Your support
means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you
access to exclusive bonus material on
our Patreon page. Click
here to become a patron. MRL
on Patreon
UN
Maher Nasser After
Threatening Press'
Accreditation Censors It At Book
Event With UNIS
Link
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
November 16 – The UN
Department of Public
Information has hit a new low.
DPI Deputy - three times
passed over for the top job, see
below - Maher Nasser was the
moderator of an event in the
UN Bookstore on November 16.
After having tried to censor
Inner City Press' question in
advance on October 24, this
time Nasser simply refused to
call on Inner City Press,
despite it being the second in
the audience to raise its hand.
Instead, Nasser himself asked
three (lame) questions, then
said "Only two or three more
questions" and called on three
other people. Inner City
Press' question, about Saudi
led coalition's, including
Egypt's, war on Yemen and the
UN's inaction or worse was not
asked. Nasser is a censor, and
the information we are
receiving about the reason for
his short tenure on the board
of the UN International School
(the link to one of the two authors
on November 16, Scott J.
Shapiro who appeared with Oona
A. Hathaway presenting “The
Internationalists: How a
Radical Plan to Outlaw War
Remade the World”) should have
gotten him removed from the
UN, not only being passed over
three times for the top job
(after which most
self-respecting applicants
would simply leave.) But this
is how the UN works: a dumping
ground for mediocre ideologues
who become more arrogant and
bitter and lawless as times
goes by, and all on the public
dime. It it happening throughout
DPI - we'll have more on this.
On October 24 at
the book launch in the UN
of "Oppenheim's
International Law, United
Nations" on October 24, when
it came time for question and
answer Inner City Press was
the first and then only with a
question. Still, Department of
Public Information moderator
Maher Nasser said he wished to
remind Inner City Press that
this was not a press
conference - whatever that
means - and "don't make it
about yourself." Video here.
He has done this before,
to try to avoid and now
discourage questions about
such topics as UN sexual abuse
in the Central African
Republic where Secretary
General Antonio Guterres
arrived on October 24, UN
cholera in Haiti and UN
corruption as exposed in the
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe case.
Afterward several who heard it
said, "What's wrong
with that guy?" The broader
question: what's wrong with
the UN that it allows the
Number Two official in DPI to
do this, and to abuse his
position to threaten the
accreditation of Inner City
Press as it asks Guterres
about sexual abuse in CAR, and
inaction on mass killings in
Cameroon? (Nasser then blocked
Inner City Press on Twitter.)
It has been raised to the
occupant of the position
Nasser has twice
unsuccessfully sought, Alison
Smale, without response. The
authors of this new book, Dame
Rosalyn Higgins and Dapo
Akande among others, however,
did respond (here) noting
there are some few
circumstances in which
resource can be sought against
the UN, with the UN's consent.
Video here.
All this has to
change. On October 20 the UN
delivered a threat
to Inner City Press to
“review” it accreditation on
Friday afternoon at 5 pm. The
UN official who signed the letter,
when Inner City Press went to
ask about the undefined
violation of live-streaming
Periscope video at a photo op
by UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, had already
left, minutes after sending
the threat. This comes two
days after Inner City Press asked Guterres about the
UN inaction on threatened
genocide in Cameroon, and the
UN claimed
Guterres hadn't heard the
15-second long question.
It also
comes after Alison Smale the
head of the Department of
Public Information which would
“review” Inner City Press'
accreditation has ignored threeseparatepetitions
from Inner City Press in the
six weeks she has been in the
job, urging her to remove
restrictions on Inner City
Press' reporting which hinder
its coverage of the UN's
performance in such crises as
Yemen,
Kenya,
Myanmar,
and the Central African
Republic where Guterres
travels next week, with
Smale's DPI saying its
coverage of the trip will be a
test of its public relations
ability. But the UN official
who triggered the complaint is
Maher Nasser, who filled in
for Smale before she arrived.
His complaint is that audio of
what he said to Inner City
Press as it staked out the
elevators in the UN lobby
openly recording, as it has
for example
with Cameroon's Ambassador
Tommo Monthe, here,
was similarly published.
A UN “Public Information”
official is complaining about
an article, and abusing his
position to threaten to review
Inner City Press'
accreditation. The UN has
previously been called
out for targeting Inner
City Press, and for having no
rules or due process.
But the UN is entirely
UNaccountable, impunity on
censorship as, bigger picture,
on the cholera it brought to
Haiti. And, it seems, Antonio
Guterres has not reformed or
reversed anything. This threat
is from an official involved
in the last round of
retaliation who told Inner
City Press on Twitter to be
less "negative" about the UN -
amid inaction on the mass
killing in Cameroon - and who
allowed pro-UN hecking of
Inner City Press' questions
about the cholera the UN
brought to Haiti and the Ng
Lap Seng /John Ashe UN bribery
scandal which resulted in six
guilty verdicts. We'll have
more on this.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2017 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for