| UN of Guterres Blocks From
UN Website IP of Inner City Press After UNCA
Says Do Not Leak
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Video
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
UN GATE, Sept 24
– While the United Nations
speaks about press freedom and
the upcoming UN General
Assembly week under new
President Zolkan Bozkir of
Turkey, UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres has banned
Inner City Press amid its
questions about his finances
and failures on Cameroon and
in combatting or even just
disclosing UN sexual
abuse.
Complicit in all
this is the UN Correspondents
Association.
On
September 17, Guterres'
spokesman Staphane Dujarric
was publicly asked about
Guterres' ban on Inner City
Press, and said "Mr. Lee's
status remains uncharged.
Video here.
But then
something changed. On
September 19 and still as of
this writing on September 20,
the IP address Inner City
Press uses was blocked from
the UN's website. Video here.
The UN sites worked when
checked from another's laptop.
So can the UN use public money
to block Internet access to
their "transparency" page by
media which ask and criticize
them about it?
Certainly
the UN Censorship Alliance /
UNCA will not try to stop the
UN's descent under Guterres.
On
September 23, the UNCA
Executive Committee of
Reuters, France 24, Xinhua,
AFP and others -- list of
those most responsible for
this censorship of Press here
-- issued this, forwarded to
Inner City Press by several of
their disgusted members: "Dear
colleagues, The
UNCA Executive Committee
deplores the situation that
transpired in reference to the
email from U.N. spokesman
Stephane Dujarric on the
background briefing by
Assistant Secretary-General
Volker Turk on the
Secretary-General’s upcoming
speeches that was sent last
Friday. This
behavior directly compromises
the work of colleagues who
respect and abide by the code
of conduct outlined in the
media guidelines when
receiving accreditation as a
United Nations Correspondent
and will inevitably affect
access to such briefings for
all of us moving
forward. We
strongly advise that all
colleagues reporting at the
United Nations continue to
conduct themselves in a
professional manner and adhere
to the ethical standards and
the code of conduct as
expected. Thank
you for your attention and
cooperation. On
behalf of the UNCA Executive
Committee, Valeria
Robecco President, United
Nations Correspondents
Association."
[Note: This seems
to obliquely refer to this
video
Let's
review: first this UN
Censorship Alliance tried to
suck up to Guterres by
supporting the ouster of
independent Press. Then when
some of their members, as they
should, leaked - UNCA
supported blocking Press
access to the UN's websites.
This organization is a
travesty.
Also: Inner City
Press deals with and respects
embargoes all the time - at
the IMF, State Department, in
the courts. But even
organizations with lame
representatives on the UNCA
board agree, when one is not
party to an embargo agreement,
one is not bound. UNCA has
supported ouster of media that
actually covers the UN, in
favor of retirees and state
media. UNCA is anti-press,
anti press freedom.
On September 20,
as Guterres' UN blocks Inner
City Press not only on Twitter
but from its publicly funded
websites, a strange message
from UNCA bigwig Ali Barada of
whom we've previously reported
" Ali Barada of
An-Nahar, filed a
complaint against Inner City
Press with the "Special
Investigations Unit" of the UN
Department of Safety and
Security.
The only basis? What Inner
City Press said when Barada
bragged that he immediately
deleted without opening Inner
City Press' email requesting
to see the "information
available on request" listed
in the report Barada signed
off on - and which was then
sent anonymously to the
government against Inner City
Press. In
fact, while all Inner City
Press responded with was a run
of the mill host country
insult, Barada cited his
involvement with a "terrorist"
group, as a reason Inner City
Press shouldn't express its
opinion. Update: And on
Friday, July 6, Inner City
Press had to spend two and a
half hours with UN Security
responding to Barada's
frivolous and pretextual
complaint."
There's been more since
- watch this site.
Watch this site.
Brenden Varma,
for PGA Bozkir, has refused to
answer Inner City Press'
questions about his
backsliding on the one reform
from the UN corruption scandal
Inner City Press reported on,
often exclusively, about PGAs
Ashe and Kutesa; Bozkir has an
empty
"Ethics" page.
Varma then
blocked Inner City Press on
Twitter. This is today's UN -
we'll have more on this issue.
Inner City Press should be
given the codes to access
and ask questions at briefings
immediately, like the state
media and retirees Guterres
and Melissa Fleming prefer and
favor.
***
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