By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
UN GATE, Feb 1 – Who is the UN Security Council President now, for February? Russia. Inner City Press asked for access to the February 1 Program of Work press conference. Nothing.
Inner City Press live tweeted, thread here:
Even as of 1:12 pm Feb 1, the most recent UNSC "Program of Work" on the UN's website is from January, that of Norway's Mona Juul , a month of failure and coups and censorship. And February? First question goes to UN Censorship Alliance, UNCA
Next handpicked question: Qatar state media. Also nothing on the #GenocideGames of Guterres - perhaps not surprising, since Qatar bought the next FIFA World Cup despite rampant abuse of migrant labor.
Next: Corporate wire, essentially high-frequency trading platform with news now behind a platform, asks if Lavrov will deign to come to NY this month. No. (But look who's going to the #GenocideGames in Beijing)
Next: France 24 correspondent is allowed to Zoom (or WebEx) in from home with ponderous question. So Inner City Press could easily have been given access to this presser, as it has at IMF - it's a choice, the UN is a place of censorship for dictators (like Guterres)
Next is another WebExed in question, on Afghanistan. Nebenzia says he didn't understand most of the question, but "I have answers... We urge Taliban to fight terrorism and drug trafficking." Could by 1980 all over again. #OlympicBoycotts
February's UNSC "Program of Work" is still not up on the UN's website - fail - but Inner City Press is tweeting this screen shot of it - ironically, while all Presidencies including US includes "Letters of Ukraine and Russia" as footnote, Russia doesn't.
Now the Program of Work press conference Inner City Press was banned from is over. There were no questions about the countries in Africa off which the UN of Guterres makes most of the money that it wastes
Inner City Press wrote to the Mission, whose spokesman has been (but was not, at the February 1 event) Fedor Strzhizhovskiy: "This is a timely request that you send Inner City Press the pass code(s) to access your Mission's UNSC Presidency press briefings on February 1 and on every other day of February. I have questions to ask on what you will do this month about the conflicts in Afghanistan, Sudan, Myanmar, Cameroon, Haiti, Nigeria, Yemen and Libya, etc. Inner City Press is asking to be provided with access / the passwords to your Mission's stakeouts and press conferences this month as UNSC President - including on issues of UN(SC) compliance with NYC COVID-19 rules. As president of the UNSC you have a duty to respond to media of and in the host city. As I hear that you may be moving the Council more and more fully back into its Chamber, either way I would also like to ask you to instruct MALU / USG-DGC Fleming to allow me to enter to cover it, for Inner City Press. I should be allowed to put question to your Mission as UNSC President - this is a formal request that you take steps to allow and not block on, by the morning of February 1. Be aware that I for Inner City Press am invited to ask questions by the IMF at its briefings (see, e.g., IMF answers Inner City Press questions on Guinea, Ukraine (Bitcoin, El Salvador) & Venezuela, IMF video)
We will be covering this month, censored or not, in detail.
Inner City Press covered the UN and UNSC under Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon then was thrown out under Antonio Guterres after asking him directly about [among other things including Cameroon,] the omission from his financial disclosure covering 2016 of his link, through Lisbon's Gulbenkian Foundation which paid him money, to convicted UN briber CEFC China Energy.
This was and is a legitimate journalistic question however Inner City Press has been banned by Guterres and his USG Melissa Fleming.
There is no commitment by the UN Secretariat to even respond to a polite law firm letter seeking access to Inner City Press, see video. See also Press Freedom Tracker and The Independent (UK)
Inner City Press is permitted (in fact, invited) to put WebEx questions to the IMF briefings, see below, and is accredited at the SDNY Federal court here in New York.
Watch this site.
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