UN
Smale Spins
Last Hurrah In
Utah After
Banning Inner
City Press 415
Days Fleming
Must Rescind
for GA
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR Letter
The
Hill
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, August 22 – One
year and five
days
after banning
Inner City
Press for life
without appeal
from the UN,
on August 22
now outgoing
UN Global
Communicator
Alison Smale
is slated to
hold a press
conference
about her last
hurrah in Salt
Lake City. It is
a conference
claiming
sustainability
to which she
and others
will fly on
jet airplanes, to
celebrate
themselves at
public
expense. It
is
fittingly
absurd end to
a tenure
of censorship
and incompetence,
arrogance and
lack of accountability.
While it is
Antonio Guterres who
is to blame
for his own
censorship of
Press to
conceal his
financial
links with convicted
UN briber CEFC
China Energy -
sustainable, of
course - and
his failure in
Cameroon and
elsewhere, Smale
disgraced her
former role
with for
example the
New York
Times. She
never once
even spoke to
Inner City
Press before
banning it;
she used its
questioning of
diplomats at
the Delegates
Entrance as a
basis for her Kakfa-esque
order.
Her pianist
husband
memorably told
Inner City
Press that to
avoid this
fate it should
wear a suit
and tie.
Because of course
that is the
litmus test
for
journalism. She
didn't
disclose her
outside
activities,
she delayed in
filing the
minimal public
financial disclosure.
She made
claims about
Inner City
Press that
were entirely
false
while allowing
no opportunity
for rebuttal.
She was and is
a censor.
Here for her
Salt Lake City
scam is the her
schedule: The
68th United
Nations Civil
Society
Conference
will be held
under the
theme
‘Building
Inclusive and
Sustainable
Cities and
Communities’
in Salt Lake
City, Utah,
USA from 26 to
28 August
2019.
Organized in
cooperation
with the
NGO/DPI
Executive
Committee,
Salt Lake
City’s Mayor’s
office and
chaired by
civil society
representative
Maruxa
Cardama,
Secretary
General at
SLoCaT
Partnership on
Sustainable,
Low Carbon
Transport,
this will be
the first time
a major UN
conference
will be held
in the United
States of
America,
outside of New
York...
What: 68th
United Nations
Civil Society
Conference
When: 26 to 28
August
2019
Where: Salt
Palace
Convention
Center, Salt
Lake City,
Utah,
USA
Media
Highlights
Monday, 26
August 2019
10:00 – 11:30
Opening
Plenary 11:30
– 11:45 Press
Briefing
Tuesday, 27
August 2019
TBD Wednesday,
28 August 2019
15:00 – 16:30
Closing
Plenary
(Adoption of
Conference
Outcome &
Youth
Declaration)
16:30 – 16:45
Press
Briefing."
We'll
have more on
this - and
on Smale's
replacement, who
is on the
clock to end the
censorship
prior to and
for the upcoming
UN General
Assembly high
level week,
to be apply
for on August 24
before
September 5, a
UNGA high
level week
Inner City Press
covered in
depth from in
the UN like
1000s of
others until
the arrival of
the secretive censor
Antonio Guterres.
But who
owns the
United Nations
- Guterres? Is it a
dictatorship
with no due
process of
appeals
rights? Watch
this site.
Back on 23
August 2018
Smale held
a faux press
conference from which
the Press was
banned
to announce
the UN will spend the
public's money
in Salt
Lake City.
Minutes before
she began,
there were
three
journalists in
the UN Press
Briefing Room,
if you include
the personal
friend of
Smale's she
channeled
unedited into
her banning
letter. The
room suddenly
filled up with
non
journalists -
a supposed no
no, but
Smale's Media
Accreditation
and Liaison
Unit did not
enforce that
rule (or, one
hopes, lure any
unsuspecting
correspondent into
"behavior"
that Smale
could uses as
a pretext for
punishment. Having
to cover this
from
the UN bus
stop made it
hard to hear,
but Smale was
seen stepping off
the
podium before
the end. The
other speakers
seemed fine and we
hope to have
more on and
from them -
Smale makes it
difficult, with her
outright
censorship. It
was moderated
by
another of the
complainants Smale
channeled,
Maher Nasser,
who
blocked Inner
City Press on
Twitter after it asked
about the
placement of
sexual
exploitation
and abuse on a
Peacekeeping
website he
was promoting,
and about
rules. This
is today's
DPI, and UN. Utah,
Smale seems to
think,
should
make
her censorship
acceptable,
she appears to
think. There
no way to
know, because
despite
Smale's
assurance in her no
due process
banning
letter, of the
ten questions
Inner City
Press asked by
email on
August 23, not
a single
one was
answered,
including the reiterated
question,
"This is again
a request to
be informed of
the reason on
the SG's
Public
Financial
Disclosure
page USG Smale
is not listed,
while Natalia
Gherman who
was named to
her position
later than USG
Smale is
listed and has
made public
disclosure -
and for an
explanation
why Smale did
not recuse
herself as was
clearly called
for from
banning me. (There
was also August
23-10: In
terms of USG
Smale's letter
banning me for
life please
state who she
says was
disparaged,
when, and in
what medium /
in person or
not. Please
provide the
UN's version,
and any UN
video, of the
June 19
private use of
briefing room
for Al Jazeera
and critique
afterward.
Please
immediately
provide all UN
video of the
June 22 ouster
and July 3
roughing up
and ouster,
and the names
and
nationalities
of all
involved
officers.")
If Smale
doesn't make
the minimal public
financial
disclosure,
and it is not
explained despite
being asked
repeatedly after
she was
accused by
whistleblowers
in her own
Department
of diverting
funds allocated
for Swahili
services to English language social
media
promotion of
Antonio
Guterres, what
about
this spending
in Salt
Lake? Below
is from
the UN's press
release,
embargoed
until 6 pm
when we
publish it,
fifteen minutes
before the
press
conference
regarding
which we asked
Smale's Department:
"request, as a
journalist who
has covered
the UN for 12
years and is
still covering
it today, to
be allowed to
attend and ask
questions at
the 6:15 press
conference by
USG Smale who
never spoke to
me once before
purporting to
ban me for
life." While
not directly
answered, the
effect was of
course no:
more Smale
censorship, a
Press-less
press
conference.
At
4 pm on Friday
August 17, 2018 Inner
City Press got
a four page letter
from Under
Secretary
General Alison
Smale,
formerly the
New York
Times' Berlin
bureau chief. We've put
the letter on
Scribd here,
Patreon
download here.
The
letter
informed me,
without a
single
opportunity to
be heard and
offer
rebuttal, that
“your
accreditation
is hereby
withdrawn
pursuant to
the
Guidelines.”
It cited what it
called three
previous
warnings. But
on further
inspection there is
no there,
there. And
Grand
Inquisitor Alison
Smale didn't
even
consider, or
acknowledge,
that Inner
City Press had
responded to
the
spurious
complaints...
As
part of its
coverage in
the UN Inner
City Press heard
from
whistleblowers
in Smale's
then
Department of
Public
Information
that she
diverted funds
intended for Swahili
programming to
her avowed
focused,
getting better
coverage for
Guterres
particularly
on social
media.
But
Smale did not
recuse
herself, and
Guterres who
refused my
polite question
to him on July
20 why this
censorship was
taking place
and why he had
been so silent
as Cameroon
killed
Anglophones in
the North-West
and South-West
regions of the
country, did
not make her
recuse. Nor
did he recuse
himself,
despite my
timely request
that the
President of
the General
Assembly, and
not the
obviously
conflicted
Guterres and
Smale, take
charge of any
review deemed
necessary.
What
is most
troubling
about the UN's
August 17
dis-accreditation
letter is how
vague it is,
and inaccurate
the few times
it gets
specific.
The UN
claims that on
3 July 2018 I
“attempted to
gain
unauthorized
access to a
locked area of
the UN.” But
as I reported
at the the
time, and my
Periscope video subsequently used by Fox
News and
The UK
Independent
shows, I was
in the UN's
much traveled
Vienna Cafe.
(Guterres'
Assistant
Secretary General
Christian Saunders,
whose involvement in a
UN procurement
scandal I
previously reported,
was also
there: he
oversaw the
assault and
the next day
told me he
doesn't like
my articles.)
On July 3,
2018 I was
staking out --
that is,
standing
outside of -
the UN Budget
Committee
meetings. In
fact, I had
been informed
of the
meetings by UN
personnel and
diplomats had
invited me
down in order
to tell me, as
a reported,
what was going
on.
Ironically
it
was with
Cameroon's
Ambassador
Tommo Monthe
that I had
just spoken
when UN
Lieutenant
Ronald E.
Dobbins and
another
officer who
had still been
identified by
the UN
approached me
from behind,
grabbed and
twisted my
arm, grabbed
and damaged my
laptop
computer and
tore my shirt.
I recoiled and
said, loudly,
“I am a
journalist,
covering a
meeting!” To
Smale, this is
incivility,
enough to be
permanently
banned from
the UN for.
Next,
at the top of
page 3 of the
letter, Smale
runs through a
litany of
supposed
violations
without
providing any
details, nor
acknowledging
that other
correspondents
more friendly
to Guterres
and her are
allowed to do
these things
routinely.
Smale
pillories my
“presence on
UN premises
outside
authorized
time periods
as stipulated
in the
Guidelines.”
But
those
Guidelines,
even as
selectively
quoted by
Smale at the
top of page 2
of her letter,
make clear
that I was
permitted past
7 pm to cover
an advised
meeting - such
as the July 3
UN Budget
Committee
meeting
considering a
$6.7 billion
expenditure of
public funds
or the June 22
event in the
UN General
Assembly lobby
featuring a
speech in
which Guterres
bragged about
fasting in
Mali.
On
June 22, not
mentioned in
Smale's August
17 letter but
alleged as a
“repeat
violation” by
Guterres'
deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq in
a July 5
article, the
same
Lieutenant
Dobbins and
four Emergency
Response Unit
officers he
summoned and
then told not
to give their
names, pushed
me out of the
UN even as
other non
resident
correspondents
were allowed
to remain in.
There is video, here.
Days
before that
first roughing
up of Inner
City Press by
UN Security
but clearly
green-lighted
from higher
up, Guterres'
lead spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric told
a person who
tried to speak
with him on my
behalf to get
the UN to stop
requiring me
to have a
minder or
escort as they
have since
February 2016
that things
would be
getting worse
for me. It seems
clear
Dujarric knew
about or had
already
ordered the
physical
targeting of
Inner City
Press any time
after 7 pm,
even if an
advised
meeting or
Guterres
speech was
taking place.
But a
telling
omission in
Smale's letter
is that as
recently as
June 26 dozens
of non
resident
correspondents
were allowed
to stay in the
UN past 7 pm
drinking with
Guterres on
the North
Lawn,
ghoulishly in
the name of
press freedom
with Smale.
The event was
not advised in
the UN Media
Alert, and I
know that UN
Security could
not have been
given a list
of approved
non resident
correspondents
since my
timely RSVP to
cover the
event which
had yet
another canned
Guterres
speech was
never
answered. I
was told by
the organizer
of that
pro-Guterres
event that the
RSVP was
ignored
because it was
open to all
correspondents.
Again, there
is video in my
contemporaneous coverage. Maybe this
is why Smale
and Guterres
- and Dujarric -
say livestreaming
is a problem
to be solved
with Security
violence and
banning.
Since
as
Smale says
there are
thousands of
those, many of
whom write few
articles and
ask fewer
questions,
there is no
way UN
Security had a
list of non
resident
correspondent
to NOT beat up
after 7 pm.
They just
decided / were
told to start
roughing up
critical Inner
City Press,
sometime
between June
22 until the
July 3 assault
which I
reported on
July 4 to the
NYPD and was
told, while a
report was
taken, that
the UN asserts
immunity.
(That's the
problem.)
Next
Smale asserts
I have been in
locations not
authorized by
the Guidelines
- without
giving a
single
example. This
does not
comply with
due process,
to put it
mildly. One
wonder how it took
the UN 45
days to write this
(except for
the desire
to slow-walk
things to
try to prevent
Inner City
Press from
covering
the UN General
Assembly in September).
Even at
censorship,
today's UN is
incompetent,
particularly
given the
public money
it requests
and spends
(that $6.7
billion
again).
It is
the “live
broadcasts” --
reporting and
commentary
subject to
protection
under the
First
Amendment of
the US
Constitution
and UN
Universal
Declaration of
Human Rights
Article 19 -
that Smale
next takes
issue with.
She cites,
again without
any example,
profanities
and derogatory
assertions.
But
Guterres'
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric
repeatedly
used
profanity,
specifically
the F-word, in
the briefing
room including
telling me,
“Matthew
that's a
stupid f*cking
question.”
Even more
dispositively
a former
president of
the UN
Correspondents
Association,
Giampaoli
Pioli who had
ordered me to
remove from
the Internet
an article
about him
arranging a UN
screening for
the Sri Lanka
Ambassador of
a film denying
his country's
war crimes
after having
had the
Ambassador as
his paying
tenant in one
of his many
Manhattan
apartment -
the reason I
quit UNCA -
once called me
an “assh*le”
at the UN
Security
Council
stakeout,
during an
advised
meeting.
It
happened at
the Security
Council
stakeout so it
was recorded, audio here.
But DPI did
nothing about
this profanity
and
“derogatory
assertion” by
the president
of UNCA,
become their
UN Censorship
Alliance. So
there is no
rule, less
enough of one
to ban me for
life.
There
is another
vague
reference to
refusing to
obey UN
Security
officers,
impossible to
respond to and
troubling in
light of the
video of Lt
Dobbins and
his colleague
pulling me,
and tearing my
shirt. Is one
not allowed to
say, “I am a
journalist?”
What would
Smale do?
What Smale
does NOT do is
public
financial
disclosure. As
Inner City
Press first reported,
and asked
Dujarric to
explain
without
getting any
answer, Smale
is not listed
in Guterres'
online roster
of public
financial
disclosures,
unlike for
example
official
Natalia
Gherman, who
was awarded
her UN post
after Smale.
Not
that Guterres
has a good
record on
transparency.
As Inner City
Press has
asked him
without
response,
Guterres has
yet to even
order a UN
audit of the
China Energy
Fund Committee
/ Patrick Ho -
President of
the General
Assembly Sam
Kutesa UN
bribery case
that Inner
City Press, alone
from
(then?) among
the UN press
corps, has
been covering
at the Federal
courthouse in
lower
Manhattan,
including with
the Smale, Dujarric
and Guterres
reviled Periscope
livestream.
Guterres
did not act on
Inner City
Press' 25 June
2018
letter to
alleging nepotism
in the handing
of the
management of
the Security
Council's
website to the
photographer
husband of the
chief of staff
of the
Department of
Political
Affairs, nor
on Inner City
Press now
ironic request
that he
provide
protect to the
Press being
target. It was
Guterres, it
turns out, who
was and is
behind the
targeting.
Most
Orwellian,
halfway
through page 3
Smale attempts
to use
questions I
have had to
ask at the UN
Delegates
Entrance since
she and
Guterres
banned me from
the UN
Security
Council
stakeout from
July 3 on. At
that new
stakeout, I
have
interviewed
among others
outgoing Human
Rights
Commissioner
Prince Zeid
(whose abuse
of
whistleblowers
I have also
reported) and
Permanent
Representatives
such as those
from
Kazakhstan and
even Burundi.
So which
unnamed member
states is
Smale claiming
have
complained to
her and
Guterres:
Cameroon? The
United
Kingdom?
France?
Morocco?
In
fact, one of
the three
specific (now
in retrospect
devious)
warning letter
Smale cites
involved the
Moroccan
delegation
falsely
claiming I
could not take
photographs or
record and
live-stream at
the UN
Security
Council
stakeout. But
the Guidelines
permit that.
The
DPI staff who
passed along
the Morocco
complaint were
orally
apologetic but
that's now for
naught. The
Kafkaesque
file was being
built.
Smale
claimed in a
July 19, 2018
response to
the DC-based
whistleblower
protection
group
Government
Accountability
Project that
Dujarric and
the four other
spokespeople
his office
would be
answering my
e-mailed
question in
respect to
what she
called my
“journalistic
endeavour.”
This was repeated
today to BuzzFeed's
Hayes Brown,
here.
But they
answer less
than 20% of
the questions
- one a day,
the easiest of
the five I ask
- and I am
being banned
from covering
the UN
Security
Council, whose
mishandling of
Yemen
and Myanmar,
and
non-handling
or worse of Cameroon
I have a right
to cover and
Inner City
Press'
audience have
a right to
follow online
including in
live-streams.
Most
pressingly,
Guterres and
Smale want to
block me from
covering
member states
in the UN
General
Assembly high
level week in
late
September, the
deadline for
accreditation
for which is
September. A
conflicted
Secretariat
has no right
to ban a
well-read
media from
covering this
diplomatic
dance of
nations. This
corruption and
censorship
must be
reversed, and
acted on,
before
September 5.
The
final sin
cited by Smale
is that when
Inner City
Press was
unjustly
evicted from
its long time
shared office,
for having
asserted a
right to cover
events in the
UN Press
Briefing Room
unless some
official paper
said it was
closed - and
nevertheless
leaving as
soon as
requested by a
UN Security
officer - it
did not move
its years of
files out fast
enough. In
fact, I was
advised at
that time that
UN DPI's and
the Office of
the Secretary
General's
lawless
crusade
against Inner
City Press
might still be
turned around;
from February
19 until April
16, 2016 I did
not enter or
“occupy” the
office, even
when I could
have. It was
the UN which
ultimately dumped my files out onto First
Avenue then,
as Guterres
and Smale have
now dumped me,
with conflicts
of interest
and without
due process.
Can
this
pseudo-legal
permanent
censorship
order continue
to stand, now
under Smale's
replacement
Melissa
Fleming?
Even
now covering the
SDNY I
will do
everything in
my power that
the answer is
no, and that I
can return to
covering the
UN the same as
pro-Guterres
state media
from countries
like Morocco
and the Gulf,
and corporate
media which
only want easy
quotes and no
critique. If
freedom of the
press means
anything at
the UN, this
will not
stand.
***
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