UN
Excludes Inner City Press From
Counter Terrorism Briefing,
Private Bytes For Al Jazeera
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
June 19 – The UN took most of
its counter-terrorism money
from Saudi Arabia, just as
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres smiled and took a
$930 million check from
Saudi's Crown Prince and said
nothing about Saudi bombing of
Yemen, and now assault on the
port of Hodeidah there. On
June 18 the UN in New York
held a so-called background
briefing for only some of the
media which cover the UN day
to day. Now we have
asked why.
Excluded
from the background briefing
unlike some media who rarely
if every report on the issue
was Inner City Press, which
has criticized Guterres for
his silence in taking the
Saudi check, and which remains
restricted for covering the
bribery of the UN by Ng Lap
Seng and South South News -
which has placed people not
only in UNTV but even in UN
Department of Public
Information - and now by
Patrick Ho and the China
Energy Fund Committee.
Other than more targeted
censorship, the only rationale
for excluding Inner City Press
which was one of only five
media - including one which
also works for UN Photo -
covering the Small Arms and
Light Weapons press conference
on June 18, is that it is no
longer a “resident
correspondent.”
This is due
to Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, who evicted
Inner City Press from the UN
Press Briefing Room and from
its office, and from DPI's
Alison Smale, who still
has no content neutral rule
while putting in Inner City
Press' office a no-show Egypt
state media Akhbar al Yom. And
so on June 19, Inner City
Press wrote to the person who
took "RSVPs" for the briefing,
and to Vladimir Voronkov
and to Alison Smale: "this is
a request to be informed on
what basis, or using which
criteria, it was decided to
invite some but not all
journalists who cover the UN
and Counter-Terrorism to the
June 18 background briefing
about the upcoming High Level
Conference. I am a journalist
who covers the UN closes, asks
the Spokesperson many
questions including about
counter-terrorism. I would
like to know why I was not
informed of the background
briefing about the June 28-29
Conference. Please confirm
receipt, on deadline." And...
nothing. Just as Smale has
refused to answer detailed
petitions with 5000+
signatures, she did not answer
this. She has her husband
playing piano at a World Cup
event - this is today's UN. On
the same June 19, Minutes
before US
Secretary of
State Mike
Pompeo and
Ambassador to
the UN Nikki
Haley
announced the
US' withdrawal
from the UN
Human Rights
Council, the
doors to the
UN Press
Briefing Room
opened. But
nothing was
announced.
While many
media had
asked the UN
for response,
the spokesman
for out of
town, World
Cup bound
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres
arranged for a
private “press
conference”
with Al
Jazeera. Inner
City Press,
evicted from
the UN Press
Briefing Room
and its UN
work space by
Dujarric, was
trying to
cover the HRC
announcement
from a small
focus booth on
the UN second
floor. Click here for
Inner City
Press'
Periscope
stream. It
observed Al
Jazeera's
cameraman go
by, with a
staffer from
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric's
office, then
Al Jazeera's
correspondent
then producer.
In an
abundance of
caution Inner
City Press did
not go into
the UN Press
Briefing Room
-- which, it
and the Free
UN Coalition
for Access
maintain
cannot
legitimately
be opened to
some but not
other
correspondents.
Instead, Inner
City Press
asked the UN
Department of
Public
Information's
minder unit,
which it must
now use to
cover any
events in the
General
Assembly, to
ask what was
taking place
in the UN
Press Briefing
Room. The DPI
staffer went
in, and then
re-emerged
with Dujarric
and the three
Al Jazeera
staffers. “No
event,” Inner
City Press was
told. The Al
Jazeera
producer said
they had
arranged for a
sound byte.
Oh. So this is
how it is done
at the
UN.
We'll have more on this.
***
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