| After UN Evicted ICP, Moved in
Egyptian State Media CPJ Had Criticized, But
Not Now, Scam
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Series,
Video, Reply
UNITED NATIONS,
March 23 – After
the UN evicted
and
restricted me, up
on the second
floor, even
after 10 am,
the glass door
to the
Security
Council was
locked. I
started
filming
Periscope when
the GA
President's
spokesman
approached.
Not me but two
women ten feet
in front of me
I hadn't even
noticed.“He's
recording you,
you know,” he
told them
loudly.
“I'm filming
my exclusion
from the
Security
Council,” I
told him. “But
you're
recording
them.” “You're
doing a great
job,” I told
him. “A great
job of
censorship.”
The UN
guard came
over. “Is
there a
problem?” he
asked. He was
speaking to
Dan, not me.
“Would you
like to file a
complaint
again him?” he
asked Dan.
“Go ahead and
do it,” I said
loudly, still
filming. Dan
walked away.
Another
complaint in
my file, I
figured. It
was only
getting worse.
Still
to the noon
briefing I
asked about
GG-UNSDG, I
asked why Ban
had been
present at the
vanity press
book launch of
John Ashe's
wife. Dujarric
didn't like
that one. An
hour later
Luiz told me:
they were
moving someone
into the
office, into
my desk. How?
“Egyptians,”
Luiz said. “I
haven't met
them yet.”
I went
straight to
Media
Accreditation.
So is it true?
I asked. Is it
true my office
being given
out? It's not
YOUR office, they
said. To
who? I asked.
Then, “To
whom?”
“Akhbar
El Yom,” they
said. “I don't
think you know
them.” “So how
can they
get an
office?” I
went upstairs
to write it,
and in the
Googling found
that Akhbar
Elyom is
Egytpian state
media, which
fingers other
journalists in
Cairo for
arrest by
Sisi's forces.
It turned out
the Committee
to Protect
Journalists,
whose Rob
Mahoney then
Joel Simon had
refused to do
anything about
my case, had
criticized
Akhbar
Elyom.
What a circus
of hypocrisy:
that's how I
wrote it. But
would it help?
***
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