UN
Excluded Inner City Press From
Counter Terrorism Briefing As
Hands Bytes to Al Jazeera and
UN News
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
June 21 – 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. On June 19 Inner
City Press asked the Office of
the Spokesperson, the briefer
and the UN's Global
Communicator why, with no
answer yet in 48 hours.
Instead the response has been
frivolous complaints about
Inner City Press non- or
anti-spoonfed coverage.
Inner City
Press was excluded from the
background briefing even as
the UN's head of
Counter-Terrorism Vladimir
Voronkov gave an interview
about the conference to "UN
News" Russian language radio
chief Elena Vapnitchnaia,
introduced by Omar Musni. He
spoke of work with Iraq, and
of a speaker from Mali, as
well as of Google and
Facebook. Why was Inner City
Press excluded from the
briefing then, and why has
none of the three officials
asked, including USG Alison
Smale who among other things
is in charge of "UN News,"
even purported to offer an
explanation?
Inner City
Press 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
Ms Soares Pinto - who as it
turns out work for Dujarric -
as well as to Vladimir Voronkov
(then in Russia, photos show)
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, more than 48 hours
later, even from the person in
Dujarric's spokesperson's
office.
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 Qatar's
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. And
when UN
Spokesman
Dujarric led
only Al
Jazeera into
the UN Press
Briefing Room
on June 19 for
a faux press
conference to
provide
Guterres'
response to
Trump leaving
the Human
Rights Council
and Inner City
Press live-streamed
it, Dujarric
and the Al
Jazeera trio
he led in --
James Bays,
Whitney Hurst
and cameraman
Bradley
McLennan who
went in before
Pompeo and
Haley made the
announcement -
are trying to
further
restrict Inner
City Press.
How can one
journalist,
with the now
required UN
minder, live
streaming
three
correspondents
and a
spokesman be
threatening?
It is like the
fake injuries
in the World
Cup.
We'll have more on this.
***
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