| Hypocrisy From UN Which Bans
Press and South Sudan Covid Questions on World
Press Freedom Day
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Nov 27 – A funny
thing happened on the day to
World Press Freedom Day 2020.
One
expected at least the yearly
tip of the hat to freedom of
expression.
Instead,
this year figures like UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres who has banned Inner
City Press which criticized
him from entering the UN or
now its Zoom rooms for 671
days, are emphasizing a
crackdown on
"disinformation."
This while
Guterres and his spokespeople
Stephane Dujarric and Melissa
Fleming not only ban Press but
refuse written questions
about, for example, South
Sudanese complaints
that the UN Mission UNMISS
spread COVID-19 there, like
the UN spread cholera in
Haiti.
About Haiti, the UN and its
then and now spokesman Dujarric
lied for at least six years.
Was questioning that
"disinformation," as Guterres
would have you believe
now?
As Inner
City Press has reported for
week, first Guterres'
representative in South Sudan
David Shearer was asked in a
Town Hall meeting it got the
minutes from about national UN
staff being put on a bus
without social distance.
Guterres,
Dujarric and Fleming refuse to
asked days of written
questions about the
transcript.
Then
UNMISS belatedly admitted it
had flown in an international
who had COVID-19. But they had
neglected to tell the South
Sudan government for quite
some time, as raised in a petition
to Guterres from South
Sudanese to which he has yet
to respond.
Then
another UN international who
was ostensibly under
quarantine flew out of the
country, triggering a protect
from South Sudan's high level
task force which in a written
order demanded clarification
from the World Health
Organization.
Inner City
Press has asked Guterres, his
Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and
his spokespeople about this
repeated, and submitted it in
writing to WHO.
Nothing. So who is leaving
legitimate questions
unanswered in the public
record?
Against
this backdrop, what does it
mean when for example the
French Mission to the UN,
which even before Guterres
threw Inner City Press out
vetoed it continuing on UN
Security Council trips to its
former colonies, tweets
"Disinformation is dangerous.
Disinformation kills.
Disinformation spreads
fast. WE MUST STOP
IT. Let’s promote FACTS.
SCIENCE. INFORMATION.
#WorldPressFreedomDay"?
The May 4 event
will include other hypocrites
like High Commissioner for
Human Rights Michele Bachelet
who did nothing about
censorship by Guterres who
nominated her, and allowed him
to block Inner City Press from
her events in the UN. UNESCO
Director General Audrey
Azoulay has her own corruption
scandals, on which Inner City
Press has reported.
But what
about the member states who
have jumped on the bandwagon
of turning even the one day
World Press Freedom Day in to
a way for governments to
crackdown on those whose views
or questions are inconvenient?
A fish rots from
the head. 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
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: 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 2006-2020 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
