UN
Correspondents Association
Award Paid For By UNAOC Inner
City Press Asks UN of
Safeguards None
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY
Post
UNITED NATIONS,
November 8 – Today's UN and
its partners are well versed
in hypocrisy - but sometimes
things go so far they must be
noted in advance. On December
5 in an expensive catering
hall near the UN, Secretary
General Antonio Guterres who
this summer had investigative
Inner City Press roughed
up, ousted
and banned
ever since will appear in a
tuxedo as a guest of honor -
of the UN Censorship Alliance.
The tickets are expensive and
the guest list is secret.
Previously this group,
formally the United Nations
Correspondents Association,
took money from now convicted
UN briber Ng Lap Seng and then
provide Ng a photo op with the
Secretary General. Who will be
paying this year?
What we
can report is that the UN
Correspondents Association's
prize for broadcast media is
sponsored - that is, paid for
- by the UN Alliance of
Civilizations, the same group
which in May 2018 canceled an
event in order to censor
testimony about Egypt, Turkey
and others. Photo here.
Inner City Press (video of the
type used as a pretext to oust
it here),
and even then how self
servingly UNCA, along with
CNN's Brian
Selter and others,
expressed
outrage.
Now UNCA
is taking their money, just
as they took Ng Lap Seng's
money then lobbied to get
Inner City Press which
reported on it ousted from
the UN.
So on the
morning of November 8, banned
from the UN noon briefing for
the 127th day by Antonio
Guterres - but according to
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
at the request of at least
some bigwigs in UNCA, the UN's
Censorship Alliance, Inner
City Press submitted written
questions to Guterres, his
Deputy Amina J. Mohammad, his
Global Communicator Alison
Smale and two spokesmen
including: "November 8-5: It
appears that the “UN Alliance
of Civilizations” is
sponsoring an award at an
event the SG is slated to
attend on December 5. Please
state whether any UN money is
being used to sponsor this
award, and what safeguards are
in place such that access to
or photos with the SG are not
exchanged for money as
presumptively took place with
regard to now incarcerated UN
briber Ng Lap Seng." More than
six hours later, not a single
answer to any of the
questions, despite Smale's
promise to UN Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of
Expression David Kaye that
questions would be answered.
There's more
sleaze, back in the news
again: after the Sri Lanka
government of Mahinda
Rajapaksa and Palitha Kohona,
and military figure turned UN
adviser Shavendra Silva
slaughtered tens of thousands
of Tamil civilians, UNCA gave
what was called a “UN
screening” to their war crimes
denial film Lies Agreed To.
The decision was made, without
consulting then UNCA board
members like the author, by
UNCA President Giampaolo
Pioli. Who is organizing this
year's tuxedo sleaze fest with
UNAOC? Giampaoli Pioli, and
his handpicked successor.
We'll have more on this.
***
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