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, Dec 17 – 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 Dec 17 after Guterres again refused to answer but the IMF did answer, here (3 Dec 2020), like here, before an amateur UN noon briefing by quarantine violator Stephane "French Whine" Dujarric, previously the face of UN lies on cholera in Haiti, Inner City Press submitted to deputy Farhan Haq and tther  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? July 16 and ouster here, July 17 raw and UNTV... August 11 briefing and quarantine violations, Nov 23 here (with those allowed in obsessed by Antony Blinken and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, whom we too will cover, and did even before nomination, here), Nov 24 here, Nov 25 here, Dec 1 here, Dec 7 here, Dec 8 here, Dec 11 here, Dec 14 here, Dec 15 here, Dec 16 here, Dec 17 here, Inner City Press asked:

Dec 17-1: Immediately respond to (as you have to date refused to) and explain this leaked audio, exclusively published by Inner City Press, of OIOS' Ben Swanson here 

On Kenya and Somalia, on which you have refused to answer or acknowledge Inner City Press' written questions, now what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that the Somali government has suspended operations of its embassy in neighbouring Kenya.  It has also ordered its diplomats and immigration officials in Kenya to return to Mogadishu in five days.  This comes two days after it cut diplomatic relations with Kenya, accusing it of meddling in its internal affairs. It also ordered Kenyan diplomats in Mogadishu to leave.   

Given that the UN Dispute Tribunal purported to order Inner City Press to destroy evidence of sexual wrongdoing inside the UN, by UN staff, please immediately explain how a media subject to such an order is purportedly banned from appealing it, or having any opportunity to be heard on "contempt"?  How is today's UN not a mockery of press freedom?

On Ghana, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that police in Ghana have used water cannon to disperse opposition supporters who are contesting the result of the recent presidential election.

 On appointing Ban Ki-moon's son in law as SG Guterres' rep to China, what nepotism (and Sri Lanka war crimes allegations) review was done? 

On the UNDT, how does the SG justify punishing Kennedy for an unrelated publication in Inner City Press, and why is it referred to in the Order as "confidential information was published by [a private online blog that has no association with the United Nations (“the Blog”)] the next day” ? 

On Malawi, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that police in Malawi's eastern city of Zomba have arrested a commissioner of the electoral body for not giving way to a presidential convoy.   

How can it be that, given the impending lockdown for COVID in NY, and the situation in Germany, that SG Guterres is flying there, instead of speaking by Zoom? When is SG Guterres scheduled to return to NY? Will he be going to Lisbon? Is that, as some surmise, the goal of the ill-considered / bad example trip? Specfically, where will SG Guterres go between Germany (Dec 18) and UK (January - when?) Who is paying? Also, UN staff have been told since 2013 not to use FFM earned from UN official travel for personal travel. What does the SG do with his?

On Kenya and Somaliland (and Somalia) what are the comment and actions if any of SG Guterres on that Kenya will open a consulate in the breakaway state of Somaliland by the end of March while Somaliland will upgrade the status of its liaison office in Kenya to that of a consulate.

AGAIN, does USG Fleming openly support and is "relieved" by the police shooting on Dec 13 of a "deranged" man from The Bronx in her neighborhoods around 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue? See here Also, explain why Fleming, as head of DCG and MALU, has not responded or explained the ban on entry of Inner City Press, even by WebEx which IMF takes its questions over?  What are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that  the Saudi authorities are holding hundreds of mostly Ethiopian migrant workers in appalling conditions

On UNIFIL, has the UN gotten its equipment back? What equipment was it? What are SG Guterres' comments and actions if any on the report that "A mob seized equipment from a UNIFIL convoy in south Lebanon after blocking its route, the UN peacekeeping force said Saturday...  The convoy was able to leave the village after the army intervened, “although the equipment was not returned to the peacekeepers,” the statement added." 

What are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that police in Uganda have arrested Nigerian musician Stanley Omah Didia, popularly known as Omah Lay, for holding an unauthorised concert on Saturday night in the capital, Kampala.  They also say they have arrested a second Nigerian musician, Temilade Openiyi, better known as Tems...

AGAIN: On UN sexual exploitation and abuse - alleged - this is a request that you immediately provide the "if asked" information about the caseso f  child rape and sexual exploitation by UN "peacekeepers" from Uruguay, Ethiopia, Senegal and Benin and again Cameroon, in DRC and Central African Republic just cursorily data dumped onto the UN website on December 10 (Human Rights Day and that you immediately provide the "granular" information that was promised today at noon to correspondents who barely ask or publish about this topic. What is being done for the victims?

AGAIN on SG Guterres' climate and UN claims, what are his comments and actions if any on the GEF-funded UNDP project in Uzbekistan which was warned that financial information provided by the UNDP was not reliable and “must be questioned”.

On Honduras, and on deadline, what are the UN's comments on and explanation of a narco-plane downed in Barro de Patuca with the sign "UN Environment" on it? Again, what was the read out of Guterres' 4-person panel sent to Honduras to back up narco-President JOH?

On UN corruption, what was ever done about how UN staffer Kyoko Shiotani's husband John van Rosendaal was given the contract for the UN Security Council's website?

On SG son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres, explain how the business of Explorer Investments has been reviewed for conflicts of interest. Explain immediately how Pedro Guterres doing business with Rwanda while Antonio Guterres was UNSG was and is not a conflict, and what was disclosed and to whom. 

On Western Sahara and Morocco what are the comments and actions of any of SG Guterres and separately the UN Mission and non existent Personl Envoy on that "On Monday, November 16, 12-year-old Hayat, born 10/8/2008, was arrested while attending classes at the Al-Nahda school in occupied El Aaiun and taken to the Moroccan security headquarters, where she was subjected to torture

On deadline what is the SG's (and separately OIOS') position on the impending promotion of Lily Neyestani-Hailu in UNESCO? 

What are the comments and actions of SG Guterres on that Mr. Karkara at UN Women sent porn from his UN computer and harassed interns? Again, that happened in the UNDT processing Nov 3 of Padula, and why was Inner City Press blocked from covering it? What is Guterres' comment on UN staffer Elkorany, with a proceeding today in SDNY? Why is Guterres covering up, and why is Inner City Press still banned, even by WebEx on which the IMF allows it to ask questions?

Immediately state what the follow up has been on this and other cases below left murky in the OIOS report  "An investigation revealed that a staff member at the Office of the 69th President of the General Assembly had been involved in a range of activities that included diversion of funds, misuse of assets and self-dealing in the discharge of duties. The staff member had used their position to advance their personal interests and those of third parties, received undeclared gifts, solicited funds that were diverted to unofficial accounts and engaged in unauthorized outside activities. OIOS transmitted its findings to the Office of Human Resources for appropriate action and to the Office of Legal Affairs for possible referral to national authorities."  Inner City Press reported on this, and it's now in the Uganda press, the Monitor etc 

On Cameroon, please immediately provide SG Guterres' comments and actions if any on that Maurice Kamto has been held under house arrest for three weeks now.   Given your failure to answer that, now on deadline comment on the retriation / refoulement to Cameroon (airport shut for this) of asylum seekers and refugees and what the UN is doing to ensure no torture or worse.

On SG Guterres' Oct 12 request / demand for $3 billion amid global cutbacks, explain this line: $1.9 million to deliver a new global communications strategy for the United Nations." How much is being contributed by IDEA and Pierre Omidyar, as you have refused to answer so far? How would this money be spend and how does it relate to USG Fleming's ongoing ban on Inner City Press? 

On Spokesman Dujarric's Oct 9 statement that SG Guterres left New York TWO times during the pandemic, other than the belatedly disclosed one resulting in two weeks faux quanantine with maskless men and Secretary Pompeo visit, when was the other one? Was it too follow by two weeks in the "Residence"? Where was it disclosed?

Given that not only Cunillera but Michael Antoine are being paid by UNTSO after the #UNsexploitation exclusively exposed by Inner City Press, why have you not only refused all of Inner City Press' questions but also failure to update your now inaccurate statements about leave WITHOUT pay? 

On UN staffer Karim Elkorany, indicted in SDNY for lying to FBI about drugging and raping women while working for UN in Iraq, immediately state what the outcome of the victim complaining to the UN was - and why Elkorany was back at liberty in New Jersey.

AGAIN - immediately explain UN Amir Dossal being 1 of 5 on board of Ghislaine Maxwell's Terramar Project, and what has been done about it.

 Immediately provide the if-asked information on the new SEA charged data dumped this morning about allegations against South Africa "peacekeeper" in DRC and Gabon "peacekeeper" in CAR, and -- As Inner City Press asked each of you on August 17 without answer, re new 2020 UN child rape in South Sudan case data dumped on the afternoon of August 17 - immediately provide all if-asked info of the type previously provided under Ban Ki-moon before SG Guterres tried to cover everything up,  and August 5, 9 am by Italy in Lebanon, South Africa in DRC and an UNSPECIFIED UN civilian CHILD RAPE in DR Congo of July 28 of Gabon in CAR and Guinea in DRC, on top of those of July 23, 6 pm that you immediately provide all if-asked / further information about the new UN sexual exploitation allegations in CAR against UN "peacekeeper" from Gabon, and in DRC by South Africa, on top of unanswered UNTSO driver question and those data dumped on June 4 after 2:30 pm - the twelfth batch this summer so far, no answers, UNSG complicit

On Honduras and COVID corruption by the Juan Orlando Hernandez administration, what are the comment and actions if any of SG Guterres on the corruption allegations here? And again, what is the read out of Guterres' panel sent to Honduras? 

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 834+ days. What is the appeals process? On deadline."  

***

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