UNSG
Guterres Excludes Press From Swearing
In Of UNresponsive "Communications"
Chief Smale
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope
UNITED NATIONS,
December 6 – Just
how far into
scandal and
lack of
transparency
today's UN of
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres and
his Deputy
Amina J.
Mohammed has
fallen was on
display on the
morning of December
6. Inner City
Press arrived
at the UN,
through the
tourist
entrance, at
9:15 am for
the 9:45 am
swearing-in of
Guterres'
"Global
Communications"
chief Alison
Smale. But
unlike all
previous such
swearings-in,
including of
Amina Mohammed
before the
UNanswered
rosewood
corruption
scandal she is
in, this one
was Closed
Press. Inner
City Press
could not get
the reason
from Smale or
her Media
Accreditation
unit, which it
informed it
would Periscope
broadcast from
the UN lobby
stakeout
(which Smale's
deputy seems
to believe is
not a
stakeout).
Heading up to
the secret
ceremony were
Atul Khare,
Catherine
Pollard,
Alicia Barcena
and others.
Periscope here.
Is there a new
script for the
swearings-in?
We'll have
more on this.
This as the
Guterres and
his DPI chief
Alison Smale,
set to
belatedly be
sworn in on
December 6,
ignored the
calls of
thousands as
an
environmental
and corruption
matter to
investigate
Amina
Mohammed's
UNanswered
scandal of
mass-signing
certificates
for endangered
rosewood
already
shipped to
China and as a
media freedom
matter to stop
subjecting the
Press which
pursue UN
corruption
stories to
more
restrictions
than other,
some no-show,
outlets. Smale
has been on
the job, or in
the UN, since
September. She
has yet to
respond to
four separate
inquiries
despite in
October saying
she recognized
the need to
show the
courtesy of a
response. (Two
days later her
DPI issued a
new threat to
Inner City
Press'
accreditation).
Guterres has
yet to take
questions on
why his UN
used $1
million from
China Energy
Fund Committee
even after
CEFC chief
Patrick Ho was
indicted for
bribery in the
UN. Amina
Mohammed has
refused to
answer Press
rosewood
questions. Meanwhile
Guterres is
trying to sell
purported
reforms,When
UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres presented his
proposed "Management Reform"
to the UN Fifth (Budget)
Committee on December 4, along
with the usual platitudes
member states asked where the
actual savings were and if
Guterres has worked to get
sufficient UN staff buy-in.
The answer to the former is
don't know; to the latter, no.
On December 5, after Guterres
spokesman Stephane
Dujarric dodged Inner City
Press' questions about the
session, the UN Department of
Public Information's Media
Alert for December 6 did not
provide notice of or access
for Guterres' belated swearing
in of his censor in chief at
DPI, Alison Smale. Photos here.
Inner City Press immediately
wrote to the so-far
UNresponsive Smale and
Guterres, and MALU, with this:
"Hello. The UN MALU Media
Alert for December 6 has just
been e-mailed out at 8:12 pm
and Inner City Press has a
question that it needs
answered: SG Guterres'
schedule for Dec 6 lists the
swearing in of three senior
officials including DPI's
Alison Smale for 9:45 am. But
DPI's Media Alert lists its
first event at 10 am. Until
now, swearings-in of USG have
always been public, open to
independent Press and in the
Media Alert. Was this a
mistake by DPI, or is there
now even less transparency in
this, as in other matters, by
the UN? Inner City Press and
FUNCA need to know now, to
plan arrival at MALU at 9:15
am for the 9:45 am swearing
in. This also informs you, as
Maher Nasser was informed on
the record in August, that the
no-show, no-question Egyptian
state media Akhbar al Yom
assigned Inner City Press'
long time shared work space
S-303 has not come in in
weeks, and has asked a single
question in two years.
Reversal is required." Watch
this site. On December 4 in
the Budget Committee Guterres'
Deputy Secretary General Amina
J. Mohammed, who has refused
for a full month to answer
Press questions about signing
4000 certificates for
endangered rosewood
already exported from Nigeria
and Cameroon to China, wasn't
there. But in the back row was
long-time UN official Alicia
Barcena. Next to Guterres was
Cameroon's Ambassador Tommo
Monthe, now joining Guterres'
Department of Public
Information under Alison Smale
in issuing Press threats
due to coverage. Earlier on
December 4 Guterres' spokesman
had said he had done nothing
for the past two days to look
into, as he'd promised,
threats in Cameroon
by Monthe's boss 35-year ruler
Paul Biya. There's no reform
there, nor in the UN. At an
event later on December 4, UN
staff openly complained about
Guterres' lack of energy, lack
of transparency, lack of
inspiration. Members states
can't be as honest, at least
not with Smale's UNTV
broadcasting, except from a
breakdown in Australia's
microphone, in Conference Room
1. But off-camera amid
corruption scandals and
arrogance, and Press
censorship, the reviews are
getting increasingly negative.
Now Guterres and its seems
Mohammed are set up to be sold
for $1200 on Wall Street on
December 15, even amid these
scandals including China
Energy Fund Committee,
just like Ban Ki-moon was, at
the annual outrage in which
access to Ban was sold to
now-convicted briber Ng Lap
Seng. We'll have more on this.
It was for coverage of this
connection that the UN evicted
and now under Guterres,
Mohammed and Smale still daily
restricts Inner City Press.
We'll have more on this. Back
on November 10 when Guterres
presented his proposed “peace
and security” reform to the
General Assembly in UN
Conference Room 2 on November
9, it was initially going to
be in a closed meeting. Inner
City Press asked about it two
days in a row and, an hour
before the meeting, it was
changed to open “but no UN
webcast.” (But see below).
Then on November 10, when
Guterres and his Deputy Amina
J. Mohammed already then
embroiled in the "Rosewood
Racket" scandal
touching on not only Nigeria
but also Cameroon,
presented their development
reform proposals in ECOSOC,
Inner City Press could only
cover it with a minder. Other
correspondents could go there
freely - but did not. Even
with the minder still required
by the UN Department of Public
Information's Alison Smale,
the UN Security officer in
front of ECOSOC indicated he'd
make sure Inner City Press
remained "minded," even as
tourists wandered freely. This
is censorship. Inside ECOSOC,
questions included what the
role of states would be in
appointing Resident
Coordinators? Ecuador for the
Group of 77 said the process
must be transparent - on a day
the UN canceled its noon
briefing, and did not answer
Inner City Press' e-mailed
questions. Mexico said it
wants ECOSOC to be more of
debate or deliberative body.
The US spoke (briefly) against
duplication and waste. In the
middle of this, Mohammed
tweeted about the Sahel: a
robo-tweet? The duo, set to
leave New York, left with UN
Security and entourage, no
answers. Earlier on November
10 Guterres has gotten even
less transparent. When he left
a media stakeout for which the
day's noon press briefing was
canceled after a mere three
questions, none on Yemen much
less Cameroon, it was not
disclosed where he was going.
Guterres' public schedule did
not list anything after this.
But it emerges Guterres is at
the Lotte Palace Hotel, in the
Villard Ballroom on the second
floor. Previously, Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
has refused to tell Inner City
Press with whom Guterres had a
one on one lunch meeting on
the 38th floor of the UN
before flying off on the
public dime to his home in
Lisbon. But how could this one
not be on his public schedule?
Dujarric, before refusing to
answer any follow up
questions, told Inner City
Press, "The UN70 is a group of
member states and they are
organizing the retreat. It’s
an internal meeting." In the
Lotte Palace, tweeted by at
least six states? On November
9, Inner City Press told the
UN it would Periscope and was
led to the photo booth; there
due to Kafka-esque threats
from the UN, it unilaterally
decided only to broadcast what
Guterres, paid by the global
public, said. It was a
mouthful: Guterres called
Kenya's Ambassador Kamau
“sincerely unfair; as the
meeting was gaveled closed he
turned on his microphone to
tell Djibouti how support to
AMISOM in Somalia would be
effected. Russia raised many
questions; others provided
rote support. Reviews
afterward were mixed. But
Inner City Press remains under
restrictions imposed by the UN
Department of Public
Information 20 months ago for
covering UN corruption. It
raised the issue again to the
head of DPI on November 9;
watch this site. When
Guterres held his pre-General
Assembly week press conference
on September 13, Inner City
Press asked him about reform,
in light of the Ng Lap Seng UN
bribery guilty verdicts
and new reports
of peacekeepers' sexual abuse.
Guterres responded on the
latter, see below. Now a month
later, Guterres is pitching a
reform plan that many do not
understand, and others don't
agree with. Inner City Press
went to cover Guterres'
presentation to the UN's Fifth
(Budget) Committee on October
11, but was quickly told by UN
Security, "No Press." So it
went to the photo booth and
streamed a Periscope video, here.
Guterres sat next to
Cameroon's Ambassador, here.
There were speeches by
Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago
(fresh off its elimination of
the US from the World Cup),
the EU and Australia. Then
Guterres left, before the US
spoke. There was nothing else
on his schedule for the day.
We'll have more on this.
Here's a sample Guterres
"reform" proposal: "A Standing
Principals’ Group of Under
Secretaries General (USGs) and
the EOSG, to provide
leadership for all strategic,
political and operational
functions and ensure a
coherent 'whole-of-pillar'
approach... Interaction with
the global operational support
and management departments
would be facilitated at the
level of the Standing
Principals’ Group as well as
through dedicated capacity
within the Departments at the
strategic and operational
levels, including within the
integrated operational team
[IOT] concept." Sources close
to Guterres exclusively
complain to Inner City Press
this is little more than
"Lacroix' DPKO trying to grab
the IOTs." They point to the
lame duck status of Jeffrey
Feltman at the Department of
Political Affairs as leading
to DPA "losing the turf war
with Peacekeeping." Meanwhile,
the sources say, there is
increasing frustration on the
UN's 38th floor at the
"message" not getting out,
even talk of hiring outside
communicators, rather than
holding those already getting
paid accountable. The new head
of Global Communcations,
Alison Smale, never responded
to a detailed petition to her
before
the General Assembly week, nor
to one after
the week - nor since (it was
raised to her again on
November 9). Ah,
Communications, f/k/a DPI
which evicted and still
restricts Inner City Press
which every day asks questions
and reports, in favor of
no-show state media like
Egypt's Akhbar al Yom which
has not asked a single
question during Guterres'
tenure. The UN is UNreformed.
From the UN's September 13
transcript: Inner City Press:
Matthew Lee, Inner City Press,
on behalf of the Free UN
Coalition for Access, hoping
for readouts of your
diplomatic merry-go-round
upstairs during the GA
week. I want... you
speak the lot about reforms.
It's something I tried to ask
at the stakeout but thanks for
giving me the question. This
case of John Ashe, who I know
has deceased~-- may he rest in
peace, but there was a court
decision this summer in which
basically it painted a picture
of the UN as being quite
susceptible to bribery. There
was a Chin... a Macau-based
businessman, Ng Lap Seng, was
found guilty. So, I won't go
through it all except to say,
I wanted to know what your
view of whether the UN...
beyond just some reforms to
the PGA's (President of the
General Assembly) office,
whether it has instituted
enough reforms. Your...
your... the former PGA
yesterday sitting here said
that there are crows picking
around the side of the UN.
There are a lot of business
interests... basically, they
try to buy their way into the
UN by hooking up with a small
state. So, I wanted to
know whether your reforms will
address that. And there's also
a Code Blue report out today
about sexual abuse where they
say that, of cases they've
uncovered, many of them are
not disclosed in the conduct
and discipline website. What's
your plan during this GA week
to try to address the sexual
abuse issue of peacekeeping?
Secretary-General: Well,
in addition to the sexual
abuse, as you know, we have
taken already a number of
measures. A global victims
advocate was appointed, and
four victims advocates were
appointed in the four
situations that are more
dramatic in several African
contexts. We are
preparing a compact to be
signed with Member States in
order to make sure that there
is effective commitment in
relation to this. I'm creating
a circle of leadership with
Heads of Government and State
to assume engagement of states
in making sure that everything
is investigated properly. And
so, we are really committed to
make the best we can in this
area, knowing the difficulties
and the problems and sometimes
even the... especially, my
main concern is with the
victims that sometimes have an
enormous problem in coming
with their cases because of
the risks that they might face
in different conditions with
the community or even with the
country or even if the UN
Mission is not properly
organised. So, we are deeply
committed to that. But
the best protection in
relation to abuses is the
whistleblower policy
protection. We have introduced
a first group of measures to
enhance the whistleblower
protection when I assumed
functions immediately in
January. So, it's probably my
first measure. And after
that, we have introduced a
number of other reforms, which
I believe are bringing our
whistleblower protection
policy to the state of the
art. And if that's not the
case, if there are other
things to be suggested, we are
ready to introduce them,
because that is the best
guarantee that people can
detect and denounce things
that happen and that they will
be protected if they do so.
This is, for me, an absolute
must and the best possible
guarantee an organisation can
have in relation to the risks
of abuse of power or abuses of
any other kind or of
corruption or whatever.
So this is a big concern for
me, and I think we are acting
as we can but with total
determination to address the
problem." We'll have more on
this.
***
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