Before Question on UN Cholera in Haiti & Abuse in CAR, UN Nasser Tells Inner City Press, “Don't Make It About Yourself”

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video here

UNITED NATIONS, October 24 – At the book launch in the UN of  "Oppenheim's International Law, United Nations" on October 24, when it came time for question and answer Inner City Press was the first and then only with a question. Still, Department of Public Information moderator Maher Nasser said he wished to remind Inner City Press that this was not a press conference - whatever that means - and "don't make it about yourself." Video here. He has done this before, to try to avoid and now discourage questions about such topics as UN sexual abuse in the Central African Republic where Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived on October 24, UN cholera in Haiti and UN corruption as exposed in the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe case. Afterward several who heard it said, "What's wrong with that guy?" The broader question: what's wrong with the UN that it allows the Number Two official in DPI to do this, and to abuse his position to threaten the accreditation of Inner City Press as it asks Guterres about sexual abuse in CAR, and inaction on mass killings in Cameroon? (Nasser then blocked Inner City Press on Twitter.) It has been raised to the occupant of the position Nasser has twice unsuccessfully sought, Alison Smale, without response. The authors of this new book, Dame Rosalyn Higgins and Dapo Akande among others, however, did respond (here) noting there are some few circumstances in which resource can be sought against the UN, with the UN's consent. Video here.

All this has to change. On October 20 the UN delivered a threat to Inner City Press to “review” it accreditation on Friday afternoon at 5 pm. The UN official who signed the letter, when Inner City Press went to ask about the undefined violation of live-streaming Periscope video at a photo op by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, had already left, minutes after sending the threat. This comes two days after Inner City Press asked Guterres about the UN inaction on threatened genocide in Cameroon, and the UN claimed Guterres hadn't heard the 15-second long question.

  It also comes after Alison Smale the head of the Department of Public Information which would “review” Inner City Press' accreditation has ignored three separatepetitions from Inner City Press in the six weeks she has been in the job, urging her to remove restrictions on Inner City Press' reporting which hinder its coverage of the UN's performance in such crises as Yemen, Kenya,Myanmar, and the Central African Republic where Guterres travels next week, with Smale's DPI saying its coverage of the trip will be a test of its public relations ability. But the UN official who triggered the complaint is Maher Nasser, who filled in for Smale before she arrived. 

UN's Letter Threatening to Review Inner City Press' Accreditation for Audio Report While Staking Out on Cam... by Matthew Russell Lee on Scribd

His complaint is that audio of what he said to Inner City Press as it staked out the elevators in the UN lobby openly recording, as it has for example with Cameroon's Ambassador Tommo Monthe, here, was similarly published. 

A UN “Public Information” official is complaining about an article, and abusing his position to threaten to review Inner City Press' accreditation. The UN has previously been called out for targeting Inner City Press, and for having no rules or due process. But the UN is entirely UNaccountable, impunity on censorship as, bigger picture, on the cholera it brought to Haiti. And, it seems, Antonio Guterres has not reformed or reversed anything. This threat is from an official involved in the last round of retaliation who told Inner City Press on Twitter to be less "negative" about the UN - amid inaction on the mass killing in Cameroon - and who allowed pro-UN hecking of Inner City Press' questions about the cholera the UN brought to Haiti and the Ng Lap Seng /John Ashe UN bribery scandal which resulted in six guilty verdicts. We'll have more on this.

Corrupt UN DPI Edits Burundi and Oromo Protests Out of Ethiopia Presser, Censors Await Smale

By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos and video

UNITED NATIONS, September 2 – With the UN Security Council presidency for September being taken over by Ethiopia's Tekeda Alemu, Inner City Press on September 1 asked Ambassador Alemu four questions, including on Burundi (on the Council's agenda) and the Oromo Protests, a major human rights issue. Video here. But when the UN Department of Public Information wrote up the press conference, it did not even MENTION Burundi, much less the Oromo protests. See UN document here. 

What is wrong with UN DPI, a corrupt UN Department which spends $200 million a year in public funds, but doe not even has any rules, content neutral or otherwise, on how it accredits and/or restrictsthe independent press which covers the UN? Where is the new head of DPI, Alison Smale?   In response to Inner City Press asking why Burundi, where even the UN says there is a risk of genocide, is not on his September Program of Work nor on the agenda of the Council's visit to Addis Ababa, Alemu on September 1 - not covered by the UN - said that you can't compare Burundi to Central African Republic, that Burundi has “strong state institutions.” But it is that very “strength,” which some say the country shares with Ethiopia, and with until recently military-ruled Myanmar about which Inner City Press also asked, that has led to the human rights violations. In this context, Inner City Press asked Alemu about the Oromo protests - and crackdown - in his country. He diplomatically chided Inner City Press for not having asked in private, saying that social media has played a dangerous role. Meanwhile the UN brags about its (propaganda) social media work. We'll have more on this. Alamy photos here. Earlier on September 1 in Alemu's briefing to countries not on the Security Council, Bangladesh specifically asked that the Council remain seized of the situation in Myanmar. When Inner City Press asked Alemu about this, he said he still had to inform himself more about that situation. The Security Council is traveling to Addis from September 5 through 9, when alongside African Union consultations the Council's member will meet for an hour with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Alemu said. The Council will receive the “maiden briefings” late in the month of the new Under Secretaries General of OCHA and on Counter-Terrorism. There will be peacekeeping on September 20, during the High Level week of the UN General Assembly, and Yemen on September 26. But tellingly, there will not be Burundi. And when Alemu added Mali to a September 5 meeting, despite his answer to FUNCA, not all media were told. Watch this site.

At UN, SG Guterres Declines To Answer on Ng Lap Seng Bribery Verdict, 5 Pre-Screened Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, January 7 – When UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres took five media questions on August 16 after a two week vacation, Inner City Press tried to ask him about the UN bribery verdict against Ng Lap Seng rendered by a jury in lower Manhattan just before he left. Guterres heard the question, but did not answer. Video here. 

Instead, his deputy spokesman Farhan Haq handpicked five questioners, two on U.S. President Donald Trump and the first on Venezuela, in response to which Guterres read from notes. Reuters was called on second, asked two questions then later began a third. The UN Correspondents Association president invited Guterres to distinguish himself from Trump, which Guterres coyly did and didn't do.

Then when Inner City Press asked about the Ng Lap Seng guilty verdict, Guterres swept the question away with his and and left with Maher Nasser the acting chief of his Department of Public Information, which without due process evicted and still restricts Inner City Press for pursuing the Ng Lap Seng bribery scandal in the UN Press Briefing Room. 

Guterres and his deputy Amina J. Mohammed have both received a petition with over 2,000 signatures to end the restrictions on the Press, particularly after the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery guilty verdicts. 

But there is silence, invisibility, then pre-screened questions. Even among those, nothing on Syria, Yemen, or Libya where Guterres' envoy has praised the Italian Navy's cooperation with the Libyan coast guard, or Kenya where a recent UN official has been banned from travel in connection with electoral irregularities, much less Burundian refugees and abuses by Cameroon. On Western Sahara, moments after Guterres' stakeout, Horst Kohler was belatedly named to the long empty envoy position. We'll have more on this.

At UN, Formal Request Made To End Restrictions on Press, Is Officer in Charge, In Charge?

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 – The UN, demonstrating hypocrisy on both press freedom and transparency, evicted Inner City Press as it covered UN corruption in the Ng Lap Seng bribery case and restricts it even now, after the evicting official is gone. (A formal request for reversal, below, as been filed). After the UN's head of Communications Cristina Gallach was given a strange farewell toast on March 30, the UN told Inner City Press that the "position will be filled by an Officer-in-Charge... while the process to find a new Under-Secretary-General for Public Information continues."

 On April 3, Inner City Press wrote to this Officer in Charge, who copied the request to several others to be named: 

"Four hundred and five days ago, without any hearing or opportunity to be heard, I was ordered out of the United Nations for having sought to covering a meeting in the UN Press Briefing Room that was nowhere listed as closed to some journalists and not others. Inner City Press, still without any hearing and no appeal since, was then evicted from its shared office S-303 which has sat largely unused since. I have been forced, for more than a year, to only enter through the metal detectors at the Visitors Entrance, and my pass has not worked on the second floor turnstile, precluding me from covering events on the second floor as other correspondents could. There are other restrictions and double standards, hindering reporting, of which DPI has been made aware.

 Yesterday was the last day atop DPI for the official who without speaking to me once signed the February 19, 2016 letter, and for the April 2016 eviction. The Deputy Spokesperson told me yesterday, in a noon briefing where I asked six questions (earlier the week there was a noon briefing where from the entire rest of the accredited press corps there were only three questioners), I was told that you are the Officer in Charge of DPI. In that capacity, this is a formal request that Inner City Press be restored to the office it was ousted from without due process... and that I be restored to Resident Correspondent accreditation immediately... I also incorporate this link to the Special Rapporteurs for Freedom of Expression and Human Rights Defenders letter: and, again, this petition."

 Days later, no ruling, attempted jokes while Inner City Press worked to write up the Syria UN Security Council meeting from a bench in the UN lobby. We'll have more on this.

On March 28, forwarded not sent to Inner City Press, this: "UNCA will host a farewell reception in honor of Under-Secretary-General of DPI, Cristina Gallach, on Thursday, March 30th at 5:30 pm in the UNCA room (3rd floor, UN Secretariat Building, room 310). Food and wine will be served. Please join us for a farewell toast!" Toasting what? Allowing into the UN with no due diligence the Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng, as detailed in the UN's own audit at Paragraphs 37-40 and 20b? Evicting the Press without any hearing or appeal? The decline in media access? On March 29, Inner City Press asked among other things, "yesterday your Office replied, regarding the USG of DPI, 'We will announce arrivals and departures as they occur.' Now that your partner has arranged a farewell for this USG for March 30, what is the rationale for your Office refusing to confirm her departure and the status of recruiting a replacement?" The UN spokesman replied, "Regarding Under-Secretary-General Cristina Gallach, her position will be filled by an Officer-in-Charge upon her departure while the process to find a new Under-Secretary-General for Public Information continues." We'll have more on this.

  In early 2016, covering the UN corruption scandals which have resulted in two sets of indictments for bribery involving the UN, Inner City Press was ordered to leave the UN Press Briefing Room by then Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

  Other correspondents were allowed to stay in the briefing room, which Dujarric had "lent" them. But he insisted that Inner City Press leave. Video here.

  Inner City Press asked to see any paperwork that the event was closed; none was provided. Inner City Press stated that if a single UN Security official asked it to leave, it would. Finally one guard came and said Dujarric wanted it to leave. 

  Inner City Press immediately left, uploaded the already live-streamed Periscope video, and continued digging into the corruption that's resulted in the indictment for bribery and money laundering of Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki Sang and nephew Dennis Bahn.

  But three weeks afterward, without a single conversation or opportunity to be heard, Ban's Under Secretary General for Public Information Cristina Gallach ordered Inner City Press to leave the UN, after ten years, on two hours notice. Order here.

   This was enforced, as Inner City Press worked on its laptop at the UN Security Council stakeout, by eight UN Security officers led by Deputy Chief McNulty, who tore Inner City Press accreditation badge off its chest and said, "Now you are a trespasser." Audio here.

  Inner City Press was marched down the escalator and around the UN traffic circle, without even its coat which was up in its longtime office. It was pushed out of the gate and its laptop, in a bag, was thrown on the sidewalk and damaged.

  The next work day when Inner City Press arranged for a fellow journalist to sign it in as a guest so it could cover the Security Council, UN Security official Matthew Sullivan said it was Banned from UN premises worldwide. Audio here.

   After three days covering the UN from the park in front in the sleet, and articles like this one, Inner City Press re-entered with a "non-resident correspondents" pass - to which it is still, more than eleven months later, confined.

  The then-US Mission under Samantha Power and Isobel Coleman, even petitioned by the DC-based Government Accountability Project, did nothing. Indirectly, a offer was made of an upgraded pass if Inner City Press would agree to a gag order, to which it would not and will not agree.

  There has been no UN opportunity for appeal or reinstatement. After having five boxes of Inner City Press' investigative files thrown on the sidewalk in April, Gallach is giving its office to an Egyptian state media Akhbar al Yom which rarely comes in, a correspondent Sanaa Youssef who had yet to ask a single question. 

Her only claim is that she was once, decades ago, a president of the United Nations Correspondents Association, the group to which Duajrric "lent" the UN Press Briefing Room, without notice or written record, on January 29, 2016. 

 Even as the scope of Ban Ki-moon's corruption is being exposed upon his return to South Korea, here, his successor Antonio Guterres has yet to reverse this year of censorship and no due process. On January 6 Dujarric and Gallach led him on a tour of... the UN Correspondents Association, which now wants him again in their clubhouse. (More on this to follow.)

 On January 27 as Inner City Press moved to cover Guterres at the UN's Holocaust event, it was targeted by UN Security and told it could not proceed without a minder, who did not appear for over 15 minutes. 

 All of this must change. This is a scam, and censorship: the UN's Censorship Alliance. We will have more on this.

UN Threatens To Ban Inner City Press for Hanging a Sign of Free UN Coalition for Access, Alternative to UN Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 24 -- On a day when the UN refused requests by Inner City Press to explain why it continues to support units of the Congolese Army which committed 135 rapes in Minova in late November, and began a witch hunt against a UN Mine Action Service whistleblower in Somalia, its Department of Public Information ratcheted up threats to throw Inner City Press out of the UN, or withdraw it accreditation.

   What are the charges? 

   Exclusive reporting on UNMAS in Somalia sharing genetic information from bombings with US intelligence? Exposure of UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous for having covered up the 135 Minova rapes, including at a stakeout where Ladsous' spokesman seized the microphone supposedly managed by DPI?

  No - Inner City Press' sin has been to co-found the Free UN Coalition for Access as an alternative to DPI's and Ban Ki-moon partner UNCA, and to put a simple FUNCA sign on the door of its office. Here is a photo of the sign, here.

   Monday afternoon DPI sent the following e-mail to Inner City Press:

Subject: signs on the door
From: Hua Jiang [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 3:52 PM
To: Inner City Press
Cc: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org, Isabelle Broyer [at] un.org

Dear Matthew,

We have taken note that you have not until now remove the signs on your office door as per the United Nations Guidelines on Media Access, despite repeated requests communicated to you by emails and verbally by DPI officials.

We reserve the right to take actions according to the Guidelines which stipulate that those violate the rules may have their accreditation withdrawn or suspended.

Best

Hua Jiang
Chief, Press Service, UN DPI

  Of the two individuals cc-ed, the first received and even solicited, including to his private non-UN email address, stealth requests to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN from Louis Charbonneau of Reuters, Agence France Presse,Voice of America and others. 

  The second led a non-consensual raid of Inner City Press' office on March 18, 2013, took photos of the Press' desk and bookshelf and shared them beyond DPI (they laterappeared in BuzzFeed, leaked by a “Concerned UN Reporter” account after BuzzFeed called Ban's spokesman for comment on the raid.)

   Having to stop covering the day's Security Council meeting about Sexual Violence and Conflict, the following response to DPI was prepared and sent:

Hello. The Free UN Coalition for Access has among other things asked, so far without answer, how it is legitimate that the UNCA Executive Committee member next door has pro-UN signs all over his door and has not been asked to take them down.

Unless this is just some kind of witch hunt against FUNCA (or any alternative to UNCA), that should be explained.

Also, separately, the Media Accreditation Guidelines do not provide any exception or exemption for UNCA. Are you trying to outlaw any alternative to UNCA?

Finally, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal (who I will cc) after a one hour discussion last week told me he would be sending me, in writing, some sort of DPI proposed road map for FUNCA. While objecting to the idea of the UN seeking to dictate the corporate or other form of a free press group that seeks to advocate for greater media access -- where are the promised “lines”?

And given the failure to explain the different with the pro-UN signs, the legitimacy of trying to outlaw FUNCA signs while leaving two UNCA signs up, and the failure to send the promised lines, can you further explain the threat in your email?

Also, what happened on the request by the NY Civil Liberties Union last July that DPI make public rules for withdrawing or suspending accreditation, which you seem to be doing here -- for the posting of a sign of a media freedom organization?

Awaiting your written response,

Matthew Russell Lee, for the Free UN Coalition for Access
Office c/o Inner City Press, Room S 303, UN HQ, NY NY 10017
Email: funca [at] FUNCA.info - www.FUNCA.info

And we're still waiting. 

While not explaining a single thing about the lawless threat, this arrived:

Subject: Re: Request you acknowledge receipt RE Please explain double standard for pro-UN signs, UNCA signs, failure to provide promised "road map," failure to adopt rules as requested by NYCLU
From: Hua Jiang [at] un.org
Date: Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 5:04 PM
To: Inner City Press
Cc: Stephane Dujarric [at] un.org, Isabelle Broyer [at] un.org, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal@un.org

Dear Matthew,

We have received your email.

Best

Hua Jiang
Chief, Press Service, UN DPI

  And? Watch this site.

At UN, Ban Ki-moon's Carbon Footprint Incalculable, Of Airline Partners & Waste, FUNCA Sign & Space

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 22 – The UN talks about carbon reduction and austerity, but is vague about emissions while not only allowing but requiring waste.

  Early on June 21, based on questions the UN has left unanswered to many requesters, the new Free UN Coalition for Access asked the UN's “Greening the Blue,” which had been bragging about carbon reduction, “Can you / UN estimate Ban Ki-moon's entourage's travel emissions?”

  Greening the Blue uses social media, but which not answer this question from FUNCA's Twitter account, here. So at the June 21 UN noon briefing, FUNCA co-founder Inner City Press asked:

Inner City Press: there is something called Greening the Blue, I have tried to ask them directly and haven’t received a response, whether the UN’s Office of the Secretary-General estimates the carbon footprint, the carbon effects, of his travel, which obviously is quite necessary, but can you disclose what that the quantity is and whether it is in any way offset?

Deputy Spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey: Well, we’ll try and get that information for you, Matthew.

   Six hours later, as the UN made other demands on Inner City Press and FUNCA (the very sign of which the UN and its partners have tried to ban), the following was emitted by the UN as a note to all correspondents:

In response to a question about efforts to offset carbon footprint at the United Nations, the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General has the following to say:

We do not have specific estimate of the Secretary-General’s travel, but we do estimate regularly the United Nations staff’s total carbon footprint as well as the share of air travel. According to the most recent Greening the Blue report, launched on 19 June 2013, the total emissions of 8,185 staff members at the United Nations Headquarters estimate 63,059 tonnes (CO2eq), of which 48 per cent is caused by air travel.

  On the question of Ban's travel impact, the UN did not have or provide an answer. But on the question of air travel, ironically, the same week Ban's Department of Public Information was tweeting about its multimedia partnership with the airline Royal Air Maroc, see here with model plane.

  The response – which did not provide the basic requested information about Ban's travel and is online in full here – added in a different font, as if an additional argument, that “[r]ecent renovations to the UN Secretariat building in New York were designed to reduce energy consumption by 50%.”

  In the new offices, at least for the press, lights go on automatically even if one does not want them. Meanwhile DPI has devoted a lot of energy to trying to order Inner City Press to take a simple Free UN Coalition for Access sign off the door to its office, while allowing the old UN Correspondents Association to have two prominent signs, a big meeting room, a separate office and even a locked UNCA pantry in which it stores its wine glasses.

  On Friday evening, as the (non) response on Ban's travel was sent out, DPI was informing Inner City Press that it planned to now put three separate media in the two-desk office behind the FUNCA sign. This was presented for the first time in front of one of the media.

  Now a series of questions have been raised. Why is an UNCA Executive Committee member next to Inner City Press given a private, one-media office? Why is the UNCA president, Pamela Falk, given a separate office? How can the UN put three media at two desks?

  The answer to the later is waste: media which have not requested UN space are told they can only get a so-called “White P” entry card if they request from the UN space they do not want. When asked about this wasteful absurdity, the answer is that these are the UN rules. But the UN makes its own rules.

  In the case of the new rule against signs – or signs other than UNCA's – the UN partnered with UNCA to put out a rule banning all competition. 

  Likewise, the UN Censorship Alliance announced limitations of use of the Security Council stakeout as media workspace, which is how new media coverage of the Council is possible, conversing with diplomats going in and out while writing a series of short pieces about a range of topics.

  The UN has been told that any removal of the FUNCA sign would be unacceptable censorship, an attempt to ban a new dissenting group or network; after a week of waste, it has been asked to confirm that it will not seek to force the removal of the FUNCA sign while leaving UNCA's up.

   The DPI official responsible for much of this, promoting the ban on dissent both below and above himself in DPI, now follows FUNCA (after previously blocking Inner City Press). What will come of this? Watch this site.

With UN in Decay, Its Department of Public Information Focuses on Trying to Ban Dissent, Make 1-Party System for UN Censorship Alliance

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 17 -- The UN is in decay, poised to accept a listed child soldier recruiter as a troop contributing country in Mali, working with mass rapist Army units in the Congo. 

  In UN headquarters, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's is trying to make it more difficult to cover these issues -- it is banning the press and public from the General Assembly; it has said the media can't work or write with any continuity in front of the Security Council.

And when the new Free UN Coalition for Access protests both of these reductions in access, the reaction of the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison unit has been to try to order the take-down of any sign of the Free UN Coalition for Access.

 MALU and some in DPI are seeking to maintain a one-party system for UNCA -- now, the UN Censorship Alliance -- which has not protested these reductions. In fact, UNCA lobbied for and signed on to rules banning the press and media workspace from the Security Council, and trying to outlaw any sign but its own.

  Here's what the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit sent to Inner City Press at 6 pm on Friday, June 14: Dear Matthew, Following our conversation today, the posting of notices policy does apply to the FUNCA sign... I am afraid you will have to take the sign down."

  Then, after Inner City Press spent hours raising the issue higher in the Department of Public Information and it was indicated that it was solved, and that there would be some response on the other issues raised: access to the General Assembly and even simple compliance with MALU's commitment to put the promised phones in the focus rooms. 

  Nevertheless on the morning of Monday, June 17 while Inner City Press was trying to cover the Security Council's meeting on Children and Armed Conflict -- without a table to type on, electrical outlet too plug into or even functioning wi-fi -- MALU returned with this: 

"We are trying to apply the posting of signs policy to all... UNCA has its sign outside the space that has been assigned to that organization."

Why the UN gives a big space for private meetings by agroup that tries to get other media thrown out of the UN is another question. But here is the rule, recently promulgated by DPI and by UNCA, including its 2013 president Pamela Falk ofCBS and first vice president Louis Charbonneau of Reuters:

"Signs posted on doors are limited to entry restrictions – for example, 'do not disturb' or 'on air.' DPI will provide a name-plate for each accredited media organization."

UNCA is not a media organization -- far from it. Watch this site.