In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT,  Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon IMF
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - CJR - PFT

UN GATE / SDNY COURT, June 30 –  Inner City Press on 5 July 2018 was banned from entering the UN, two day after it was physically removed from conducting interviews outside meeting about the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' $6.7 billion budget.

  Then Guterres' Department of Global Communication, run by Melissa Fleming, issued a letter banning Inner City Press from the UN - for life. With no due process, no right of appeal.  Guterres has put the UN in the US Press Freedom Tracker, here. Guterres' Spokesman Stephane Dujarric falsely promised on camera that he would be answering banned Inner City Press' questions - but see below.

     On June 30 after Guterres again refused to answer but the IMF did answer, here, and before an amateur UN noon briefing by Stephane "French Whine" Dujarric, previously the face of UN lies on cholera in Haiti, Inner City Press submitted yet more questions (blocked by Dujarric's screener Florencia Soto Nino on +1 917 226 7816 and Dujarric himself on +1 917 622 7652; he directed some favored scribes to Eri Kaneko on +1 917 208 8910, who now blocks Inner City Press on WhatsApp as well) including on the basis on which it continues to be lawlessly banned from entering to ask questions in person. Now also on the basis for withholding publicly funded UN video from the Press. There was no answer from Farhan Haq on +1 917 592 4591, not even a confirmation of receipt, and now UN official like Hua Jiang, Eri Kaneko, now on screen Jennifer Confilio, Adam Smook, Marisela Rivera and others to be named taking public money for a UN briefing blocking email questions about the UN's spread of Covid 19 - May 21 Inner City Press video with commentary here and here, edit here, June 16 video of Kaneko who had briefing go dark and never returned to explain here and here -- who will be held accountable? June 17 here, June 19 here, June 22 here, June 24 here, June 30 here, Inner City Press asked:

June 30-1: As I asked each of you in writing on June 23, "This is a formal request for UNSG Guterres' comment and action on the video Inner City Press had just uploaded of UN sexual exploitation in a UN marked vehicle... and why Inner City Press is banned from today's briefing when it requested the code before 7 am - this is censorship and a cover up (here, as of noon June 30 with more than 150,000 views on Twitter, more on other platforms)    relatedly, confirm that the "Luminate" mentioned by USG Fleming on June 29 is Pierre Omidyar's foundation, here    Also immediately confirm or deny this is SG Guterres' son Pedro - important to note any conflicts of interest

As asked before SG Guterres "press" conference - Inner City Press is informed by UN whistleblower is is UNTSO Plate 205 -- WHAT HAS GUTERRES DONE?  On Cameroon, what are SG Guterres' comments and actions if any on the arrests of Anglophone civilians in Yaounde on June 27 and since? 

On Burundi, what are SG Guterres' comments and actions if any on the appointment of Albert Shingiro as foreign minister given his previous statements including on a alias Twitter account? 

On UN bribery what are SG Guterres' comments and actions if any on the US Supreme Court's denial yesterday of UN briber Ng Lap Seng cert petition, thereby rejecting that the McDonnell doctrine applies to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? What has SG Guterres done on those still in the UN implicated in the Ng Lap Seng / South South News corruption (including in the press corps and UNTV) and Patrick Ho? 

On Ethiopia and censorship, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres and separately USG Fleming on the cut off of the Internet in Ethiopia? And on the murder of Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa, who was shot dead on Monday, a symbol for the Oromo people who spoke up about the political and economic marginalisation that they had suffered under consecutive Ethiopian regimes 

as well as on the June 22 admission by Sri Lanka former PR Kohona that his country led a campaign to get Inner City Press ousted and banned from the UN after it reported on mass killings in Sri Lanka, as Inner CIty Press was also doing as to Cameroon when your UN banned it now for 721 day. What is the appeals process? On deadline."  

What are the comments and now required actions by SG Guterres and USG Fleming on the June 22 admission by Sri Lanka's former ambassador to the UN Palitha Kohona, accused of war crimes in connection with the White Flag Killings, that he and his government used the UN and its Correspondents Association to get Inner City Press thrown out? See and now, after Inner City Press' first June 22 request, belatedly respond to this including Kohona stating that "at the UN in New York, a blogger had made it his mission to discredit the Government of Sri Lanka... He was also known to exchange information with diplomats at very important missions, some of whom had excellent sources within Sri Lanka. He was also a useful tool to some to embarrass the former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Subsequently, he began undermining Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.  But we mounted a quiet campaign against him... he fell afoul of the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Giampaolo Pioli, who commenced proceedings to take him to court. Then he began to spar with a number of respected journalists who were beginning to approach us for information on the man. Eventually, full of hot air and empty confidence, he clashed with the Alison Smale, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, who declared that Lee’s “conduct has consistently breached” the UN’s media guidelines and “does not meet the established professional standards required of all correspondents granted access to United Nations premises.” As a result, his accreditation to cover the UN was withdrawn consistent with the terms of the US – UN Head Quarters Agreement (Agreement Between the United Nations and the United States Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, Signed June 26, 1947, and Approved by the General Assembly October 31, 1947). The UN proceeded to evict him from the room that he was occupying and eventually from the UN itself" -- now more than 728 days, by Melissa Fleming, no appeal, no responses -- for alleged war criminal(s).  

On censorship and Egypt what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres and separately USG Fleming on that a prominent Egyptian journalist has been taken to the public prosecutor's office after being detained on Wednesday.  Nora Younis is the editor of Al Manassa news site - it says that no charges have yet been revealed against her as an investigation is launched.  She is the latest independent journalist to face action from the Egyptian authorities in their continuing campaign against critical voices

On UN racism, on deadline state why the UNPAD survey was not sent directly to impacted people, but rather to Department bosses 

On Cameroon, what are the comments and actions of SG Guterres on that Human rights lawyer, Barrister Njong Henry Tita has raised an alarm stating that his life is at stake. The lawyer is said to be getting serious threats against his life from the Cameron military and other state agents

 On UN corruption (and racism), please immediately and on deadline describe the recruitment process for the P4 Political Affairs Officer in the secretariat Branch of SCad and whistleblowers' complaints to Inner City Press that it is destined in advance for Hirofumi Goto  

In Honduras, President JOH talked up hydroxychloroquin - what does SG Guterres say about that, and about JOH named today in narco-trafficking complaint in SDNY against former Honduran National Police Chief Tigre Bonilla? 

***

Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA

Mail: Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2020 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for