitted an application to cover the UN General Assembly, letter here.
Five months later, nothing. No answer. Totally corrupt. And now we exclusively publish this, leaked to Inner City Press by UN whistleblowers, from the head of UN Security Gilles Michaud who is complicit in a non-public permanently banned from the UN without due process list:
Dear colleagues, I would like to update you on our restructuring process, with a focus on our field operations.
As you recall, we were forced to initiate this process earlier this year when the Finance and Budget Network (FBN) decided on a 20% reduction to our JFA budget for 2026. This budget funds primarily our operations in the field as well as parts of HQ.
We reviewed and reconfigured our operational footprint. In the field, this has meant painful but inevitable decisions: closing certain offices, reducing team sizes, and establishing more multi-country offices. At HQ, it has required consolidating desks and reorganizing several units.
Second, staff were invited to express interest in Agreed Termination/Early Separation.
To help limit involuntary separations, we also carried out a matching exercise within DFO to reassign affected international staff from posts that were being frozen to posts in the new footprint – either current vacancies or positions becoming vacant from agreed terminations. This process helped us preserve a number of jobs and reduce the number of colleagues facing separation.
However, we were not able to replicate this exercise for national staff, simply because locally recruited personnel cannot be moved internationally. Without the flexibility of international mobility, we were unable to match national colleagues to alternative positions in the same way. Despite all efforts, the scale of the budget cuts means that 33 of our locally recruited colleagues have now received separation notices.
Several peace operations are now reviewing their Integrated Security Workforce structures in light of their own budget pressures, and any adjustments they make will naturally affect colleagues serving in those components.
Looking ahead, we cannot yet know what 2026 holds for the UN and for UNDSS. Later in December, we will hear from the General Assembly on the SG’s revised estimates, which includes a proposed 16.7% cut to our Regular Budget (the other half of our budget which funds much of our uniformed Safety and Security Services). Sincerely, Gilles
Gilles Michaud Under-Secretary-General, UNDSS
There has been no answer to an appeal to Guterres head of security Gilles Michaud.
But now, with Inner City Press' UN and SDNY covering, including the Sean Combs trial, being picked up all over the world, the application. Watch this site.
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