As Isaacs
Campaigns for
IOM, He's
Slated To
Appear in UN
Censorship
Alliance Club, Not In
Public
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope
I, II,
Photo
UNITED NATIONS,
April 26 – To head the
UN-affiliated International
Organization for Migration
(IOM), the US on February 2
nominated Ken Isaacs of the
group Samaritan's Purse,
active in Sudan and elsewhere.
Inner City Press at the UN had
been pursuing the story it
first exposed of UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres
having recently met Sudan's
Omar al Bashir, indicted for
genocide in Darfur by the
International Criminal Court,
without even notifying the ICC
in advance, as required. So
after the US nomination, Inner
City Press visited Isaac's
Twitter account, to see if
he'd opined on Guterres'
unprecedented move. Isaacs'
Twitter account, @KenIsaacs1,
was accessible to the public;
he had re-tweeted about the
Nunes memo. But by February 3,
the account was protected, not
accessible. Photo here.
And now, as part of a tour
seeking to drum up votes to head
IOM, Isaacs is slated to again
go inaccessible, in the
private club of the UN Censorship
Alliance UNCA, formerly the UN
Correspondents Association, in
early May.
Isaacs would
there 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. And
so we ask, now, what *does*
Isaacs think of Guterres
meeting with Bashir, indicted
for war crimes in Sudan,
without even telling the ICC
in advance, and not disclosing
it until Inner City Press
asked at the UN noon briefing
on January 29? Question here.
Watch this site. Today's UN of
Antonio Guterres, who just met
with ICC indictee Omar al
Bashir, and his Deputy Amina
J. Mohammed who has refused
Press questions
on her rosewood signatures
and now the refoulement of 47
people to Cameroon from "her"
Nigeria, has become a place of
corruption and censorship. On
January 30 as Inner City Press
sought to complete its
reporting for the day on
Guterres' Bashir meeting and
Mohammed's Cameroon no-answer,
it had a problem. It was
invited to the month's UN
Security Council president's
end of presidency reception,
6:30 to 8:30 - but with its
accreditation reduced by
censorship, it could not get
back into the UN after 7 pm,
to the already delayed UN
video. It ran to at least
enter the reception - but the
elevator led to a jammed
packed third floor, diplomats
lined up to shake the outgoing
UNSC president's hand. Inner
City Press turn to turn tail
back to the UN, passing on its
way favored, pro-UN
correspondents under no such
restriction. Periscope here.
Inner City Press has written
about this to the head of the
UN Department of Public
Information Alison
Smale, in Sepember
2017 - no answer but a new threat - and this
month, when Smale's DPI
it handing out full access
passes to no-show state media.
No answer at all: pure
censorship, for corruption.
Smale's DPI diverted funds
allocated for Kiswahili,
her staff say, now saying they
are targeted for retaliation.
This is today's UN. Amid UN
bribery scandals, failures in
countries from Cameroon to
Yemen and declining
transparency, today's UN does
not even pretend to have
content neutral rules about
which media get full access
and which are confined to
minders or escorts to cover
the General Assembly.
Inner City Press,
which while it pursue the
story of Macau-based
businessman Ng Lap Seng's
bribery of President of the
General Assembly John Ashe was
evicted by the UN Department
of Public Information from its
office, is STILL confined to
minders as it pursues the new
UN bribery scandal, of Patrick
Ho and Cheikh Gadio
allegedly bribing President of
the General Assembly Sam
Kutesa, and Chad's Idriss
Deby, for CEFC China Energy.
Last week Inner
City Press asked UN DPI where
it is on the list to be
restored to (its) office, and
regain full office - and was
told it is not even on the
list, there is no public list,
the UN can exclude,
permanently, whomever it
wants. This is censorship, and
has been accepted and even
encouraged by what has become
the UN Censorship Alliance,
which accepted funds from Ng
Lap Seng's South South News
and had Inner City Press
ejected from the UN Press
Briefing Room as it inquired
into the story.
When this UNCA
held its annual meeting on
January 29, it could barely
reach quorom (Periscope here);
it covered over the glass
doors of the clubhouse the UN
gives it with a sign board.
Disgruntled members forwarded the
"agenda" -- "1) Introduction of the new
2018 UNCA Executive Committee. 2)
Presentation of UNCA sub-committees and
their upcoming agendas. 3) Presentation
of 2017 UNCA & UNCA Awards
financials. 4) UNCA 70th anniversary. 5)
Other matters." We'll have more on this.
***
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