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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A, NY Post

UNITED NATIONS GATE, Oct 31 – Inner City Press on 5 July 2018 was banned from entering the UN, the day after it filed a criminal complaint against UN Security for physically removing it from covering the meeting about the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' $6.7 billion peacekeeping budget, as witnessed and essentially cheered on by senior UN official Christian Saunders, tearing its reporter's shirt, painfully and intentionally twisting his arm and slamming shut and damaging his laptop. On August 17, Guterres' Department of Global Communication issued a letter banning Inner City Press from the UN - for life. With no due process. Guterres has put the UN in the US Press Freedom Tracker, here. Smale said, again, that the UN would answer Press questions to the Spokesman Stephane Dujarric and his Office; Dujarric said the same on camera. On October 30 more than two hours before what would have been a noon briefing by Spokesman Stephane "French Whine" Dujarric except he is again missing, handing it to Farhan Haq who had *thanked* Honduras, and ended on Oct 31 before 12:17 pm after the July 26 noon briefing had no questions at all, video here, Inner City Press submitted 1316 questions, including why it continues to be lawlessly banned from entering to ask questions in person: "There are more than 800+ questions UNanswered. And Monday Sept 17, Tuesday Sept 18, Wed Sept 19 and  Thurs and Fri Sept 21, that whole week, no questions answered. Nor Sept 25, nor 28th - nor October 2 nor 3. While appreciating and using what was belatedly sent on Sept 6 (while you still withhold if-asked information about Cameroon child rape(s) in DRC),  and on March 28 in partial request to Inner City Press' questions about the UN bribery sentence of Patrick Ho of CEFC and CEFC's 2018 attempt to buy the oil company of Gulbenkian Foundation which paid the SG, no answers on Dec 17 or 18 or 19 or 20 or 21 - another FIVE days in a row, even as SG's direct conflicts of interest and failure to disclose emerge, and a newest low. No answers on January 30 nor 31 nor February 1 nor 4 nor 5 nor 6 nor 7 nor 11 nor 12 nor 13 nor 14 nor 15 nor 18 nor 19 nor 20 nor 21 nor 22 nor 25 nor 26 nor 27 nor March 1 - 27 (!) And now April 1, 3-30 (one answer in the entire month - corrupt), and now May 1-13, 15-17, 21-31, June 3-28, and July 1-2, 8-31 and August 1-5, 8-30, Sept 3-5, 9-30 and now October 1-3, 7-14, 16-30 many questions. No answers at all during those four days of the US v Ho trial showing corruption in the UN says it all. This ban is just censorship - and Inner City Press must be allowed back into the noon briefing to ask its questions in person and follow up on them.

October 31-1: Please explain SG Guterres' delay in replacing Mr. Kohler on Western Sahara, and respond to yesterday's statement criticizing Guterres' leniency on Moroccan restrictions on MINURSO. 

October 31-2: On Burundi, is SG Guterres going to replace Kafando? 

October 31-3 On UN corruption, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on the filing now in the US Court of Appeals for the 2d Circuit that UN briber Patrick Ho entered the UN on, inter alia, 10/9/2014, 11/14-7/2014, 12/5/2014, 3/4-9/2015, 4/21/2015, 3/3/2016, 3/28-30/2016, 4/20-27/2016 and state when UN money launderer Carlos Garcia has entered the UN - and as entirely UNanswered from yesterday, on the request for leniency filed Oct 29 with SDNY court by UN briber Francis Lorenzo, with a letter of support from the UN Mission of the Dominican Republic, a UNSC member? Why has Guterres maintained a false online financial disclosure covering 2016 not listing money he took from Gulbenkian Foundation which tried to sell its oil company to UN briber CEFC China Energy? 

October 31-4: On South Sudan, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that South Sudan's opposition leader Riek Machar has called for a six-month delay in the formation of a unity government, accusing President Salva Kiir of "lacking the goodwill" to implement the agreed peace deal.

October 31-5: On Honduras, narco-corruption and SG Guterres' meeting last month with President Juan Orlando Hernandez and previous four person panel, on which you have refused all of Inner City Press' questions while on October 29 thanking JOH's government for $50,000 - what assurances do the UN have this is not from the $1 million JOH was shown to have taken from narco trafficking El Chapo? - what are the comments and actions of Guterres on the video taped killing of Nery Orlando López a/k/a Magdaleno Meza Fúnez, whose notebooks were used to convict Presidential brother Tony Hernandez in the SDNY court this month? Now Reinero Valle has, as Madgaleno had before his assassination, asked to be moved out of that El Pozo prison due to threats to silence him as a witness, so far without response to his lawyer Nazario Luque? Again, immediately provide the report / read-out of Guterres' four person panel sent to Honduras, and complete read out of his meeting with JOH.    

October 31-6: What is the SG's comment on - and explanation of his UN's irrelevance on - that Ethiopia has agreed to US-led mediation for talks to resolve differences with Egypt over the construction of the Grand Renaissance Dam. 

October 31-7: On Tanzania and freedom of expression, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that popular Tanzanian comedian Idris Sultan is being held at a police station in the main city, Dar es Salaam, after sharing photos of a face swap between him and President John Magfuli, his lawyer and family say.  He was summoned to the police station on Wednesday and has not returned.

October 29-1: On UN sexual exploitation and abuse - alleged - this is a request that you immediately provide the "if asked" information about the case of  child rape and sexual exploitation by UN "peacekeepers" from Cameroon and South Africa the UN cursorily disclosed on the afternoon of October 28 - about which Inner City Press did not this time immediately ask, given that each of you have refused for one week and counting to answer in any way with if-asked information about the child rape and sexual exploitation cases involving Indonesia, Mauritania and again Cameroon, in DRC and Central African Republic cursorily data dumped onto the UN website after 3 pm on October 21. Requesting again that you immediately provide the "granular" information that was promised at the noon briefing to correspondents who barely ask or publish about this topic. What is being done for the victims? Also, again, what is Guterres' answer, which you refused to provide after banned Inner City Press asked you and others in writing on the morning of August 19 that you "immediately provide all if-asked and additional information about the new allegation of SEA announced of child rape by a Cameroonian "peacekeeper" in DR Congo, and why this has been left so long UNanswered - and also why previously published charges are no longer in the data to which UN Peacekeeping Conduct and Discipline points, including what if being done for these victims and any steps taken to avoid this constant repetition of abuse despite the SG's ostensible commitments. Again, are new allegations being buried elsewhere on the data page? Inner City Press is asking in writing because banned from the noon briefings and any follow up questions, now for more than a year. On August 24 Inner City Press re-applied for admission to cover the UNGA high level week; on August 30 it was summarily rejected, with no or only Kafka-esque reasoning. This week, as before none of Inner City Press' written questions, including on Honduras and Cameroon, have been answered. This is a request that you immediately confirm receipt of these questions and requests. 

October 28-2: On Cameroon, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres and separately of his representative Allegra Baiocchi on that the Minister Delegate at the Ministry of External Relations in charge of Cooperation with the Commonwealth, Felix Mbayu has told the United Nations that the just ended Major National Dialogue convened by President Biya to seek lasting solutions to the Anglophone crisis was the first and the last of its kind. Felix Mbayu was speaking Thursday October 24 in Yaounde on the occasion of the commemoration of the 74th edition of the United Nations Day.  Before a host of Statesmen, the Resident Coordinator of the UN system in Cameroon, Allegra Baiocchi, and heads of UN Agencies, Minister Felix Mbayu pontificated that the Grand Historical event that brought together Cameroonians of all works of life was one of the efforts made by President Biya to ensure things come back to normalcy and none of such will be held again. 

September 4-8: Immediately explain the single lawless line from MALU on 30 August 2019: "Greetings Matthew Lee from Inner City Press, Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M5413398, has been declined for the following reason: Media accreditation was withdrawn on 17 August 2018." This is a formal request for the UN's explanation of grounds for this denial. And a demand for answer to these questions, which MALU has declined to answer:  Who made the decision?  Where is the list of those accredited by [MALU]?  What and to whom is the process of appeal? 

September 3-19: On press freedom and Cameroon, on which you refused to answer on August 13 despite saying the office was staffed and answering, now more specific: what is the SG's comment and action if any, post golden statue, to that Paul Atanga Nji, territorial administration minister, says Cameroon's journalists are becoming highly unpatriotic.  "They have one main objective, just to sabotage government action, to promote secessionist tendencies," said Nji. "I urge them to be responsible. Those who do not want to respect the laws will be booked as being recalcitrant and will be treated as such"... Now that the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled against public officials blocking critics on Twitter even if the official claims their account is private, what is the justification for UNSG Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, with the UN flag in his profile photo and Guterres promoting content, blocking Inner City Press? What is SG Guterres' response / reaction to UN DSS and Guterres' actions on Inner City Press being listed in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, here.  In the UN, what has the accountability been for Lt Ronald E. Dobbins and those those refused on camera to give their names? What is each of yours - particularly the SG's - response to the letter written and sent by Burundi activist Manisha Lievin? Immediately explain the single lawless line from MALU on 30 August 2019: "Greetings Matthew Lee from Inner City Press, Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M5413398, has been declined for the following reason: Media accreditation was withdrawn on 17 August 2018." This is a formal request for the UN's explanation of grounds for this denied, and since SGcentral, the SG's chief of staff and Deputy SG and USG Fleming have not even responded... AGAIN, immediately explain how it is legitimate to ban from enter into the UN the media that has been asking about these and other questions, with no hearing or appeal - and respond that Inner City Press on August 24 applied like 100s or 1000s of others to cover the upcoming UNGA high level week, including now formally offering to answer any quesions the UN / DSS might have, having been vetted and accredited elsewhere since, as both USG DSS Michaud and MALU have formally been timely informed -- and how it is possible that a media that closely covers and uncovers the UN could be denied entry, other than (SG) censorship.

May 15-3: On the Public Financial Disclosures for 2017 belatedly published over the weekend of April 27-28, please state why Mohammed Ibn Chambas, like the Executive Secretary of the UN Biodiversity Convention, Cristiana Paşca-Palmer, UNICEF's Henriette Fore, with documented links to ExxonMobil and others, USG Mark Lowcock (undisclosed while the Secretariat's speaker at the UNSC Arria on Cameroon), UNCTAD's Mukhisa Kituyi, UN Women's Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UNOG chief Michael Moller, UNDP chief Achim Steiner,  Heidi Mendoza, Adama Dieng, UN Security chief Peter Drennan, Rosemary DiCarlo and Nicholas Haysum, is not even on the list. OIOS chief Inga-Britt Ahlenius reported - why not Mendoza? Where IS Mendoza? Isn't it a bad practice for the UN's head (anti) genocide definition official to conceal from the public even cursory financial disclosure? Did DiCarlo decline to make any public disclosure despite being the UN's top political officer? What is the even plausible applicability of this line from SG Guterres' web page: "Please note that given the multi-cultural environment of the UN and the often security sensitive locations where UN staff are either working or come from, full public disclosure may not always be a viable or sensible option for certain staff members"? Why has Guterres changed the previous system in a which a "choosing not to disclose" statement was upload and listed, to one which helps conceal who reports and who does not?  Again, state why considering the UN bribery conviction of Patrick Ho of CEFC, and CEFC's attempt to purchase the oil company of Gulbenkian Foundation which paid Mr. Guterres in 2016 was omitted from his online public financial disclosure covering 2016, and why Guterres has not even started an audit of CEFC in the UN. 

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