In
UN Bachelet Brags of Staff in
Silicon Valley But Silent As
Guterres Bans Press and
Political Activists
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY
Post
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, October 15 – When
UN High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights
Michelle
Bachelet
gave a speech on October 15 in
the UN's Third Committee, she
emphasized a prioritization of
social and economic rights and
said one of the officials of
her office is "on mission in
Silicon Valley" in the
US. There are questions
about this - but Inner City
Press which has covered human
rights and the UN for more
than a decade was for the
first time banned from access
a High Commissioner's speech.
This has been raised repeated
to Bachelet since she took
office but she has so far done
nothing, not even responded.
Meanwhile on October 12
Cameroon, from whose Paul Biya
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres took a golden statue
and favors in the Fifth
(Budget) Committee and remains
silent on the slaughter of
Anglophones, was elected to a
seat on the UN Human Rights
Council. This system is
failing - but if Bachelet
cannot even answer on Guterres
maintaining a secret banned
list including not only Inner
City Press but also "political
activists," then the UN has
hit a new low. For an event in
the UN about human rights,
with speeches by Secretary
General Antonio Guterres and
High Commissioner Michelle
Bachelet, Inner City Press on
September 26 was ordered out
of the waiting line despite
having a ticket. A UN Security
official, a Captain known as
Tiny, told Inner City Press it
is under a ban from
headquarters even though that
has never been conveyed in
writing, much less subject to
any hearing or appeal. Video here. It comes as Inner City
Press is told by sources close
to Guterres that he was and is
so angy at Inner City Press'
anti-corruption questions and
reporting that he is intent
maintaining a life time ban,
even as he blathers about
human rights. His Deputy Amina
J. Mohammad and chief of staff
got along; troublingly, new
Commissioner was written to
but did nothing. Her staff
handed out tickets in chaotic
fashion on 46th Street, to
such insiders as Richard
Dicker of Human Rights Watch
which has done nothing about
the lawless "permanent ban"
list of the UN that HRW loves
so much. But for new
Commissioner Bachelet to be so
quickly corrupted or defanged?
We'll have more on this. On
September 24 for a Financial
Sector Commission on Modern
Slavery and Human Trafficking,
Inner City Press was on
September 24 singled out and
banned, despite having its
RSVP accepted by the Mission
of Liechtstein and even UN
University. Video here.
In the early afternoon of
September 25, Inner City Press
sent this to Antonio Guterres,
and also High Commissioner for
Human Rights Michelle
Bachelet: "Secretary General
Guterres: This follows up on a
telephone call I made to your
chief of staff's (and Deputy
SG's) offices yesterday
afternoon when I was blocked
from attending an event in the
Trusteeship Council Chamber
about launching an Initiative
for a Financial Sector
Commission on Modern Slavery
and Human Trafficking.
I am writing now
because I am intent on
attending, and have a right to
attend other events this week,
for example the human rights
event with HCHR Bachelet on
Wednesday, 26 September, at
1115 am in Conference Room 2,
see below. I have RSVP-ed, and
cc this message to High
Commissioner Bachelet and her
two assistants.
It is unacceptable for the UN
to have an UNdisclosed and
UNexplained "current and
active banned" list with no
due process and no appeal. It
is akin to no-fly lists with
no appeals process. This must
be resolved, in particular for
the September 26 UN "human
rights" event.
I was invited to the modern
slavery event -- I investigate
and report on the misdeeds of
banks, and did so before
I came to the UN to cover it
in 2005 -- and my RSVP was
accepted. I picked up my
ticket at 2:45 pm on 46th
Street, showed it to the
officers on Second and First
Avenues and stood in line at
the Visitors Entrance with
others going to the event.
They all were admitted but I
was singled up and told to
wait by the side. After a time
a Department of Safety and
Security official told me I am
subject to a “current and
active barred notice.”
Since all I have received from
the UN, since being assaulted
by DSS Lieutenant Dobbins and
another on 3 July 2018 as I
staked out the Fifth (Budget)
Committee meetings having been
invited there by several
member states' diplomats in
those final meetings, is an
August 17 letter stating that
my accreditation as a
correspondent is withdrawn, I
asked who is behind this
target “current and active
barred notice.”
The officer would not tell me.
I asked if it is USG Drennan
of DSS, whom I wrote to on 5
August 2018 (“REPORT OF
PROHIBITED CONDUCT
(HARASSMENT, ABUSE OF
AUTHORITY) AND ‘FORMAL
COMPLAINT’ SUBMITTED TO UN
UNDER SECRETARY GENERAL FOR
SAFETY AND SECURITY, MR PETER
DRENNAN, PURSUANT TO
ST/SGB/2008/5.” Receipt of
that was confirmed to me on 8
August 2018 by Elena
Rice-Howell, Special Assistant
to the Under-Secretary-General
of DSS.
But nothing has been done by
DSS, including about my formal
complaint of assault against
Lt Dobbins and his colleagues
who refused to give their
names. This whole sordid
descent into censorship by the
current UN was profiled, along
with SEA, Haiti cholera,
conflicts of interest and
travel cost waste, including
the issue of yours, and
whether and where you
disclosed your son's business
connections, in the New York
Post two days ago, here.
I was told yesterday I
should contact DPI - whose USG
Alison Smale never spoke to me
before withdrawing my
accreditation and has not
answer any of my ten e-mail
nor a petition with more than
5000 signatures urging her to
restore my access, my office
S-303 and stop targeting me as
I report, sometimes
critically, on the UN.
So I called your chief of
staff's (and Deputy SG's)
offices, just as the event I
had RSVP-ed to began, and I am
outraged by the lack of
response. I have written to
each of them this morning,
still no response, even as I
picked up another RSVP ticket.
This should be responded to
immediately. Matthew Russell
Lee, Esq., Inner City Press."
On September 24
the slavery bank event ran
from 3:30 to 5 pm in the UN's
Trusteeship Chamber. Inner
City Prss arrived 45 minutes
early to the NYPD security
checkpoint at 46th Street and
Second Avenue. Its ticket was
accepted by NYPD, it prepared
to audio record the event --
but at the UN Visitors
Entrance a large UN Security
Officer or Capitan nicknamed
Tiny said No, it was his
understanding that Inner City
Press is entirely banned from
the UN, not only as a
journalist. "You have a
current active barred notice
against you," he said. Audio here.
Inner City Press
asked him if this came from
the boss of the Department
Safety and Security Peter
Drennan, who has not responded
to Inner City Press formal
complaint to him that it was
assaulted by UN DSS Lieutenant
Ronald E. Dobbins on July 3.
He said it was not from chief
Michael “Mick” Brown. Who
then? He refused to say. “You
have to call DPI,” he said,
referring to the Department of
Public Information whose chief
Alison Smale has not answered
a single on of Inner City
Press' more than 10 e-mails.
Inner City Press called the
office of Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' chief of
staff Maria Luiz Viotti and
informed them; they said that
she would be told. Hours
later, nothing. Inner City
Press called the office of the
Deputy Secretary General Amina
J. Mohammed, and was told that
the head of office, seemingly
Nelson Muffuh, could or would
do nothing. Then Inner City
Press called the office of
Alison Smale, where a person
named Charlotte said she would
look into and call back. Hours
later, nothing. Audio of Inner
City Press' side of calls, here.
Inner City Press was never
given a hearing by Smale
before her August 17 letter
with withdrew Inner City Press
media accreditation. Nothing
in it said anything about a
ban from entering the UN as a
person, a tourist, or in
another other way. But this is
what happened, without any
recourse. Pure Kafka-esque
censorship, by a former New
York Times Berlin bureau chief
to hinder coverage of the
corruption of the former
Portuguese prime minster
Antonio Guterres, see
September 23 New York Post
here. What next? Watch
this site.
***
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