By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag
SDNY / UN GATE, June 3 – At today's UN, everything is corrupted. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who omitted from his financial disclosure his link to convicted UN briber CEFC China Energy, threw out and bans the Press which asked about it.
His head of media accreditation Melissa Fleming, and his UN Correspondents Association, have refused to answer a polite letter about this censorship from the pro bono law firm Quinn Emanuel. Video here.
Now while complicit in banning investigative Press from the UN, the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) and its holdover Valeria Robecco of ANSA News Agency brag about its resident correspondent members being able to sleep in "their" taxpayer funded offices after hours and on the weekends: "Dear colleagues, As you may have followed Wednesday's noon briefing announcement, UN Security has lifted restrictions on media access to UNHQ during the weekend and after hours. This is a great outcome considering all of your concerns and pushback. UNCA has been very committed to this issue and have been following up with MALU and the Spokesperson's office to ensure that these infringements be addressed. Please be advised that if you need to bring in non-resident correspondents during after hours and weekends, you will still have to go through MALU as you did in the past. Thank you for your attention and enjoy your weekend. Valeria Robecco President, United Nations Correspondents Association."
How can a "Correspondents Association" refuse to answer a polite letter from a major law firm about why they support UN censorship? We'll have more on this.
This is the Executive Committee on UNCA which can't even answer a law firm letter about their role in UN censorship:
Those in receipt of the first, friendly letter: melissa.fleming@un.org, marialuiza.viotti@un.org, mekel@un.org, malu@un.org, and UNCA
Valeria Robecco, ANSA News Agency, Nabil Abi Saab, Al-Araby, Jianguo Ma, Xinhua News Agency, Edith Lederer, Associated, Giampaolo Pioli, Quotidiano, Linda Fasulo, Ibtisam Azem, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Ali Barada, France 24, Asharq Al-Awsat; Oscar Bolanos, OMB News, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, SABC South Africa - Alexander Hassanein, The Tokyo Shimbun, Maria Khrenova, TASS, Philippe Rater, Agence France-Presse, Kaori Yoshida, Nikkei, Betul Yuruk, Anadolu Agency at president@unca.com, valeria.robecco@gmail.com, nabisaab@gmail.com, mjg222888@gmail.com, elederer@ap.org, giampioli@aol.com, lindafasulo@gmail.com, ibtisam.azem@alaraby.co.uk, abarada@hotmail.com, ombyvozque@gmail.com, s.brycepease@gmail.com, alexander@tokyoshimbun.us, khrenova_m@tass.ru, philippe.rater@afp.com, kaori.yoshida@nex.nikkei.com, byuruk@aa.com.tr
Three of the 15 are from French media, two from Italy, with various dictatorships represented.
Once-newly "elected" is Carrie Neuton of Le Monde, with 32 votes. She is now responsible for the UNCA board's lack of response to a law firm's letter about their / her role in censorship.
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