On
Ecuador US Pence Speaks With
Lenin Moreno As Country Heads
GA Press Still Banned
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive, CJR Letter
PFT, Video
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, September 20 – After Inner
City Press was roughed up by UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' Security on June
22 and July
3, 2018 but before
Guterres' Global Communicator
Alison Smale without any hearing
purported to make it a lifetime
ban on August 17, Inner City
Press wrote
to Miroslav Lajcak as now-gone
President of the General
Assembly, whose term ended on
September 17. Lajcak turned over
the gavel to María Fernanda
Espinosa Garcés of Ecuador, with
whose president the US Vice
President Mike Pence spoke on
September 20, with this
read-out: "Vice President Mike
Pence spoke by phone today with
Ecuadorian President Lenin
Moreno to discuss the positive
bilateral relationship between
the United States and Ecuador.
The two leaders recognized
significant progress made in
multiple areas since the Vice
President visited in June,
including security cooperation
and counternarcotics efforts,
which have already resulted in
the seizure of tons of illicit
drugs. The two leaders also
discussed regional efforts to
resolve the devastating crisis
in Venezuela, and the Vice
President commended President
Moreno for recent steps Ecuador
has taken to further isolate the
Maduro regime and support
democracy and human rights in
Venezuela. Vice President Pence
expressed support for Ecuador’s
economic reform agenda, noting
important progress already
underway to cut spending and
promote transparency, and
encouraged a continuation of
this effort." On September 17
the new PGA afterward did
a press stakeout - with Inner
City Press banned. While Smale
cited concerns of diplomats,
Guterres' spokesman Dujarric who
on August 28 said the ban was
based on creating a hostile
environment for diplomats on
September 17 said it was all
Guterres' Secretariat with "no
inputs from any member states."
We'll see - and we'll be writing
to María Fernanda Espinosa
Garcés. She has already been
asked, video here
with a speech of hers that Inner
City Press was able to
live-stream on Periscope, now
banned from UN. The UN is not
Guterres', Smale's and
Dujarric's kingdom of
censorship. At the stakeout by
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés,
no fault (yet) of hers, two of
the first three questions were
from Voice of America. That's
not appropriate. María
Fernanda
Espinosa
Garcés
unveiled an
acronym DARE,
on which we'll
have more, and
called the GA
the parliament
of humanity.
So will the
Press be
barred from
the upcoming
level week,
under
ever-shifting
justifications
of censorship?
We'll see.
Lajack's spokesman Brenden
Varma, always more responsive
than Guterres' Stephane
Dujarric, replied that "I
discussed your letter with the
PGA. Please know that he is
personally sympathetic to your
situation. He also continues to
strongly believe that the UN
should be as transparent as
possible and that journalists
should be able to do their work
without hindrance.” But nothing
was done - Lajcak, the head of
the world's legislature, claimed
he had to defer to Guterres and
Smale, even after their
conflicts of interest were
shown. In the case of Smale,
there is a threshold
issue - she has not even
made the UN's bare bones public
financial disclosure, until
other officials like Natalia
Gherman who started after her.
Lajcak has made his one-page
disclosure public today on his
last day: "Assets:
• Residential property, Slovakia
Profits from the sale of
personal property:
Nil
Stock options:
• Nil
Liabilities:
• Mortgage, Tatra Banka,
Slovakia
Loan, State Housing Development
Fund, Slovakia
Other activities:
Legal representative of the
Ministry of Foreign and European
Affairs of the Slovak Republic
at Diplomatic Corps Service,
Slovakia (as part of official
duties as Minister of Foreign
and European Affairs)
Miroslav Lajcák President of the
72nd session of the General
Assembly
Date:17 September 2018." We'll
have more on this. Lajcak is a
nice enough guy, but something
is wrong with a UN system where
no due process banning of an
investigative journalist can
take place with blatant
conflicts of interest and the
person ostensibly in charge of
the world's parliament say he
can do nothing, and does
nothing, banning coverage of
UNGA73. The new PGA's
spokesperson is to be Monica
Grayley. Watch this site.
***
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