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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, June 28 – Before Inner City Press was roughed up by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' Security on June 22 and July 3, 2018 and banned since then, it insistently asked for disclosure of how many of Guterres' publicly funded trips took him through his real home, Lisbon. The questions are not been answered by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who on 2 November 2018 simply bicycled away as Inner City Press asked about Guterres' failure in Cameroon and attempt to get even Park East Synagogue to oust Inner City Press from covering his October 31 speech about tolerance. 

On Saturday 27 April 2019 with Guterres still on his way back from two craven speeches in China praising the Belt and Road Initiative through which UN briber CEFC China Energy tried to buy the Partex oil company from the Gulbenkian Foundation which made undisclosed payments to Guterres, in front of the $15 million mansion where Guterres lives when in New York, alone with servants, there was a luxury car, see below.

Now on June 28 Guterres from the G-20 in Osaka has issued a read-out with Theresa May of the UK, while refusing to answer Press questions about his craven meeting with China's Xi as he conceals his links with UN briber CEFC China Energy. On the UK, with no mention of Cameroon which only hours earlier Guterres belated pretended to care about: "The Secretary-General met today with H.E. Mrs. Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.     The Secretary-General voiced his appreciation for the United Kingdom’s leadership on the issue of climate change, in particular for the country’s announcement that it will achieve net zero emissions by 2050.     The Secretary-General and the Prime Minister also discussed other issues of mutual concern, including Yemen, Sudan, sustainable development and United Nations reform.     Osaka, Japan  29 June 2019."

  Inner City Press more than 12 hours earlier asked in writing: " June 28-1: On the G20, China and the SG's craven inaction, please immediately state if Mr Guterres raised the crackdown in Xinjiang or Hong Kong to Xi and confirm or deny this Chinese government read out of Xi's meeting with Guterres: "Guterres appreciated China’s long-term support to the UN and spoke highly of China’s important contribution to a political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue, dealing with climate change and sustainable development.  China’s proposal of Belt and Road Initiative is essential to global development, especially to Africa’s development, Guterres said."  13 hours later and counting, no answer at all, only a canned read out with appreciation misspelled.

Earlier on June 28 Guterres deemed to take five questions, while continuing colluding in the cover up of China's mass detention of Uighurs and in Paul Biya's killings in Cameroon, for example. The first was about the INF and START treaties and the NPT review, apparently from a Japanese reporter - Guterres began, as usually, speaking only about himself: "I was in Nagasaki, as you know, on the memorial day of the atomic bomb that fell in Nagasaki, and this is a matter of grave concern to me." Right.

  The second question was about Iran and the US; Guterres said "I have no news on the developments of the key protagonists" - that is, "I. Know. Nothing."

  The third question was was the US and Mexico, and Venezuela. On this, Guterres said "I know what is the answer to this situation. So the answer to the situation is to make full use of the Global Compact on Migration and to restore the integrity of the refugee protection treaty." This from a man who for example said nothing when 46 people were illegally detained by Nigeria and refouled to Cameroon where they are still in jail, as well as failing on the issue of the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

  The fourth question was about the digital economy. Again, Guterres made it about himself, this time a bogus commission he established as a way to give vanity positions to Jack Ma and others: " We have just had the conclusions of a high-level panel on the digital cooporation [sic] that I have appointed." Cooporation, indeed.

  The fifth and final question was about Trump. Guterres said, "   dialogue that is foreseen between the Presidents of China and the US – that is probably the most relevant bilateral meeting that will take place in the G20." And given his cover up on the Uighurs, and of his own financial links with UN briber CEFC China Energy, you know which side Guterres is rooting for. But that's all he is: a tourist in a loose tropical shirt on his way using public money to his real home in Lisbon. He couldn't get there fast enough. To try to save the UN, #DumpGuterres.

  On 4 June 2019, Guterres as if joking about his own corruption told the Fifth Committee, in which he made a shameful deal with then chair Cameroon to stay silent on mass killing for a few procedural favors, claimed he did "ask if I could sell the residence. I am not joking. It is a true story. I discovered that I couldn’t, because the residence can only be sold to the United States of America when we close the doors in New York. Obviously, it is not something that is not, hopefully, going to happen." Tweeted video here. First, why not?

 But second, those who "cover" (for) the UN reported Guterres' words at face value, simply accepting his statement that the mansion could not be sold in any circumstances. But when donor intentions become outmoded, as here with a single man lives only a few days a month in a mansion he claims he wants to sell, the intentions can be reformed. Cy pres.

   Third, Boutros Boutros Galli wrote in his book that the building was given by Arthur Houghton through the United Nations Association of the USA. See here. If this group which claims to care so much about the UN cannot act to allow it to be sold, what of their claims to care for the UN?

  Incidentally, even cursory research -- the UN refuses to answer any of Inner City Press' questions except infrequently about the many UN rapes - finds reports that Houghton tried to jack up the value of his tax deduction by selling One Sutton Place North, the house on the corner, to make a high valuation. Fraud ad initio - as with the UN.  We'll have more on this. For now, this June 8 Periscope video.

 Back on April 27 the mysterious car at Guterres' mansion  had blue diplomatic plates. Inner City Press broadcast a Periscope video of it - and suddenly the diplomatic limousine pulled around the corner of 57th Street and Sutton Place and sat, idling, with its lights on. Periscope video II here.

Then Inner City Press stepped or pedaled away for a moment - and upon its return only a few minutes later, the luxury car was again in front of Guterres' mansion. When Inner City Press took a photo and began to stream Periscope video again, the car again backed around the corner. Periscope video III, here. What do they have to hide? Suddenly accompanied by UN Security several people came out of Guterres' rear entrance, got in the car and drove off. Who were they? We'll have more on this.

  On Friday 19 April 2019, the supposedly environmentalist UNSG Antonio Guterres had all of the third story lights on in the $15 million publicly funded mansion in which he sometimes lives alone in - this while his public schedule says he is on "annual leave," a code word for out of town at his real home in Lisbon. What a waste, what hypocrisy. Already China is bragging that Guterres will cravenly show up at its Belt and Road event, after Guterres refused to audit UN briber CEFC China Energy. CEFC tried to buy the oil company of Lisbon based Gulbenkian Foundation the payments of which to Guterres were not included in his public financial disclosure covering 2016. This was  days after Guterres' Alison Smale and Tal Mekel summarily denied Inner City Press application to re-enter the UN to ask questions, and after guards physically pushed Inner City Press out of the line for a press freedom event in the UN it was invited to and had a ticket for, then refused to provide the banned-by-Guterres list they said was the basis of their action. Totally corrupt. On March 2 with Guterres presumably in New York but not in the mansion at 5 pm - there were no UN security vehicles nearby - he nonetheless left all lights in the second floor blazing. This is pure waste, pure hypocrisy given what Guterres claims about his commitment to sustainability - all the more so because it was broad day light. On matters ranging from censorship and corruption to this, the hypocrisy gets worse and worse. On November 20, the day Guterres accepted the resignation of Erik Solheim -- which Guterres hypocritically demanded on November 19 -- for similar misuse of public funds to travel to Oslo and Paris, Inner City Press asked Guterres who his travel to Lisbon was any different. Guterres refused to answer, got into the back of his publicly funded Mercedes and drove off. Video here. On November 21 Dujarric was asked how / where Guterres would spend the next day, US Thanksgiving and replied Guterres would be "glued to his email." But past 11 am on November 21 there was none of the usual UN Security in front of the $15 million publicly funded mansion on Sutton Place where Guterres (sometimes) lives. Vine video here. Before 9 am on Monday November 26 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and his two spokesmen: "November 26-3: As asked November 23 without any answer at all, please immediately state where SG Guterres has been since November 21, how much it has so far cost the UN budget / public, including in light of the Spokesman's response on Nov 21 that the SG would be “scrolling his email” and in the context of officials such as previous host city Mayor and now UN official Bloomberg disclosing when he was out of town and where - and of SG Guterres now reported role in demanding Erik Solheim “pull himself, now” for just such undisclosed personal travel?" Twelve hours later this was not answered, despite the promise of answers from Guterres' Communicator Alison Smale to UNSR David Kaye. But at the day's noon briefing Inner City Press was banned front, when asked why Guterres has said nothing on Ukaine, Dujarric said: "the Secretary-General is on plane on his way back to New York as we speak.  He is being fully briefed on the situation." So that's admitting Guterres was gone - while refusing to say where or how much it cost. And so much for being "glued to his email." Today's UN is corrupt. On Friday November 23 when the Spokesperson's Office was open, people getting paid, Inner City Press submitted five written questions including, beyond Cameroon, DRC and India, this: "November 23-3: Please immediately state where SG Guterres is, how much it is costing the UN budget / public, including in light of the Spokesman's response on Nov 21 that the SG would be “scrolling his email” and in the context of officials such as previous host city Mayor and now UN official Bloomberg disclosing when he was out of town and where." Even by the next day, not one of the questions was answered, including about a Kenyan priest killed by Biya's army in Cameroon, despite UK USG Alison Smale's promise to UNSR David Kaye that questions would be answered. This on the eve of a trial that will show how irresponsible and corrupt Guterres has been as UNSG.  And Friday evening, still the empty mansion, Vine here. Seems Guterres has taken off again. Even Trump tells the public where he is going (Florida). Even billionaire NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who unlike Guterres didn't use public money for his travel, ended up disclosed he was going to the Caribbean. How untransparent and arrogant can Guterres get, while having roughed up and still banned the Press that asks? Guterres has had Inner City Press banned from the UN for life, by his Alison Smale. But Inner City Press, even banned, on August 28 published the first in an exclusive and detailed series. Now on November 3 with this total lack of transparency from the UN Secretariat itself, Inner City Press can exclusively report that Guterres' current four day trip to Lisbon, his 16th as Secretary General, was only booked on October 24, making it more expensive, and is entirely paid for by the public. What was the pretext for the trip? A 15 minute "Web Summit" speech; Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it would be live streamd - free, one assumed - on the Web Summit platform. But there, to see it, members of the public had to "pre-register" for €850 for the 2019 Web Summit (purchased by Lisbon for 10 years). Now we can report that on each of his 16 publicly-funded junkets to Lisbon Guterres has taken two UN Security with him. How much does it cost? The UN refuses to answer, prefers to rough up and ban the Press that asks. This time they have refused to confirm - or attempt to deny - that Guterres staffer Aguinaldo Baptista went as well. Inner City Press asked, 23 hours ago: "November 5-1: Please state the cost to the UN budget of the SG's current trip to Lisbon, deny or confirm that staffer Aguinaldo Baptista has also traveled there and if so the cost and rationale for that, Web Summit (?) or CPLP, and what the benefit to the UN and public is of travel to receive this CPLP award. What other UN staff and security went, for how long, and how much has it cost the public?" No answer. Totally unaccountable, not unlike Paul Biya's use of funds from Cameroon's coffers to pay hotel bills in Geneva in cash. Birds of a feather. As to the Lisbon speech, Inner City Press immediately put a how to see it question to Dujarric and his deputy - no answer on that. So clicking the obligatory "yes" to pre-register and accept Web Summit promotions, even then just as Guterres began blathering about medical devises and dating apps the screen was cut off and the promotion blocked it again, unable to be moved. Vine video here. Guterres has put the UN up for sale, sometimes intentional, sometimes because he just has contempt. Also at the Summit, behind this promotional paywall, is Tony Blair. Inner City Press also raised the issue to Guterres' Global Censor Alison Smale, Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed, her chief of staff Nelson Muffuh and staffer Aguinaldo Baptista, who along on the public dime. Was this justified by Guterres' personal Prize from the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, CPLP - previously awarded to, among others, the currently incarcerated Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva? The decision to give it to Guterres was made months ago in July in Cabo Verde, where Guterres' son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres does UNdisclosed business; no recusals or safeguards from Guterres, only the roughing up and banning of the Press which asks. On November 5, Inner City Press asked: "it was said that the SG's speech in Lisbon will be streamed on Web Summit platform. But there, after a mere minute, it says To continue watching, pre-register for the 2019 Web Summit. So it is for-pay? Question Nov 5-1 is reiterated: “November 5-1: Please state the cost to the UN budget of the SG's current trip to Lisbon, deny or confirm that staffer Aguinaldo Baptista has also traveled there and if so the cost and rationale for that, Web Summit (?) or CPLP, and what the benefit to the UN and public is of travel to receive this CPLP award. What other UN staff and security went, for how long, and how much has it cost the public?” And as Guterres' 15 minutes speech, ostensibly justifying all this public spending, approached there was no answer. We'll have more on this. Back on September 7 Inner City Press reported that Guterres intends to use even Kofi Annan's death and the September 13 event in Ghana as a pretext to again fly to Lisbon. He'll turn it into a five day junket, leaving New York on September 11 (when he's arranged a Myanmar white washing CPPF meeting, also reported exclusively by banned Inner City Press, here), offer praise sure to be ironic of Kofi Annan who Rest in Peace never had a critical journalist roughed up and banned - then fly to Lisbon on the public dime, until September 16. How much will it cost? The UN refuses to answer. But it is not their money. And the climate of cover up includes Guterres not disclosing his own son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres' business links in Africa and elsewhere. We'll have more on this: it is what journalism is supposed to do, hold institutions and those who lead them accountable. Here from multiple member state sources and open source are the dates of Guterres' first 14 -- 30% of total UN trips - through Lisbon for each of which Inner City Press has asked, and not been answered, and live-stream Periscope of the UN's empty massion on 57th Street and Sutton Place for which it was roughed up and banned:

1/13/2017-1/20/2017    NY->Lisbon->Geneva->Davos Platz->Zurich

2/9/2017-2/20/2017            NY->Istanbul->Riyadh->Dubai->Abu Dhabi->Muscat->Doha->Cairo->Frankfurt->Bonn->Munich->Lisbon

2/24/2017-2/27/2017    NY->Lisbon->Geneva

3/25/2017-3/31/2017    NY->Lisbon->Amman->Baghdad->Arbil->Gaziantep

5/9/2017-5/22/2017            NY->London->Beijing->Strasbourg->Geneva->Lisbon

5/25/2017-5/29/2017    NY->Catania->Lisbon

6/20/2017-6/26/2017    NY->Entebbe->Lisbon

6/27/2017-7/4/2017            NY->Washington DC.->Geneva->Lisbon, (30/06/2017 - 04/07/2017 in Lisbon)

11/3/2017-11/7/2017    NY->Lisbon

2/12/2018-2/19/2018    NY->Kuwait->London->Munich->Lisbon

3/14/2018-3/16/2018    NY->Rome->Lisbon

5/11/2018-5/19/2018    NY->Lisbon->Vienna->Brussels->Washington DC

5/23/2018-5/31/2018    NY->Geneva->Lisbon->Paris->Bamako

7/6/2018-7/11/2018        NY->Lisbon->Addis Ababa->Kinshasa

  Do the member states paying for this - whom Guterres' Smale quotes without name as supporting the roughing up of and permanent ban on Inner City Press, agree with this? Do they know this? How arrogant or out of touch a self-styled world leader is has been revealed in the Leader's contemptuous approach to freedom of the press and whose who even gently chide him on it, including a Nobel Peace Prize winner. No, this is not a reference to Donald Trump, but to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The Nobel Peace Prize winner who has sought the reversal of Guterres' outrageous 56 day and counting ban on Inner City Press even entering the UN is Jose Ramos Horta of Timor Leste, still serving Guterres' UN, who told Inner City Press on August 27, "Dear Matthew I did reach the very inner sanctum of the UN system reporting on your case to no avail. Apologies but I don't know what else I can do." Later on August 27 an independent journalist asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric why things are not fixed with Inner City Press' access, since it "looks bad" given other attacks on press freedom. Video here. Dujarric tried to cut the journlist off, insisting to say this is about freedom of the press would be wrong. (Then why is it in the Press Freedom Tracker, here, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among others for example in the UK, Japan, Italy and Cameroon?) Dujarric changed the earlier reference to Inner City Press being in a "garage ramp" - something Guterres' Grand Inquisitor Alison Smale never asked Inner City Press about - to being in the "parking lot." (Inner City Press' pass worked to get there, many use it as a way to exit, and several senior UN official, anti-Guterres sources of Inner City Press ask to meet it and give it documents there. Maybe that's the reason.) Dujarric then said that Inner City Press creates a "hostile environment" for the diplomats, some times correspondents and always UN officials it covers. Seems clear the ban is entirely about freedom of the Press, freedom to question, and a Secretary General and vindictive team of holdovers who seek to retaliate against questions and coverage, including live streamed covering, with a lifetime ban with no appeal. Here is an example of Inner City Press' August 28 questioning at the Delegates Entrance, since Guterres and Alison Smale have banned it from the Security Council stakeout. Is this hostile?  Would Guterres, former NYT bureau chief Smale and former former Dujarric like to write Inner City Press' questions? Its articles? Perhaps to omit all refernce to Cameroon and what Guterres did and didn't do? On August 28 during an empty noon briefing Inner City Press was again banned from, it asked in writing Dujarric, Alison Smale, Amina J. Mohammed and others 13 questions including: "At yesterday's noon briefing you said I am banned because I was “found in the parking lot.” Since no one spoke to me about this, please state when and where, and explain how that is a violation if non resident correspondents' passes open those doors, unlike the bathrooms on the 4th floor, and how this Trumped up into so serious a violation as to ban me, including from the upcoming UNGA week. Also, again, name the diplomats (and UN staff and journalists) you yesterday publicly said I created a hostile environmental for. Honestly, that was not my intent. But I have a right to know. And it sounds troublingly similar to questioning and critique: free press. August 28-2: This is again a request to be informed -- including if the question is view as hostile - 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." While two other questions were answered on August 28, these were not touched. This is censorship.  For now, though, Nobel Peace Prize winner who has worked for the UN has been rebuffed. What they say Trump is, Guterres is as well and more so - only Guterres has actually roughed up and banned a critical journalist for 55 days, with total impunity. Hence this story. After having covered the UN since 2005 for Inner City Press, and pursued stories of UN under-performance from Sri Lanka to Darfur and Haiti to Yemen and most recently Secretary General Antonio Guterres' failure and conflict of interest on Cameroon, at 4 pm on Friday August 17 I 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. See below. In the middle of the now 55 day ban, Jose Ramos Horta who has known and answered Inner City Press for years wrote to it, somewhat comedicly, "I am puzzled by such an extreme DPI decision of banning you for life from UNHQ for reporting purposes. Here in Timor Leste our Govt never ever barred a journalist from entering a public space and reporting even though our Media has never been friendly with Govt officials.I cannot imagine how serious an offense you may have committed that may have justified such an extreme action by DPI. Did you throw a bomb, rotten eggs, tomatoes, spaghetti at some guy? I shall try to reach the SG." And then, on August 27, "Dear Matthew I did reach the very inner sanctum of the UN system reporting on your case to no avail. Apologies but I don't know what else I can do." This is how arrogant and out of touch Guterres is, Lusophone or not. People would report this about Trump, whole profiles of those they say should have spoken out - Mattis, Kelly, members of Congress and the Senatre - and isolation and rage. But what about Guterres? Jose Ramos Horta, who has never had a problem being public, is a man of integrity, on the right side on this one when all is said and done. What about others? We'll have more, much more, on this - there has been other outreach, and more to come. One individual, even with a former NYT Global Communicator like Alison Smale, cannot be allowed to censor like this, to impose a ban on a journalist for the first time in 40 years, an active journalist Guterres and Smale and UNnamed others want to prevent or hinder Inner City Press from covering this UN General Assembly High Level Week and the UN going forward. We will not rest. Watch this site.

  In her lifetime ban letter, Smale also claimed that Guterres' spokesmen would answer Inner City Press' e-mailed questions. But this it false. Of the fourteen question Inner City Press e-mailed to them, and Smale, and Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed and others on August 23 and 24, not one was answered. Not one. Including: "August 24-3: Given that Deputy Spokesman Haq told IPS “we respect his press rights, but we also want to respect other’s press rights. And some journalists feel their press rights have been impeded by his actions” - state, since this is the basis of me being banned, who these are, and how they feel their press rights have been impeded by my actions. Also all video and other evidence that Haq alluded to to IPS should be produced, today, since it is the basis of my being banned." Nothing has been provided, eight hours later, by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric who was drawing pay all day after having essentially ordered or passed on from his boss the order to rough up Inner City Press. From the IPS article: "Lee has been known for asking thought-provoking questions during daily briefings and at press stakeouts. He has reported on global conflicts such as those in Sri Lanka, Congo, Somalia, and others... However, the incidents with Lee started back in 2012, when he was warned by the DPI to treat his fellow journalists with respect." That's not the case. In 2012, the President of the UN Correspondents Association Giampaolo Pioli, who had rented one of him Manhattan apartments to one Palitha Kahona then unilaterally granted his request or demand for an UNCA screening of the war crimes denial film of the Sri Lanka government he represented at the UN, ordered Inner City Press to remove from the Internet its article about the conflict of interest. Inner City Press declined but offered to publish any response, at any length. Pioli and the UNCA board demanded removal of the article, and ultimately Inner City Press quit UNCA and co-founded FUNCA, the Free UN Coalition for Access. The UN claimed it was uninvolved - instead, then head of Accreditation Stephane Dujarric tried to condition Inner City Press' re-accreditation as a resident correspondent on more positive coverage of the Secretariat, specifically his fellow Frenchman Herve Ladsous, the head of Peacekeeping who famously said peacekeepers would rape less if they had more "R&R." So from 2012 it was the UN trying to strong arm positive coverage of its officials, and using the aura of "other correspondents" in UNCA as the leverage - making UN the UN Censorship Alliance.

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