UNITED NATIONS,
March 15 – One side of the
controversy surrounding the UN
Committee on Non-Governmental
Organization will be presented
on March 16 in the clubhouse
the UN gives to the UN
Censorship Alliance, complete
with CPJ, UN official Andrew
Gilmore and Human Rights
Watch, which earlier this
month told Inner City Press it
does not view the crackdown in
Cameroon as top-90 human
rights issue and therefore
left the country, along with
Togo and Gabon, out of the
2018 "World" Report. The side
not be presented is the NGO
Committee admitting, and
retaining, groups like the
China Energy Fund Committee,
even after its chief if
indicted for UN bribery, even
after its 100% funding, the
oil company CEFC China Energy,
is taking over by the
government. Instead, the NGO
Committee will - rightly in
some cases - by portrayed as
too stringent, and a UN
official will seemingly give
his opinion on who should be
admitted. We say seemingly,
because this UN official will
be speaking, instead of in the
UN Press Briefing Room or
stakeout, open to all, in the
private club of a group which
urges the eviction of
investigative press (and
accepted funds from one of the
NGOs of convicted UN bribery
Ng Lap Seng, South South News,
and then arranged for Ng to
get a photo with the Secretary
General). It was for pursuing
that story
that Inner City Press sought
to cover an UNCA event in the
UN Press Briefing Room, and
was for that evicted from its
work space, and two years and
counting of restrictions. CJP
did nothing - they use UNCA to
"launch" their reports - just
as CPJ has yet to opine on the
UN's admission
this week to Inner City Press
that it investigates
whistleblowers who leak to the
investigative Press. HRW's UN
lobbying urged the UN
spokesman Stephane Dujarric to
oust Inner City Press, here,
and then falsely
told Google the leaked
complaint to the UN should be
removed from Search as
copyrighted. The result? Inner
City Press WAS evicted, and
its work space assigned to
Egyptian state media Akhbar al
Yom. Here's from the UN
Censorship Alliance's notice:
"details on the upcoming
election and slate of
candidates. The speakers
include: Andrew Gilmour,
Assistant UN Secretary-General
for Human Rights, Louis
Charbonneau, Human Rights
Watch, Robert Mahoney,
Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ)."
Ironically, afterward the UN
Censorship Alliance will put
behind closed doors "Kazuko
Ito, Founder of Human Rights
Now, will be in New York City
to join the CSW 62 along with
Ms. Shiori Ito, a journalist
who broke Japan’s silence
about rape victims for the
first time through her
experience. They will brief"
... the UN Censorship
Alliance. We'll have more on
this. The crackdown in
Cameroon by 36-year government
of Paul Biya was raised in the
March 6 press conference at
the UN on children and armed
conflict, by Inner City Press.
The panelist from Human Rights
Watch, which omitted Cameroon,
Gabon and Togo and some others
from its 2018 "World" report
and then refused to explain
it, was Jo Becker, so Inner
City Press asked about the
omission from HRW's report.
She said that HRW
has to decide where to spend
the resources it receives, and
apparently didn't see Cameroon
as among the 90 countries
meriting a look in their
"World" report, nor Gabon or
Togo. Video here.
To make sure the
question was not
misunderstood, given the
answer, Inner City Press
waited as others from who had
skipped the press conference
came in to ask questions, then
showed Ms. Becker the report.
She said she had understood
the question. (She did not
explain why "Ashley" who
answered for HRW Press never
returned with this answer, nor
put Inner City Press back on
HRW's mailing lists). So who
makes these decisions for
Human Rights Watch?
HRW has refused
to provide any read-outs of
the issues it raises to
Guterres. Guterres is himself
far from transparent. On
February 28 his close
protection ordered Inner City
Press to stop
recording, in a photo op
session in which Guterres
conveyed his "very very warm
regards" to Egypt's Sisi.
Guterres' Secretariat has
assigned Inner City Press'
long time UN work space to a no-show
Sisi state media, Akhbar
al Yom. (HRW's UN lobbying
previous lobbied Guterres'
spokesman to throw Inner City
Press out of the UN, then got
his leaked
complaint to the UN removed
from Google Search by mis-characterizing
it as copyrighted). So what
will happen and be discussed
at 3:330? Watch this site.
When Inner City Press was sent
the link to the 660-page 2018
report by Human Rights Watch,
it turned to the Table of
Contents to read the section
on Cameroon, which it covers
even as the UN, for now to the
highest levels, covers up. But
Cameroon was not there,
between Cambodia and Canada.
Tweeted photo here.
Nor under its French spelling,
Cameroun. Nor the word
Anglophone, much less
Ambazonia. Nor 36-year ruler
Paul Biya. Nor were Togo or
Gabon mentioned, photo here.
Online HRW report, perhaps to
be changed, here.
Inner City Press on the
morning of January 22 asked
HRW's press operation the
following: "Hello. Searching
today the HRW 2018 Report for
Cameroon (as well as Togo and
Gabon, for example), not
finding them in the Table of
Contents (photo attached), nor
word-search. (Seems the two
references to Cameroon,
despite the crackdown there,
are both in the Nigeria
section). Can you please
explain, on deadline? Also,
for future reference, can you
please restore Inner City
Press, at this email address,
to HRW's press email list and
explain the previous deletion?
Finally, does HRW/Ken Roth
intend to meet with UNSG
Guterres in the first half of
2018? What issues would HRW
raise? What issues did HRW
raise in March 2017, and why
did it decline to state any of
them at the time?" The reply,
not a real response, was from
an Ashley without a last name,
promising a response from
"researchers" which, a day
later, has not come: "Hi
Matthew, Thank you for your
email. I’ve sent your request
to our researchers and will
keep you posted. Best,
Ashley." Later on January 22,
Inner City Press wrote again
to hrwpress [at] hrw.org,
"Hello - this morning on the
simple question why Cameroon,
Togo and Gabon are not in the
Table of Contents of HRW's
2018 Report, the reply was
'I’ve sent your request to our
researchers and will keep you
posted.' What is the answer?
Please advise." And...
nothing. In March 2017 after
Ken Roth and three of his
Human Rights Watch UN
lobbyists went to the UN for a
meeting on the 38th floor,
Inner City Press asked Roth
and his lobbyists, including
two former UN correspondents
Louis Charbonneau and Philippe
Bolopion, for a summary of
what HRW had raised. There was
no answer at all. Video
here. It was a typical
UN scene: a group promoting
principles outside of the UN
not pursuing them inside the
UN, in order to maintain
access and perceived
influence. Now having asked
online what it is missing, the
absence not only of Togo but
also Gabon has been noted.
We'll have more on this.
Human
Rights Watch speechifies about
accountability but has said
much less about the UN killing
10,000 Haitians with cholera,
or about the lack of
prosecutions for peacekeepers'
sexual abuse. The UN talks
about the rule of law but does
not abide by it.
HRW was informed in detail of
the UN's lack of due process
for the press - but has done
nothing. In fact, HRW's UN
lobbyist Louis Charbonneau at
least twice tried to get Inner
City Press thrown out of the
UN (see here,
obtained under FOIA),
one time misusing
the US Digital Millennium
Copyright Act to try to cover
up his lobbying of the UN to
get Inner City Press thrown
out, here.
One year
ago, covering the UN
corruption scandals which have
resulted in two sets of
indictments for bribery
involving the UN, Inner City
Press was ordered to leave the
UN Press Briefing Room by then
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane
Dujarric.
Other
correspondents were allowed to
stay in the briefing room,
which Dujarric had "lent"
them. But he insisted that
Inner City Press leave. Video
here.
Inner City
Press asked to see any
paperwork that the event was
closed; none was provided.
Inner City Press stated that
if a single UN Security
official asked it to leave, it
would. Finally one guard came
and said Dujarric wanted it to
leave.
Inner City
Press immediately left,
uploaded the already
live-streamed Periscope video,
and continued digging into the
corruption that's resulted in
the indictment for bribery and
money laundering of Ban
Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki Sang
and nephew Dennis Bahn.
But three
weeks afterward, without a
single conversation or
opportunity to be heard, Ban's
Under Secretary General for
Public Information Cristina
Gallach ordered Inner City
Press to leave the UN, after
ten years, on two hours
notice. Order
here.
This
was enforced, as Inner City
Press worked on its laptop at
the UN Security Council
stakeout, by eight UN Security
officers led by Deputy Chief
McNulty, who tore Inner City
Press accreditation badge off
its chest and said, "Now you
are a trespasser." Audio
here.
Inner City
Press was marched down the
escalator and around the UN
traffic circle, without even
its coat which was up in its
longtime office. It was pushed
out of the gate and its
laptop, in a bag, was thrown
on the sidewalk and damaged.
The next
work day when Inner City Press
arranged for a fellow
journalist to sign it in as a
guest so it could cover the
Security Council, UN Security
official Matthew Sullivan said
it was Banned from UN premises
worldwide. Audio
here.
After three days covering the
UN from the park in front in
the sleet, and articles like
this one, Inner City Press
re-entered with a
"non-resident correspondents"
pass - to which it is still,
more than a year later,
confined.
There has
been no UN opportunity for
appeal or reinstatement. After
having five boxes of Inner
City Press' investigative
files thrown
on the sidewalk in April,
Gallach is giving
its office to an
Egyptian state media Akhbar al
Yom which rarely comes in, a
correspondent Sanaa Youssef
who had yet to ask a single
question.
Her only claim is
that she was once, decades
ago, a president of the United
Nations Correspondents
Association, the group to
which Duajrric "lent" the UN
Press Briefing Room, without
notice or written record, on
January 29, 2016.
Even as the
scope of Ban Ki-moon's
corruption was exposed upon
his return to South Korea, here,
his successor Antonio Guterres
has yet to reverse this year
of censorship and no due
process. On January 6 Dujarric
and Gallach led him on a tour
of... the UN Correspondents
Association, which now wants
him again in their clubhouse.
(More on this to follow.)
On January
27 as Inner City Press moved
to cover Guterres at the UN's
Holocaust event, it was
targeted by UN Security and
told it could not proceed
without a minder, who did not
appear for over 15 minutes.
The
harassment continued through
the day, as Inner City Press
exposed more corruption,
including and the use of
military contingents involved
in war crimes in Herve
Ladsous' UN Peacekeeping.
All of this
must change. This is a scam,
and censorship. This is
hypocrisy at and in the UN. We
will have more on this.
***
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