On Sri Lanka UN
Correspondents Association Insider Urges Tamil
Silence As Guterres Bans Press
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
Video
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
UN GATE, Nov 2 –
The increasing corruption of
the United Nations under
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres, and of the UN
Correspondents Association he
works with to intimidate and
then rough up and ban
the investigative Press, has
been made clear today in a
statement by former Ambassador
of Sri Lanka Palitha Kohona,
who has been accused of war
crimes in the White Flags
Killings, see below.
Now
on November 2, after Inner
City Press' written questions
to Guterres and his
spokespeople Stephane Dujarric
and Melissa Fleming, about
Mahinda Rajapaksa, went
entirely unanswered, a long
time UNCA correspondent said
the Tamils "should be more
quiet." Video here.
This is disgusting, today's UN
and UNCA. Here from the UN
noon briefing Guterres banned
Inner City Press from for the
853rd day, with the collusion
of the UN Censorship Alliance,
is the transcript:
Question:
Yep. My question is that why,
the Tamils, when the war is
over and they're attacking
past history, don't they try
now to have a coalition, which
is so key in international
politics? If you continue
eradicating the opposition
long after there's peace in
the country and it’s
prospering, why are they, with
this human rights question,
still attacking the ones...
the Tamils, why are they still
not being more
quiet?
Spokesman:
As you know, we have supported
dialogue among all the
communities in Sri Lanka, and
we continue to do that. And
certainly, we believe that
there has been some progress
on this front in recent years,
but much more does need to be
done.
Sherwin, you have a
question?
Sherwin, the floor is
yours.
Sherwin, are you
there?
Sherwin, if you're having
problems un‑muting, you can
write the question in chat,
and I'll answer that
way.
Okay. Sherwin is asking, is
there any statement on the US
election, given high levels of
anxiety and growing fears of
post‑election
violence?
I don't have anything to say
right now. Of course, we
expect the election will go
ahead tomorrow. If we have
something to say on that day,
we'll let you know
then.
And if I see no other
questions, I will now turn the
floor over to Brenden Varma,
who is at the podium."
Notice
that an UN big wig spoke right
after his/their member's "the
Tamils should be more quiet
comment" and said nothing
about it; Inner City Press and
its Sri Lanka mass killing and
UN collusion questions were
banned. These people are in
league with mass killing, in
Sri Lanka as in Cameroon, and
censoring to cover it up. This
is today's UN - and UNCA.
In an
article he published in
Asia Tribune, Kohona writes /
admits once Inner City Press
(he says, "the blogger")
"began undermining
Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres, we mounted a quiet
campaign against him within
the UN press corps itself...
information from our own
sources was made available to
many members of the UN press
corps with a view to impugning
the credibility of the man. It
took a while, but his bravado
unraveled when he fell afoul
of the President of the United
Nations Correspondents
Association (UNCA), Giampaolo
Pioli, who commenced
proceedings to take him to
court. Then he began to spar
with a number of respected
journalists who were beginning
to approach us... The UN
proceeded to evict him from
the room that he was occupying
and eventually from the UN
itself." See Guterres action,
continued by Melissa Fleming,
here.
Both have been asked,
including today, to explain -
nothing, no response. They are
corrupt.
Who is
Kohona referring to, as
helping him? Well, as a first
example - there are more -
here's an article Inner City
Press published at the time,
with people who are still at
the UN working with Guterres:
Pamela Falk of
CBS told Inner City Press on
February 22 that writing to
the big media companies on
the UN Correspondents
Association board about
their policies "could
constitute a crime."
As
well as being the president
of UNCA,
which in 2012 tried to get Inner
City Press thrown out of
the UN, Falk is a
lawyer -- but she did not
specify what crime this
would be.
Nor would the UN, whose
Media Accreditation boss Stephane
Dujarric on February 27
filed a false complaint against
Inner City Press for reporting
Falk's comments.
Shown that his complaint was
false -- Inner City Press
had said loudly, “you are on
the record” and Falk said
“he's going to write this
up,” audio
here --
Dujarric refused to retract
it.
Rather,
another UNCA “leader,” Tim
Witcher of Agence France
Presse, along with Reuters'
Michelle Nichols, filed
their own false complaints
with UN Security,
apparently based on Inner
City Press replying to
Witcher hissing “lies and
distortion” by saying, “lapdog.”
(Significantly, Falk on
February 22 called Inner
City Press "a mugger.")
Despite
repeated requests, the UN
won't disclose even a
summary of the complaints --
to which it has nonetheless
twice in Kafka-esque form
demanded a written response
-- nor its rules for the
filing of false or
pre-textual complaints, as
the New
York Civil Liberties Union
asked the chief of the UN
Department of Public
Information on July 5,
2012 regarding
an ejection attempt by UNCA
before Falk blithely took it
over.
Those elections,
those in UNCA, used by
Kohona to oust Press:
Here are
the December 2103
results, compared
to votes in
December 2011 for
the "candidate" or
their predecessor
Dec '13 Dec
'11
Prez:
* 78 [85] Pamela Falk, CBS
News TV and Radio
1st
VP * 74 [79] Kahraman
Haliscelik, TRT Turkish Radio
& TV now Turkish
government outright
2d
VP * 48 71 Masood Haider,
Dawn, Pakistan
*
48 [71] Sylviane Zehil,
L’Orient Le Jour
3d
VP * 55 [62] Erol Avdovic,
Webpublicapress
38
Ali Barada, An-Nahar/France 24
Trez
* 81 [71] Bouchra Benyoussef,
Maghreb Arab Press - & UN
Sect
* 79 [81] Seana Magee, Kyodo
News
Members
at Large (9)
*
57 Nabil Abi Saab ,
Alhurra TV
*
57 Talal Al-Haj
,Al-Arabiya News channel
22
George Baumgarten , Jewish
Newspapers, Nation Media
*
50 Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South
African Broadcasting (SABC)
*
51 Zhenqiu Gu, Xinhua
News Agency
*
69 Melissa Kent,
CBC/Radio Canada
*
56 Evelyn Leopold,
Huffington Post Contributor
*
67 Michelle Nichols,
Reuters
27
Cia Pak, Scannews - and at the
same time, UN Photo
*54
Valeria Robecco, ANSA
Consider
Denis Fitzgerald then of the
Saudi Press agency, in 2012 just a judge
of Inner City Press, now as if as a
reward an UNCA Executive Committee
member. Despite being told of the
dangers of raising spurious claims of
funding by the Tamil Tigers, Fitzgerald
did just that in 2012, demanding for example, "who
funds you?" Audio
here.
So -
a war criminal used UNCA to
get Inner City Press thrown
out of its UN work space and
then the UN, for undermining
Guterres (who was also
questioned by Inner City Press
about Cameroon, and
undisclosed financial links
with UN briber CEFC China
Energy). These people are
(war) criminals. We'll have
more on this - for now, here's
more from Kohona (he does not
disclose that he paid UNCA's
Pioli money) --
"he published a
story headed, 'Fish balls (his
term for Sri Lankan fish
cutlets) and wine to tempt the
journalists'. ... He was also
known to exchange information
with diplomats at very
important missions, some of
whom had excellent sources
within Sri Lanka. He was also
a useful tool to some to
embarrass the former
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Subsequently, he began
undermining Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres.
But we mounted a
quiet campaign against him
within the UN press corps
itself with a view to exposing
him and even forcing him to
reveal his financiers.
Information from our own
sources was made available to
many members of the UN press
corps with a view to impugning
the credibility of the man. It
took a while, but his bravado
unraveled when he fell afoul
of the President of the United
Nations Correspondents
Association (UNCA), Giampaolo
Pioli, who commenced
proceedings to take him to
court. Then he began to spar
with a number of respected
journalists who were beginning
to approach us for information
on the man.
Eventually, he
clashed with the Alison Smale,
UN Under-Secretary-General for
Global Communications, who
declared that Lee’s “conduct
has consistently breached” the
UN’s media guidelines and
“does not meet the established
professional standards
required of all correspondents
granted access to United
Nations premises.” As a
result, his accreditation to
cover the UN was withdrawn
consistent with the terms of
the US – UN Head Quarters
Agreement (Agreement Between
the United Nations and the
United States Regarding the
Headquarters of the United
Nations, Signed June 26, 1947,
and Approved by the General
Assembly October 31, 1947).
The UN proceeded to evict him
from the room that he was
occupying and eventually from
the UN itself."
What will CPJ,
David Kaye, RSF et al do?
Watch this site.
***
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