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By Matthew Russell Lee, PFT CJR Patreon
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SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 20 – The G-20 meeting by Saudi Arabia's royals, killers of journalist like Jamal Khashhogi, is being used by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to promote himself, for example in a scam November 20 press conference with state media, video here.

After Guterres' distribution of a redacted copy of his pre-summit letter, this was a six question briefing Guterres banned critical Inner City Press from. The questions included Turkish state media asking for praise of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, South African state media coyly asking for criticism of Trump and getting only evasion (Guterres will take money from anyone); Qatar's Al Jazeera asking for a Qatar sound byte, useless ANSA lobbying a softball about "COVAX" and Guterres blathering about mis-information, meaning any criticism of him.

  Before, these stage directions from the UN Correspondents Association, with Xinhua and Saudi funded media on the board:

 "Dear colleagues,  The Secretary-General will hold a press briefing tomorrow, Friday, November 20th at 12:30 PM in the Press Briefing Room S-237 with a limited amount of journalists present with distancing restrictions and the rest will continue to participate virtually on the Webex platform.  Only a maximum of 10 UN correspondents with 6 resident correspondents, 1 non-resident correspondents [sic], and 3 photographers can be safely accommodated. Thank you for your attention and cooperation.  Valeria Robecco President, United Nations Correspondents Association."

Inner City Press on the morning of November 20 asked Guterres, spokesman Stephane Dujarric, Melissa Fleming and others 100+ questions including, on this, "As to SG Guterres's November 20 press conference, (1) how it is legitimate to outsource access to the UN Correspondents Association, which self-servingly decided six "resident correspondents" (some of whom publish nothing), 1 "non resident correspondents" [sic] and three photographers -- does that include or not include the publicly-paid UN Photo staff, or those who purport to both be UN Photo and resident correspondents? On what basis is Inner City Press, which has questions, banned even from posing question(s) by WebEx? How is this not just censorship?"  

  "Everyone accessing UN premises in New York confirms that they have not had    -       Any COVID-19 symptoms in the past 14 days  -       A positive COVID-19 test in the past 14 days  -       Close contact with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 case in the past 14 days."   

 What a scam - Guterres evaded quarantine, and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric briefs maskless daily, give feet above Al Jazeera's Bays who takes off his mask. The UN Censorship Alliance - with Saudi Arabia. Inner City Press will have more on this - watch this site.

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