UNITED NATIONS,
June 27 – UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, or whoever
runs his Twitter accounts,
this week tweeted a photograph
of Palestinian children and
kites. Then it was deleted and
replaced with a tweet with
nearly identical text but
without kites. Inner City
Press on June 27 asked
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, after he had said he
had specifically excluded
Inner City Press from the UN's
background briefing about its
now controversial
counter-terrorism conference,
about the deleted tweet, and
who runs the account. From the
UN transcript:
Inner City Press: António
Guterres deleted a tweet, he
had a tweet
about Israel-Palestine, which
included a photograph of kites
and that he then took it town
and replaced it with a
similar…
Spokesman: There was a
photo that was not the right
photo that was used, so we
deleted it and changed the
photo.
Inner City Press: Who runs his
account? Who actually
does the tweeting?
Spokesman: "It's run out
of his office." By whom?
Katrin Hett? Miguel Graca?
Alison Smale? As to why
Guterres' guards ousted Inner
City Press from the UN during
an event Guterres spoke at,
Dujarric said to ask Smale's
Department of Public
Information. But she has not
responded to five separate
detailed messages and
petitions. This is today's UN.
Five UN Security officers, led
by UN Lieutenant Ronald E.
Dobbins, pushed Inner City
Press' reporter out of the UN
on June 22. Inner City Press
was live-streaming Periscope
and preparing to write about
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' claims about his
visit to Mali, where he didn't
even inquire into a recent
case child rape by a UN
Peacekeeper. With the event
still ongoing, Inner City
Press was approached by
Lieutenant Dobbins and told
that since it was just past 7
pm it had to leave the
building. Video here.
That is not
the rule, nor the practice.
But Inner City Press under
Guterres and his head of
Global Communications Alison
Smale has inexplicable been at
the "non-resident
correspondent" level lowered
from that of no-show state
media like Akbhar al Yom's
Sanaa Youssef, assigned Inner
City Press' long time office
despite rarely coming in and
not asking a question in ten
years.
While
Guterres and Smale have
created and encourage the
atmosphere for targeting the
Press, Dobbins had and has his
own reasons. Inner City Press
previously exclusively
reported on fraudulent
promotions in the UN
Department of Safety and
Security, beginning of series
here
with a leaked document
with Dobbins own name on it,
under the heading "Possible
Promotions... if Dobbins does
not want Canine / ERU."
Document here.
Since the publication, Dobbins
and a number of UN Security
officers have openly targeted
Inner City Press. This has
been raised in writing to
Smale (for eight months), for
almost 18 months to Guterres
and his deputy Amina J.
Mohammed, whose response has
been to evade questions on
Cameroon and now an ambiguous
smile while surrounded by UN
Security. On June 25 Inner
City Press asked Guterres'
Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq
about it, video here,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press:
on Friday there was the Eid
event in which António
Guterres gave a speech, and I…
I want… I guess I want to put
this in a general way because
I don't understand it.
During the event, as the event
went on, I was required to
leave by a Lieutenant Dobbins
and the emergency response
unit. And it seemed
strange, because there were
many other non-resident
correspondents at the
event. So, I wanted to
know… to know, one, what are
the rules? Number two,
is it acceptable for a… a… UN
Security to… to single out and
target a specific
journalist? And I did…
and I ask this because I've
previously written a story
about promotions in DSS
[Department of Safety and
Security], including Mr.
Dobbins, and whatever that is,
what are the provisions in the
UN to make sure that security
cannot abuse its powers?
So those are… I… I… I'd like
you to answer that, and also
they didn't give their
names. The other
individuals refused to give
their names. Is that UN
policy?
Deputy Spokesman: UN
Security has their
policies. Your concerns
with them need to be addressed
to UN Security. I'm not
going to comment on your own
problems with UN
Security. Brenden, come
on up.
Inner
City Press: I
don't understand. This
happened at a speech by the
Secretary-General.
Deputy Spokesman: No,
I'm sorry, your security
issues are things you're going
to have to deal with.
Inner City Press: It's not a
security issue. It was
done in the name of the
Secretary-General. Is he
speaking tomorrow at 6 p.m.
somewhere? Can you say where
the Secretary-General is
speaking tomorrow at 6 p.m.?
Deputy Spokesman: I’m
not going to argue with you on
this." There was more - video
here.
Even if Lt
Dobbins and his team and
commanders wanted to interpret
and twist the existing rules
in a way they are not enforced
against any other non-resident
correspondent at the UN, the
Guterres Eid al -Fitr event
listed in the UN Department of
Public Information was still
ongoing, making it
unquestionable that Inner City
Press had a right to be in the
UN and cover it.
But
even as Inner City Press
dialed DPI's Media
Accreditation and Liaison
Unit, getting only voice mail,
Dobbins made a call and UN
“Emergency Response Unit”
officers arrived, with barely
concealed automatic weapons.
One of them repeatedly pushed
Inner City Press' reporter in
the back, forcing him through
the General Assembly lobby
toward the exit. Video here.
UN
Under Secretary General
Catherine Pollard was told the
ouster and did nothing, as was
a Moroccan diplomat. The
heavily armed UN Security
officers refused to give their
names when asked. Lieutenant
Dobbins, with no name plate on
his uniform, refused to spell
his name. He said, I have my
orders. From who - Guterres?
His Deputy SG or chief of
staff, both of whom were at
the event? DSS chief Drennan?
DPI chief Alison Smale?
Inner City Press repeatedly
asked to be able to get its
laptop computer, which was
upstairs - there was no way to
have known it would be ousted
during Guterres' event.
But
Dobbins and the others
refused, as did the UN
Security officers at the gate.
Inner City Press remained
there, with dwindling cell
phone battery, raising the
issue online to Smale, under
whose watch Inner City Press
has remained in the
non-resident correspondent
status it was reduced to for
pursuing the Ng Lp Seng UN
bribery case into the UN press
briefing room where Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
ordered it out, then had it
evicted. A DPI representative,
whom Inner City Press asked to
call Smale, was unable or
unwilling to even let Inner
City Press go in escorted to
get its laptop.
Just
in the past week, when Inner
City Press complained of
Dujarric providing only to Al
Jazeera the response of
Antonio Guterres to the US
leaving the UN Human Rights
Council, Dujarric and the Al
Jazeera trio claimed
to MALU that the coverage was
“too aggressive.” Journalism
is not a crime? Next week,
Antonio Guterres is set to
give remarks, to which Inner
City Press has requested the
right to cover response, to
the UN Correspondents
Association, which not only
has not acted on this
censorship, but has fueled it.
Inside the
UN the Eid event continued,
alongside a liquor fueled
barbeque thrown by UN
Security. This DSS sold
tickets to non resident
correspondents, and allowed in
people who had nothing to do
with the UN, including some
seeming underage. When Inner
City Press audibly raised the
issue to UN Safety and
Security Service chief Mick
Brown, he did nothing.
The
Moroccan diplomat emerged and
chided Inner City Press for
even telling him of the
ouster, claiming that “25% of
what you write is about
Morocco.” Some Periscope video
here.
Pakistan's Permanent
Representative, who hosted the
Eid event, said she would look
into it. Sweden's spokesperson
asked whom to call in DPI and
when Inner City Press said,
Alison Smale, responded, Who
is Alison Smale? Indeed.
Smale has
refused to respond in any way,
in the eight months she has
been Guterres' “Global
Communications” chief, to a
5000 signature petition to
restore Inner City Press to
its unused office S-303 and to
adopt content neutral media
access rules going forward.
That, and appropriate action
on Lt. Dobbins and the others,
must be among the next steps.
Watch this site.
***
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