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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Sept 15 – In the run-up to a no-vaccination, honor-system UN General Assembly week starting September 21, Inner City Press on September 13 applied to the United Nations for access to ask questions about public health, UN corruption Cameroon, Haiti and other issues. Receipt of the application was acknowledged on September 15, below.
"I am writing to you ten days before the UN General Assembly high level week as a journalist who after covering the United Nations for Inner City Press for ten years was roughed up and thrown out of the UN as I covered its Fifth (Budget) Committee on 3 July 2018 and have been denied all access since. There was no due process, no right to appeal, nothing. The Department's and MALU's lack of any content neutral accreditation rules, rule process including appeal rights for jouranlists, must also be addressed.
To limit access to the UN and even to its virtual briefing to the few "resident correspondents," many of them essentially retired, many state media, and keeping out Inner City Press is pure censorship. Inner City Press should immediately be provided with access codes, and access to UNHQ and in person briefings and stakeouts again. I should now be granted accreditation like hundreds of correspondents who publish far fewer stories about the UN and international affairs than I do. I ask for your immediate response.
For the upcoming UNGA High Level Week, I noticed that as of September 11, 2021 the MALU site says / claims: "[a]ccess will be limited to accredited media representatives who have an office at the UN Headquarters (resident correspondents) and the official media of visiting delegations."
1) Since Inner City Press only doesn't have its office due to censorship, this should not be a bar.
2) I have seen "non resident" correspondents in the Briefing Room, so Inner City Press should be given access.
3) Without in any way conceding it would be sufficient, I should be provided WebEx access to noon briefings and all UNGA week events immediately - I have such access at the IMF, and have similar posed questions to, among others, U.S. Rep Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
It is particularly outrageous that while the UN holds in NYC what some call a super-spreader event, NYC-based Inner City Press is being barred and its questions not answered. You and others including but not limited to USG Fleming have been written to on my behalf by the Quinn Emanuel law firm, no response yet despite confirmation of receipt, see here."
On September 14 before the UN noon briefing it was banned from it asked Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, DGC chief Melissa Fleming and others for their response. Nothing.
On September 15 past 8 pm, this:
"From: malu Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2021 at 8:02 PM Subject: Your U.N. eAccreditation Request has been RECEIVED Greetings Matthew Lee, This is to confirm the United Nations Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit (M.A.L.U.) at New York Headquarters has received your request for accreditation. Upon processing, a notification email (to the email address registered with the requestwill provide the status update, to confirm an approval or rejection, and any additional information which may be required. If you have not received a transmission from us within two working days, you may contact our office(s) With kind regards, Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit."
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