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By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR  Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 27 – How corrupt and hypocritical is the United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres? So much so that after cultivating a press corps including no-show sycophants while banning the Press which asks questions, now his UN on April 26 has said the sycophants have to swipe in. They don't have to produce any articles or, God forbid, questions UN corruption. (On which, April 25 Inner City Press interview, from 44:40.)

But Guterres' team has sent the below, including to no-shows Giampaolo Pioli and others, on which Inner City Press banned now 297 days for questioning Guterres' corruption on China and failure on Cameroon will be following up, beyond the Periscope videos it streamed to show the abuse before Guterres and Alison Smale had it roughs up, ousted and banned: "From: Tal Mekel, mekel [at] un.org Date: Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 2:10 PM Subject: Note on attendance To:    Dear resident correspondents,  As you know, MALU is responsible for ensuring the offices assigned to media outlets are being used in accordance with the requirements and agreements (on average 2-3 times a week).  To that end, we have long been monitoring by visiting the offices at various times of day.  Due to the unpopularity of these check-ins, we plan to implement a less intrusive system, which we believe will be better for all parties.  In the next few weeks, we will place several card readers for use of resident correspondents on the 3rd and 4th floors, and in the MALU office.  These readers are completely separate from the security access system. However, we will still be able to use the UN ID to swipe, for your convenience. Your IDs will need to be registered by MALU once a year, upon renewal of the pass.  We don’t expect correspondents to swipe every time you arrive or leave UNHQ – swiping once during the day will suffice to demonstrate you were at UNHQ.  The devices will only register basic information about time of swipe, which will only be seen by MALU.  The goal is not to monitor movements, but just to help verify over a period of time that journalists with offices, or are on the wait-list, are fulfilling their obligations.  This will help us allocate office space equitably.  We will update you in the coming days to register the IDs. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.  Have a nice weekend, Tal     Tal Mekel  Chief, Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit  Department of Global Communications  United Nations  Room S-250."

Inner City Press is informed that, for once, there is push back. Raghida Dergham who brags about never having to go to the UN is predicted to be up in arms, just as she protested above Mekel and got to keep a solo office S315 though she never goes. Then there's the former UN Correspondents Association (1986) president and Egyptian state correspondent, Sanaa Youssef of Akbar al Youm to whom the UN gave Inner City Press' shared work space but who has yet to ask a single question. And another former UNCA president Giampaoli Pioli, who promised to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN for its accurate reporting on his conflict of interest in renting one of his Manhattan apartments to Sri Lanka's Ambassador and alleged war criminal (in the white flag killings case) Palitha Kohona then giving a "UN screening" to his propaganda film, rarely comes in. He still maintains S-422A-a, just as one of his henchmen has S-348B (there are more). We'll have more - will the UN, which claimed it threw Inner City Press out for daring to report on the UN Budget Committee when it actually met, at 10 pm, follow through on this? Watch this site.

   In the midst of Inner City Press' questioning in 2018 about Guterres' links to now convicted UN bribery Patrick Ho's China Energy Fund Committee and Guterres' failures on Cameroon and elsewhere, his UN Security twice roughed up Inner City Press on June 22 and July 3, 2018.

Then after Inner City Press filed a New York Police Department complaint against the UN and its Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins, none of its written questions to UN Security chief Peter Drennen and Guterres were answered. There are no due process rights for journalists in the UN of Guterres. On April 15, a year minus a day since the UN accredited Inner City Press on 16 April 2018, Inner City Press submitted a formal application and letter for re-accreditation, including in light of the guilty verdict and sentencing against Patrick Ho of CEFC (video here), financial links to which Guterres has failed to disclose and has for 287 days sought to censor to conceal.

On the morning of April 17, without any reasoning or explanation, this: "Greetings Matthew LEE from ICP     INNER CITY PRESS,  Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M66561081, has been declined." Just as there was no hearing, no action on assault by UN DSS Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins, and not appeals process, no reasons. Absolute lawless corruption.

The letter was sent to Guterres, his USG Alison Smale and her "personal assistant" Alison Corbet, his chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti and her staffer Eihab Omaish, his Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed and her chief of staff Nelson Muffuh, as well as to PGA Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces, her chief of staff  Kwabena Oseidanquah, her spokesperson Monica Grayley and staffers Nadia Kalb and Raquel Martins, to MALU chief Tal Mekel and others still to be named  along with a simple request for confirmation of receipt. Even this they had not done, a full 38 hours later. From what's been submitted: "A year ago on 16 April 2018 I was re-accredited to enter and cover the United Nations, as for many years before. Then I asked more and more questions about the Patrick Ho / CEFC China Energy UN bribery scandal, about the Secretary General, about Cameroon - and on 22 June 2018 I was pushed out of the UN Visitors Lobby while other non-resident correspondents remained there.    On 3 July 2018 as I covered the UN Budget Committee meetings as I have for years, I was physically roughed up by UN DSS Lt Ronald Dobbins and another who refused to give his name. On July 5 I was told I could not enter the UN and this remains the case, with no hearing and no appeal.     Now just less than a year since I was accredited, before the above and other facts of record, I am submitting this formal application for accreditation which you grant to correspondents who report far less, and far less critically, on the UN than Inner City Press.    It is particularly imperative that Inner City Press be allowed to enter and attend the noon briefing as hundreds of my questions have gone unanswered despite USG Smale's assurance to UNSR David Kaye, and Spokesman Dujarric's on camera assurance.    

Beyond the hundreds of articles covering the UN since the arbitrary ouster of 3 July 2018, for the record:  March 29, 2019, Hong Kong TV documentary on Patrick Ho CEFC, Inner City Press in front of UN and SDNY...

   For years Guterres received money as a board member of the Calouste Galbenkian Foundation, which despite its name is the 100% owner of Partex Oil and Gas. Partex has operations in Angola, Abu Dhabi, Brazil, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Oman and Portugal. It was to a Portuguese court that Guterres, while justifying no listing some of his income, disclosed in 2016 that he was paid at least € 2735 per month for his position with the Gulbenkian Foundation.

   But while a now deleted Foundation web page (archived here) stated that Guterres continued with Gulbenkian into 2018, Guterres did not list it on his most recent, and so far lone, UN Public Financial Disclosure, which covered 2016 ("Disclosing financial and other interests for the 2016 reporting year").

  So why did Guterres disclose his position with the Club of Madrid, but not with the Gulbenkian Foundation / Partex Oil and Gas?  Inner City Press has a right to re-enter and pursue these questions.

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