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By Matthew Russell Lee, Video, 7/20, CJR, Fox

UNITED NATIONS GATE, September 12 – After the abuses by Cameroon's security forces have been ignored by the UN, as Inner City Press has repeatedly asked about them until being banned from the UN on July 3 and since, new leaked videos show summary executions and manhandling of prisoners. The Mission of the UK, which speaks a lot about human rights but whose Ambassador Karen Pierce on July 20, eleven days before she took over Presidency of the UN Security Council, entirely ignored Press questions about Cameroon and the UN's banning of Inner City Press, video here, on the morning of July 16 told Inner City Press, "Hi Matthew, Thanks for your email – I will get back to you on your request on Cameroon shortly." When they did, with a canned statement from London (where, tellingly, Liam Fox had bragged about UK-based New Age's gas deal with the Biya government), there was no mention of Pierce having spoken to a group of Cameroon ministers on July 11. But that's what Pierce said in response to a cherry-picked Cameroon question in a Twitter Q&A on July 31. It turns out that came after Biya hired Squire Patton Boggs as a lobbyist; now the UN is telling people that British Under Secretary General Alison Smale's lifetime ban on Inner City Press is supported or based on the request of the UK Mission, which refuses to answer if that is the case or not. (Video here - retaliation?). Now on September 12, belatedly, the UK Information Commissioner's Office has asked for answers from the UK Mission and FCO: "12th September 2018
Case Reference Number FS50771047
Dear Mr Lee
I am writing with regard to the complaint you have submitted to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) handling of your information request.
Your complaint has now been allocated to me for consideration and I will be your point of contact for any queries you may have about our handling of your case.
Where possible the ICO prefers complaints to be resolved by informal means.  If this does not prove to be possible we will usually issue a decision notice to you and the public authority once an investigation has been completed.  This will inform you of our decision and the reasons for it.
Where the ICO decides that a request has not been handled properly we may specify what steps we believe are necessary to remedy the situation.  This can include requiring a public authority to release information which has previously been withheld.  A copy of the decision notice will be placed on our website (with your details omitted).  If you disagree with the decision that has been reached you have a legal right of appeal to the First Tier Tribunal (Information Rights).
The request
I understand that you submitted the following request to the FCO on 15 August 2017:
‘This is request under the UK Freedom of Information act for the following records as that term is defined in FOI, including but not limited to all electronic records, emails, text/SMS message and communications in any form, involving the UKMission to the UN in New York since January 1, 2017 regarding Cameroon and/or Southern Cameroons, or Burundi or Western Sahara; since June 1, 2017 regarding Libya or Yemen (on which the UK holds the pen in the UN Security Council), and regarding UN reform including the UN bribery case US v. Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe, if any.
This request specifically includes all records related to briefings given by the UK Mission to the UN to members of the major international media (and any mentions of that term), as that information cannot legitimately by made public to some but not to the public. Given the situations in Yemen, Libya and South Cameroons, I and Inner City Press asked for expedited processes of this request: faster than the 20 working days provided for.
Please send the requested information as it become available to this email address. If a physical / regular mail address is needed, please send to Dag Hammarskjold Center, Box 20047, NY NY 10017, USA.’

The FCO responded on the same day and explained that as drafted the request was too broad would exceed the appropriate cost limit and therefore invited you to refine the request.
 
You responded on the same day and explained that you were content to limit the request ‘to Yemen and/or Cameroon’.
 
The FCO acknowledged receipt of this request on 16 August 2017 but subsequently explained that it was still too broad to answer within the cost limit.
 
You responded on 16 August 2017 and further refined your request as follows:
 
‘Noting that Inner City Press' original request, omitting Libya, Burundi and Western Sahara and limited to Yemen and Cameroon, was accepted under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as 0783-17, in order to expedite your response the time frame can be limited to the three months prior to the date of the request (that is, May 15 to August 15, 2017).
 
It includes but is not limited to the UK Mission to the UN's communications regarding the Yemen item on the UN Security Council's agenda, on which the UK is the penholder, the Council's monthly meetings on Yemen, any and all briefings given by the Mission including so-called background briefing (which are not exempt under FOIA), and all electronic communications in that connection.’
 
The FCO contacted you on 13 September 2017 and explained that it held information falling within the scope of this request but it considered this to be exempt from disclosure on the basis of section 27 (international relations) of FOIA and that it needed additional time to consider the balance of the public interest test.
 
The FCO sent similar public interest extension letters on 11 October 2017 and 8 November 2017.
 
The FCO provided you with a substantive response to your request on 5 February 2018.  The response confirmed that the FCO understood your request to be seeking the following information:
 
‘the following records as that term is defined in FOI, including but not limited to all electronic records, emails, text/SMS message and communications in any form, involving the UK Mission to the UN in New York between *May 15 to 15 August 2017 regarding Cameroon and/or Yemen, on which the UK holds the pen in the UN Security Council [additional requests omitted at FCO request.]
 
This request specifically includes all records related to briefings given by the UK Mission to the UN to members of the major international media (and any mentions of that term), as that information cannot legitimately by made public to some but not to the public.’
 
In relation to the first part of the request the FCO explained that it considered the information it held to be exempt from disclosure on the basis of sections 21 (reasonably accessible by other means), 27(1)(a) to (d), 35(1)(a) (formulation or development of government policy) and 40(2) (personal data) of FOIA.  With regard to its reliance on section 21 of FOIA, the FCO directed you to the website https://www.gov.uk/world/uk-mission-to-the-united-nations-new-york In relation to the second part of the request, the FCO explained that the weekly background briefings to selected UN media are given orally and they are not transcribed. Therefore, there are no records of these meetings.
 
You contacted the FCO on 24 March 2018 in order to ask for an internal review of this decision and asked the FCO to consider the following points:

The time to took the FCO to respond to this request;
The FCO’s reliance on the various exemptions cited;
In relation to section 21, you argued that the website in question did not include any information falling within the scope of your request; and
With regard to the second part of the request, even if the briefings were oral, your request covered any written records associated with setting these briefings up and talking points related to them.
 
The FCO informed you of the outcome of the internal review on 24 May 2018.  The internal review concluded that some of the information within the scope of the request could be disclosed and this was provided to you, albeit with redactions.  In relation to the application of section 21, the FCO explained that the material which it considered to be covered by this exemption consisted of Security Council open sessions on Yemen which are reported through the UN’s media channels (eg http://webtv.un.org/) and
UK statements at the UN which are available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/latest?world_locations%5B%5D=uk-mission-to-the-unitednations-new-york In relation to its application of section 27, the FCO explained that section 27(1)(a) was considered to apply because of the risk of prejudicing the UK’s relations with Yemen and Cameroon.  The internal review also upheld the decision to withhold some of the information on the basis of sections 35(1)(a) and 40(2) of FOIA.
 
Nature of complaint and way forward
 
You have complained to the ICO about the FCO’s handling of this request.  I understand that your grounds of complaint effectively mirror the points raised in your request for an internal review, namely:
 
The FCO’s reliance on the various exemptions to withhold information falling within the scope of the request;
The FCO’s failure to provide information falling within the second part of your request, ie information related to the oral briefings; and
The FCO’s delays in responding to the request.
 
I have now contacted the FCO and asked it to provide me with a copy of the withheld information and submissions to support its reliance on the exemptions it has cited.
 
Once I have received a response from the FCO I will contact you again and provide you with an update on the progress of my investigation.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Jonathan Slee
 
Jonathan Slee
Senior Case Officer
Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF." While appreciated, it is important to note that after a full year the FCO and UK Mission did not provide a single document about Cameroon. And there is the question, perhaps of first instance, of retaliation. Watch this site.  Inner City Press' multiple questions on Cameroon and on the UK report on UN and aid worker sex abuse the UN has refused to answer on went unresponded to, just as in reponse to a FOIA request to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office a year ago, while some redacted records about Yemen were belatedly released, nothing was disclosed on Cameroon. The UK Mission refused Inner City Press' written questions, on Yemen and more specifically on Cameroon, whose government's memo about the UK meeting Inner City Press obtained and exclusively published (other questions are pending.) Inner City Press appealed to Information Commissioner's Office the FCO's partial withholding of Yemen information and TOTAL withholding of Cameroon information and on August 13 received this: "13th August 2018, Case Reference Number FS50771047, Dear Mr Lee, Your ref: FOI 0783-17
Your information request to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)
Thank you for your correspondence of 2 August 2018 in which you make a complaint about the above public authority’s handling of your request for information.
Your complaint has been accepted as eligible for further consideration and will be allocated to a case officer. If you wish to send any further documentation please quote the reference number at the top of this letter. This will ensure that the information is added directly to your case."  While to her credit responding with a video to a video from a Rohingya refugee, Pierce also did not answer about UN censorship, profiled today in the Colombia Journalism Review, here. The UK Mission has played its role in this: even before the UN's USG "of the  United Kingdom" Alison Smale evicted Inner City Press, the UK Mission insisted that despite its readership Inner City Press is not "international media" like, say, a Reuters retiree who writes on LinkedIn, and to have denied Inner City Press access to information and brieifings. (In fact, the UK Mission is known to have said to more than one newbie that it would not have any "UNCA critics" in its briefing - talk about the inmates running the asylum). So much for freedom of the press. But in fairness we report that Pierce's priorities are mediation, with the Archbishop of of Canterbury, Burma and Yemen. We'll see - we will try to cover things as best as we can given the circumstances, of censorship.  In mid July Inner City Press informed the UK Mission it was "banned from the UN and UNSC, which this morning meets about Libya, which I cover. I right now am trying to cover that meeting, the Trump Putin presser and then the noon briefing, from just outside the UN's Delegates' Entrance gate on 45th Street. All this for covering the UN Budget Cttee meeting on July 3, by the decision it seems of USG DPI Smale, [on information and belief] a British national, one of the few UK USGs. Additional videos have been coming out in Cameroon, since the New Age deal, and President Biya's announcement he is running yet again. Thanks." But two days later, nothing. Here's what was sent to the UK Mission, and its Political Coordinator and the two spokespeople for Permanent Representative Karen Pierce and Deputy PR Jonathan Allen, four days ago: "Hello - This is a request for your Mission's comment on the human rights abuses by the Cameroon army and security forces, not only in the Anglophone areas (which I have asked about before) but now also in the north, video linked to in Inner City Press, here, as verified by Amnesty International, here.

Given that the Security Council has supported these Cameroonian forces, and as I have asked before given the UK's role in the former British Southern Cameroons, the FCO's denial in full of my FOIA request about Cameroon and Liam Fox's recent statements about UK-based New Age's natural gas contract with the Biya government, this is a request for comment on deadline including on whether your Mission will now seek and/or support a Security Council meeting on these abuses, and if not, why not.

I am asking these questions in writing now because I was banned all week from entering the UN and could not ask them at the Security Council stakeout.

This notifies your Mission, as I did yesterday your Mission's Stephen Hickey (cc-ed here) who kindly stopped to hear of my situation, that I have been banned from the UN since at latest July 5, with no due process. See, The Independent (UK), July 12, 2018, 'UN "roughs up and bans" investigative reporter long considered thorn in side of world body officials, Mr Lee has written about UN in connection to Haiti, Burundi, Sri Lanka and other nations.'" Later on July 18, after publication of the above, came this from the UK Mission: "Hi Matthew, Please find below the answers on your questions on Cameroon.
The Minister for Africa, Harriett Baldwin, issued a statement on Cameroon today:

'Commenting on the recent video circulating in Cameroon of men wearing military-style uniforms executing two women and two children, Minister for Africa Harriett Baldwin said:

The United Kingdom is deeply concerned by the images circulating in Cameroon of the horrific killings of four women and children by perpetrators in military-style clothing, including allegations that those responsible may be members of the Cameroonian armed forces.

I welcome President Biya’s decision to open an urgent investigation. Those responsible must face justice for their appalling actions - there is no justification for these actions.'

We continue to monitor the situation closely and the UK, as all security council members, holds the right to raise this at the security council if deemed appropriate." Inner City Press immediately published and replied, "Thanks for this, have used it. Remain interested and concerned about the other question I asked on July 15." UK Ambassador Pierce, clearly (for now) not. And UK Alison Smale, having banned Inner City Press on false pretenses, has begun a three week vacation running into the UK's month as President of the Security Council. We'll have more on this. On July 17, with Inner City Press still banned from the UN for covering the UN budget (Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II), Antonio Guterres' enovy Mohammed Ibn Chambas blithely told the Security Council, "The demarcation of the Cameroon-Nigeria border and the pillar construction continue to face challenges due to insecurity in areas affected by the presence of Boko Haram and unrest in the English-speaking regions ofCameroon. Nevertheless, pillar construction is expected to resume at the end of the rainy season." What about Biya's killings? Inner City Press is banned from entering and asking Chambas questions when he purports to take then at the UN Security Council stakeout. So it emailed this, to Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, Alison Smale, and the Ambassador, Deputy Ambassador and spokesperson of the Mission of Sweden, president of the Security Council for July: "These are questions Inner City Press would like to ask UNOWAS SRSG Chambas at his stakeout, from which I am banned since covering the UN Budget Committee meeting on July 3 and being roughed up by UN Security despite having a right to cover the meeting:

I understand that Chambas told the Security Council that the demarcation of the Cameroon-Nigeria border and the pillar construction continue to face challenges due to insecurity in areas affected by the presence of Boko Haram and unrest in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. Nevertheless, pillar construction is expected to resume at the end of the rainy season.”

What is the basis of the SRSG's “expectation”? Statements by the government of Paul Biya?

Is the problem in the “English speaking regions” one of unrest, or of targeting killings and the burning and looting of villages by Paul Biya's forces?

What inquiry had Chambas or his colleagues in the UN system made into the fate of the 47 people illegally refouled from Nigeria to Cameroon?

I am sending these questions now and asking that they be put to Chambas at the stakeout, on UNTV, since I am UNjustly banned by the UN, two weeks and counting. Please confirm receipt." Haq wrote back, "Receipt confirmed." But when the stakeout, including Skoog, occurred not only were Inner City Press questions not asked - no one asked any questions. Before Skoog began, a UN staffer was heard to say on the hot mic that Inner City Press "will never be let back in" the UN - despite the claimed "investigation" of Inner City Press being roughed up and ousted while covering a UN Budget Committee meeting it had every right to cover. Smale and Team Guterres have received detailed questions from the Government Accountability Project. Watch this site.

On July 14 Inner City Press wrote to the US Mission: "Dear Ambassador Haley - sorry to bother you with this but as a journalist unjustly banned from the UN for the past week, see also Fox News, here: This is a request for your / USUN's comment on the human rights abuses by the Cameroon army and security forces, not only in the Anglophone areas (which I have asked about before) but now also in the north, video linked to here, as verified by Amnesty International. Given that the Security Council has supported these Cameroonian forces, and given what I understand to have been a meeting in USUN with Aaron Banks and others this past week, which I was invited to cover by the participants who showed me your letter to Rep. Yvette Clark, this is a request for comment on deadline including on whether your Mission will now seek and/or support a Security Council meeting on these abuses, and if not, why not. I am asking these questions in writing now because I was banned all week from entering the UN and could not ask them at the Security Council stakeout. This notifies your Mission that I have been banned from the UN since at latest July 5, with no due process. See, The Independent (UK), July 12, 2018, “UN 'roughs up and bans' investigative reporter long considered thorn in side of world body officials, Mr Lee has written about UN in connection to Haiti, Burundi, Sri Lanka and other nations." With no response from USUN, and disdain from the Political Coordinator and a rueful smile from the Legal Adviser, on July 16 as Inner City Press covered the first of at least two UN bribery cases in the SDNY in Lower Manhattan, from DC this came out: "The United States is gravely concerned over the recent video depicting men wearing military-style uniforms executing two women and two children, one an infant. International media, Amnesty International, and Cameroonian human rights organizations attribute the actions portrayed in the video to the Cameroonian military. We call on the Government of Cameroon to investigate thoroughly and transparently the events depicted in the video, make its findings public, and if Cameroonian military personnel were involved in this atrocity, hold them accountable.

All countries, including Cameroon, must uphold their international and national commitments and obligations to protect the human rights of their residents and promote accountability." We'll have more on this - Secretary Mike Pompeo is expected in New York on Friday, July 20. Shouldn't this censorship be solved by then? Watch this site.  Inner City Press also wrote it the UN Mission of France, Paul Biya's long time supporter and enabler has not. Here's what was sent to them, including through france [at] franceonu.org, more then two days ago: "Dear Ambassador Gueguen,, Ms Bree, others: This is a request for your Mission's comment on the human rights abuses by the Cameroon army and security forces, not only in the Anglophone areas (which I have asked about before) but now also in the north, video linked to here, as verified by Amnesty International, here. Given that the Security Council has supported these Cameroonian forces, and given France's role in Cameroon and the region, this is a request for comment on deadline including on whether your Mission will now seek and/or support a Security Council meeting on these abuses, and if not, why not.

I am asking these questions in writing now because I was banned all week from entering the UN and could not ask them at the Security Council stakeout.

This notifies your Mission that I have been banned from the UN since at latest July 5, with no due process. See, The Independent (UK), July 12, 2018, “UN 'roughs up and bans' investigative reporter long considered thorn in side of world body officials, Mr Lee has written about UN in connection to Haiti, Burundi, Sri Lanka and other nations” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/matthew-lee-un-attacks-reporter-journalist-inner-city-press-a8445081.html." And nothing, despite the French rhetoric about human rights and freedom of the press. We'll have more on this.

On Saturday July 14, after Inner City Press' e-mail inquiry to Swedish Mission personnel including Permanent Representativee Olof B. Skoog and his deputy Carlo Skau, the Mission's spokesperson Lisa Laskaridis proactively replied, "Thank you for your email and concern. We continue to follow the situation in Cameroon very closely, and we are in touch with the U.N. and other partners. We have stressed the importance of national dialogue and the need for the U.N. to have access. I will also contact Ms. Smale" - Alison Smale, the Under Secretary General for Global Communications who has declined to answer Inner City Press' seven e-mails since September 2017 and 5000+ signature petition. We'll have more on this. 

As UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres prepared to hold on July 12 his first press conference in UN Headquarters since January, he so much wanted to avoid questions on his failings like that in Cameroon that he had his UN Security rough up and oust Inner City Press and his bureaucracy ban it from the building.  There was, as picked by Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric (who told The Independent the idea that Inner City Press has been targeted is "ridiculous"), no question about Cameroon. And still no answer to Inner City Press' written question - on the morning of July 11, Inner City Press asked three Guterres spokespeople, his deputy, his chief of staff and his British head of Communications Alison Smale questions including "There is a widely shared video of Cameroonian troops summarily executing civilians, including women and infants. What is Antonio Guterres' response to this?" While providing a cursory answer to a question Inner City Press submitted about the killing of civilians in Haiti - essentially a reference to another organization's position - these six UN officials did not even acknowledge the Cameroon question. And that remains true two days later, so Inner City Press on July 13 asked again: "Two full days ago I asked your Office about the video of Cameroon soldiers executing women and infants. You have still not answered. Now that Amnesty International has verified the video, what has the UN done about it? What will the UN do? Relatedly, what is the UN's comment on “Cameroon's President Paul Biya has announced that he will be a candidate in the 7 October presidential election that would, if he wins, extend his 35-year-rule. Biya tweeted 'I am willing to respond positively to your overwhelming calls. I will stand as your candidate in the upcoming presidential election'" Inner City Press asked other questions, including about its being banned, that Haq has still not answered. On Cameroon, he returned with this pablum: "On Cameroon, we can say the following now: We are aware of the video circulating on social media and welcome the announcement by the Government of Cameroon to open an investigation into the matter. We urge the Government to swiftly and transparently conduct the announced investigation." Wait - UN Security's self-investigation of physically assaulting and ousting Inner City Press from covering the UN Budget Committee meeting on Guterres' proposals is neither swift - it's been ten days, a single sham interview - nor transparent. Inner City Press asked, without answer: "who is responsible for deciding, between 10 pm July 3 when I was assaulted by UN DSS Lt Dobbins and another UNnamed, and 10 am on July 5, that I was and am banned from entering the UN? Who participated in this decision? Your office yesterday told The Independent (UK) that “a review ha[s] been launched into the manner in which Mr Lee had been removed and his future accreditation.” How my accreditation should suffer for having been assaulted by Lt Dobbins and unnamed colleagues, for the second time in 11 days, is a mystery or worse. But please state how it is possible for DSS to investigate itself in this matter. What provisions does the UN have when abuse BY UN Security officers is alleged, and how does it impact for example their New York and other gun permits?" We'll have more on all of this. Guterres lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who will again be hand picking the questions and questioners present at noon on July 12, told another reporter on July 11 that Inner City Press' “status is being reviewed.  My understanding is that he will be having discussions with various parts of this administration, and then we'll keep you updated, and I'm sure he will keep you updated. His credentials and pass have been suspended, pending review." Video here. This is all based on Inner City Press having been unjustly, and increasingly violently, ousted from the UN on June 22 (during a Guterres speech bragging about Mali) and July 3, during consideration of Guterres' budget and reforms, with mixed results. Amnesty International (which recently under counted Anglophone deaths in Cameroon, blocked the Press which asked and has done nothing, despite requests, about the ban) has verified the video: "An investigation by Amnesty International experts has gathered credible evidence that it was Cameroonian soldiers depicted in a video carrying out the horrific extrajudicial executions of two women and two young children. While an investigation has now been announced, the Ministry of Communication earlier dismissed video footage of the killings as “fake news”.

Extensive analysis of the weapons, dialogue and uniforms that feature in the video, paired with digital verification techniques and testimonies taken from the ground, all strongly suggest that the perpetrators of the executions are Cameroonian soldiers....
The video shows the soldiers using Galil and Kalashnikov-style rifles. While AK-type weapons are common, the Galil, the weapon specifically used in the execution, is comparatively rare and distinctive. The Small Arms Survey lists the Galil as only “occasional” in sub-Saharan Africa among governments, and as unknown among non-state actors. The only force in the area carrying Galil’s are a small subset of the Cameroon Army.

Both the weapons and uniforms of the soldiers in the video are indicative of the Cameroon army, and display patterns consistent with a number of possible units, including regular infantry and the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), the special forces of the Cameroonian army.

The person filming the video specifically identifies two members of the group as soldiers. The first is a second-rank soldier (soldat de deuxième grade) who he names as “Cobra”, the second a Master Corporal (caporal chef) who is named as “Tchotcho”. These names mean that the group can be identified.

The Master Corporal’s uniform is a tiger stripe pattern that is standard among Cameroon regular army. The other soldiers are wearing black shirts and green-and-black woodland pants. While the Ministry of Communication claims that the mixed and casual nature of the uniforms indicates a lack of authenticity, Amnesty investigators have found the opposite. Mixed and partial uniforms are common among army personnel, especially in remote areas where this incident took place. Soldiers in the Far North region wearing casual flip flops and T-shirts, as well as a mix of tiger stripe print and woodland print, can be clearly seen in videos previously verified by Amnesty International.

The soldiers are followed by about 10 people whom the sources consulted said are most likely members of the local vigilantes’ committee (because they carry light weapons such as clubs and machetes) from the nearby village. According to Amnesty International’s analysts, the video was likely filmed in the Mayo Tsanaga area in the Far North region of Cameroon. The vegetation is generally consistent and matches other footage from the area. Terrace cultivations, as visible in the video, are found in Mayo Tsanaga. The rocks, the mountains and the low-growing shrubs (locally known as “tchaski”) can also be found in Mayo Tsanaga. There is a military base located in Mozogo in this region." And from the UN, silence and censorship. Since Inner City Press alone has asked Guterres and his spokesman dozens of questions about the killings by Cameroon's government, it seems clear the goal of banning Inner City Press is to avoid those questions. What about the China Energy Fund Committee scandal of UN bribery of Presidents of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa - with whom Guterres still deals - and Vuk Jeremic? No one else asked. And what about Guterres' “Global Service Delivery Mechanism” plan, to fire American UN staff in New York (and others in Geneva), and move the jobs to Mexico City and Budapest, respectively? Guterres the way he and Dujarric and Alison Smale have set it up may get a question about Western Sahara - but it would be from the many Morocco state media to which they give office space and full access. There is a lot of that - watch this site, and @InnerCityPress on Twitter. The UN has banned Inner City Press from entering its campus since July 5, claiming that its Lieutenant Ronald Dobbins targeted ouster of Inner City Press from a speech by Secretary General Antonio Guterres on June 22 then from a meeting about his budget on July 3 were "altercations." Now this ban has been extended  beyond the UN campus to the Pierre Hotel on Fifth Avenue, for a July 10 press conference by the UN affiliated but ostensibly independent World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which as Inner City Press has previously reported helped North Korea with its cyanide patents and retaliated against it staff and media. Inner City Press was e-mailed an invitation on July 2 and replied with an RSVP to cover it. Marshall Hoffman of WIPO's public relations firm Hoffman PR wrote back, "Thanks. We will see at the press conference." After that, Guterres spokesman Farhan Haq was asked why Inner City Press is banned and said it is pending a review of two "altercations" - both of which were improper and unilateral ousters of Inner City Press by UN Security's Dobbins and officers, four of whom refused to give their names. Soon, there was this follow up e-mail from WIPO's flak Marshall Hoffman: "Dear Matthew, It has come to my attention that your accreditation to the UN has been suspended pending an investigation into an incident. Given the suspension, I regret you will not be able to attend the WIPO press conference." This is more than a little strange - the press conference is not explicitly limited to UN accredited journalists, and Inner City Press has not been contacted once by the UN about the review or any suspension, it was only told at the 46th Street gate that its banned for some undefined time. But now also banned from a press conference at a hotel in Manhattan by an agency for which Guterres spokespeople have refused to answer, saying Francis Gurry (who will speak at the Pierre Hotel press conference along with Soumitra Dutta from Cornell University and Bruno Lanvin from INSEAD) has his own governing board? Something stinks here. We'll have more on this - and on this: how untransparent and inaccessible is Antonio Guterres, as UN Secretary General? The day he canceled his first UN Headquarters press conference in six months, he was ironically the guest of honor of the United Nations Correspondents Association. He was scheduled to make remarks at 6 pm - but it was not in the UN Media Alert. Inner City Press, whose RSVP to UNCA was never responded to, streamed the event from the tourists' balcony, edited here. Then Guterres' UN Security guards physically ousted Inner City Press from covering the UN Fifth Committee's July 3 meeting on his proposal to fire UN staff and move the jobs- then on July 5 banned Inner City Press from entering the UN. Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II. While Guterres' UNCA fan club said nothing, others did. Guterres blathered on about how he supported the media in Portugal - dubious - and then cuts a cake for his UN Censorship Alliance. Earlier Inner City Press asked Guterres' lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who previously lent the UN Press Briefing Room to UNCA, if the event was open press but he refused to answer and ran off. Inner City Press asked the spokesman from the President of the General Assembly, who is listed as attended but will not speak, why it is not in the UN Media Alert. The spokesman said to ask UNCA. But UNCA never responded to the RSVP of Inner City Press through the Free UN Coalition for Access. In the middle of the event the claim was that UN correspondents didn't have to RSVP - not what the notice said. The event was not even in the June 26 UN Media Alert. Last week, Dujarric spoonfed sound bytes to a prominent UNCA members and is working with them to try to further restrict Inner City Press, here - Inner City Press was in fact ousted on June 22, video here, story here). The Free UN Coalition for Access questions this and the propriety of this explicit focus by the UN Correspondents Association on the UN's "causes" rather than simply covering the UN as it is; it and corruption are among the reasons Inner City Press quit UNCA (and co-founded FUNCA).

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.

  FUNCA timely sent this: "This is a timely response to your statement that 'The event is open to all UN correspondents, Please RSVP by FRIDAY, June 22nd to RSVPUNCAEvents@gmail.com... Opening Remarks byUN Secretary-General António Guterres, 6:00 pm (LOCATION TBC).' A UN correspondent, by choice not a member of UNCA, is hereby timely requesting to be informed where SG Antonio Guterres will be making remarks, and to cover it. Please confirm receipt and provide response. On deadline, thank you in advance." Five days later on Tuesday June 26, no answer at all. So it is not true, the claim that "the event is open to all correspondents"?

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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