UN
Aided
Ng Lap Seng After
His Positive Coverage of Ban
Trip, Restricts Critical Press
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
August 20 – How far will the UN
go to get positive media
coverage, and to punish and
hinder, if still not prevent,
critical oversight? Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's 2015 to
Honduras and El Salvador was
given entirely positive coverage
by South South News, the
$300,000 a month bribery conduit
of now convicted
Macau-based businessman Ng Lap
Seng. Click here
for that coverage, still online.
Now in emails obtained and published
by Inner City Press, it is shown
that South South News president
Francis Lorenzo, who has pleaded
guilty, wrote to UN official
Yiping Zhou about the coverage:
“Dear yiping enclose [sic]
see the first report of our
coverage of the trip of the SG
to El Salvador.”
Zhou wrote back, “Great job
covering the SG's visit. We
should do more for the SG, and
other heads of UN organs
especially also for our
UNDP Administrator Helen Clark.
Please find my letter of
support” - a letter supporting
Ng's now-disgraced, never-built
Macau conference Center.
So the UN supported Ng's corrupt
plan, in response to positive
coverage of Ban Ki-moon by Ng's
South South News. Zhou was Ban
Ki-moon's personal Envoy on
South South Cooperation. And
like Zhou's letter for Ng's
project, Ban wrote a "personal 'Thank You'
note" to South South News Afaf
Konja "for her coverage of his
official visit, calling her a
'champion for South-South
Cooperation.'"
These names came up repeatedly
during the Ng Lap Seng
prosecution, begun by then-US
Attorney Preet Bharara with the
question, Is bribery business as
usual at the UN? The answer was
and is,
Yes.
And when Inner City Press
pursued the Ng Lap Seng bribery
scandal, seeking to cover a
meeting of the UN Correspondents
Association who took full page
ads from Ng' South South News
and provided the venue for Ng's
photo op with Ban (Cipriani 42nd
Street), Inner City Press
was evicted from the UN Press
Briefing Room, then its long
time office in the UN, where it
still remains restricted under
Ban's successor Antonio
Guterres.
On August 16, Inner City Press
asked Guterres about the Ng
guilty verdicts; Guterres declined
to answer. The UN still contains
corruption, and still punishes
and restricts the Press which
covers it.
Beyond the corruption, it is a
conflict of interest to have the
same UN Department which views
its role as promoting positive
coverage of the UN be the one to
decide, without rules or free
press constraints, which media
get full access, and which like
Inner City Press are evicted and
restricted.
The incoming head of the UN
Department of Public Information
Alison Smale, replacing Cristina
Gallach who partied at Ng's
South South Awards and did no
due diligence on his events and
sponsorships in the UN, will
have to deal with this. We'll
have more on this.
***
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