UN GATE, Oct 5 –
While the United Nations
speaks about press freedom and
the current UN General
Assembly under new President
Zolkan Bozkir of Turkey, UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres has banned
Inner City Press amid its
questions about his finances
and failures on Cameroon and
in combating or even just
disclosing UN sexual
abuse.
On October
5, amid much expressed concern
about US President Trump's
spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany
having briefed reporters
*outside* without a mask,
Dujarric stood five feet or
less fro the media, without a
mask, and woodenly listed
press releases he had issued
over the weekend. Video here.
Now a recent UN
official who Dujarric flacked
for, Kang Kyung-wha has a
husband Lee Yill-byung who
flew to the US to buy a yacht,
here. In South Korea there's a
renewed call for Kang to quit
for corruption. But in the UN,
the even more corrupt Guterres
remains, censoring.
There is no
evidence of Secretary General
Antonio Guterres being tested;
Guterres went on secret
vacation to Portugal mid
pandemic, and fake quarantine
thereafter. We'll have more on
this.
On
September 28 as Inner City
Press biked past the UN on the
way to cover cases at the SDNY
courthouse, it spotted
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric getting out of a 4 by
4, not unlike the one used for
UNsexploitation in Tel Aviv as
exclusively reported
by Inner City Press, on First
Avenue by 50th Street.
The 4 by 4, with
a Georgetown sticker and a
Main Beach sign on the roof
rack, parked on First Avenue.
Then, when Dujarric saw Inner
City Press, whose questions he
has refuse for months to
answer despite an on-camera
commitment to, it sped around
the corner.
But
Dujarric came back, Periscope
video here.
He bought a pastry and,
looking over his shoulder,
walked south on First Avenue.
Inner City Press, seeking an
answer to its unanswered
questions, stopped filming and
bicycled alongside Dujarric,
asking questions.
For
example, how it is acceptable
for Dujarric to lie about the
Tel Aviv case(s)? First he
refused to answer Inner City
Press' written questions,
despite an on camera promise
to do so, here.
Then he
told those scribes he allows
in that the men were put on
leave without pay. But that is
no longer true, as Inner City
Press has reported.
Doesn't a spokesperson have a
duty to correct something
false he said? Dujarric didn't
answer.
A case in
Syria, where UNICEF and UNHCR
staff had sex in front of a
window of the Four Seasons
Hotel, which Dujarric has
refused to answer on even as
Syrian express outrage and
Inner City Press after asking
Dujarric in writing without
answer published
it - what of it? One of the
participants has begged
Dujarric to answer the Press
questions, for safety's sake
if nothing else. But he has
refused. No answers. We'll
have more on this.
Dujarric
walked eating his pastry from
48th Street to the 46th Street
entrance, then further south
to 43rd Street, refusing to
answer even why he had Inner
City Press' IP address blocked
from UN websites after his own
Department committed
spokesperson negligence or
malpractice during the
briefing by Guterre's Volker
Turk. No answers at all.
On
September 17, Dujarric was
publicly asked about Guterres'
ban on Inner City Press, and
said "Mr. Lee's status remains
uncharged. Video here.
But then
something changed. On
September 19 and still as of
this writing on September 20,
the IP address Inner City
Press uses was blocked from
the UN's website. Video here.
The UN sites worked when
checked from another's laptop.
So can the UN use public money
to block Internet access to
their "transparency" page by
media which ask and criticize
them about it?
On
September 23, the UN
Corrrespondents Assocation
Executive Committee of
Reuters, France 24, Xinhua,
AFP and others -- list of
those most responsible for
this censorship of Press here
-- issued this, forwarded to
Inner City Press by several of
their disgusted members: "Dear
colleagues, The
UNCA Executive Committee
deplores the situation that
transpired in reference to the
email from U.N. spokesman
Stephane Dujarric on the
background briefing by
Assistant Secretary-General
Volker Turk on the
Secretary-General’s upcoming
speeches that was sent last
Friday. This
behavior directly compromises
the work of colleagues who
respect and abide by the code
of conduct outlined in the
media guidelines when
receiving accreditation as a
United Nations Correspondent
and will inevitably affect
access to such briefings for
all of us moving
forward. We
strongly advise that all
colleagues reporting at the
United Nations continue to
conduct themselves in a
professional manner and adhere
to the ethical standards and
the code of conduct as
expected. Thank
you for your attention and
cooperation. On
behalf of the UNCA Executive
Committee, Valeria
Robecco President, United
Nations Correspondents
Association."
[Note: This seems
to obliquely refer to this
video
Let's
review: first this UN
Censorship Alliance tried to
suck up to Guterres by
supporting the ouster of
independent Press. Then after
Dujarric's office commits
spokesperson negligence or
malpractices, at Dujarric's
request they issue a
statement, false like his,
support blocking Press access
to the UN's websites. This
organization is a travesty.
Also: Inner City
Press deals with and respects
embargoes all the time - at
the IMF, State Department, in
the courts. But even
organizations with lame
representatives on the UNCA
board agree, when one is not
party to an embargo agreement,
one is not bound. UNCA has
supported ouster of media that
actually covers the UN, in
favor of retirees and state
media.
On September 20,
as Guterres' UN blocks Inner
City Press not only on Twitter
but from its publicly funded
websites, a strange message
from UNCA bigwig Ali Barada of
whom we've previously reported
" Ali Barada of
An-Nahar, filed a
complaint against Inner City
Press with the "Special
Investigations Unit" of the UN
Department of Safety and
Security.
The only basis? What Inner
City Press said when Barada
bragged that he immediately
deleted without opening Inner
City Press' email requesting
to see the "information
available on request" listed
in the report Barada signed
off on - and which was then
sent anonymously to the
government against Inner City
Press. In
fact, while all Inner City
Press responded with was a run
of the mill host country
insult, Barada cited his
involvement with a "terrorist"
group, as a reason Inner City
Press shouldn't express its
opinion. Update: And on
Friday, July 6, Inner City
Press had to spend two and a
half hours with UN Security
responding to Barada's
frivolous and pretextual
complaint."
There's been more since
- watch this site.
Watch this site.
Brenden Varma,
for PGA Bozkir, has refused to
answer Inner City Press'
questions about his
backsliding on the one reform
from the UN corruption scandal
Inner City Press reported on,
often exclusively, about PGAs
Ashe and Kutesa; Bozkir has an
empty
"Ethics" page.
Varma then
blocked Inner City Press on
Twitter. This is today's UN -
we'll have more on this issue.
Inner City Press should be
given the codes to access
and ask questions at briefings
immediately, like the state
media and retirees Guterres
and Melissa Fleming prefer and
favor.
***
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