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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 16 – How lawless is the United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres? 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 286 days sought to censor to conceal. The letter was sent to Guterres, his USG Alison Smale and staff, his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and staff, his chief of staff Maria Luiza Viotti and others whom we will name, along with a simple request for confirmation of receipt. Even this they had not done, a full 24 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.    

This request is submitted in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision limiting the impunity of international organization such as the UN, see JAMS v IFC, and in light of recent decision that for example the City of New York cannot strip a journalist's accreditation without a hearing and due process, discovery and disclosure.   

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  

April 3, 2019, Serbia's Espreso, "US journalist Metju Li [Matthew Lee] on a corruption scandal," etc; it is supplemented by a more than 6,533 signature petition that my resident correspondent accreditation and Inner City Press' long time shared office S-303 be immediately restored.  

USG Smale's 17 August 2018 letter, which I contest in its entirety, recycles and re-cast events from well before my April 2018 accreditation. I have, in your own files, contested the events dredged up: Maher Nasser claim that I cannot record at an acknowledged stakeout position, the Morocco mission's frivolous complaint about my coverage at the UNSC stakeout, which even your office acknowledged to me was frivolous. Your office told me no escort or minder was needed to Periscope on the 3rd or 4th floors - I asked -and whether it was a "garage ramp" or "parking lot" I was supposed found in, my non resident pass open both doors, and I was summoned to the parking lot senior UN official(s) to receive information and documents.   On these and the grounds set forth in my letters to the SG, USG Drennan (regarding the assault(s) on me by DSS, still not acted on), USG Smale and OIOS, I demand to be treated the same as the state media representatives you have been accrediting to cover the GA. 

While I was reduced to a non-resident correspondent accreditation, my years' long resident accreditation was removed without any hearing then or appeal since by now the departed USG of DPI. That no due process decision has been raised in the UN Human Rights Council, twice; it has been the subject of letters to the UNSG from the Government Accountability Project and others and to DPI from the UN Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression and on Human Rights Defenders.

 Your actions and those of USG Smale have been listed in the US Press Freedom Tracker, here. Beyond the InnerCityPress.com articles to be found in Google News (and Lexis-Nexis, etc), my work covering the UN and for example Patrick Ho's indictment and now conviction and sentencing to three years in prison for UN bribery has been picked up and cited in Serbia, Hong Kong, Uganda and the Czech Republic. Inner City Press' exclusives about cost overruns in the UN Support Office in Somalia have been picked up in Somali; others in Kenya, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. This letter incorporates what I sent to the acting Officer in Charge of DPI in April 2017 and to the Under Secretary General of DPI since, and my letter to you in January; Inner City Press notes not only that S-303A is virtual unused but also that DPI has granted resident correspondent status to media who come into the UN less often, and who ask and report less. This is a request for restoration of S-303 and resident correspondent access immediately, after systematically being hindered in reporting for example on meeting on the Conference Building's 2d floor in ways other correspondents aren't.   While noting that the UN accreditation guidelines state "online media may include news outlets, blogs, vlogs and others," we and the Free UN Coalition for Access reiterate and will be advocating for greater access by new and social media, including for the UN to belatedly define what it means by "wire service." See also, on the need for a UN FOIA, this. It is also imperative that the UN institute due process protections, and content neutral accreditation rules, for journalists. But for now, this is a demand for the same access I have had to cover the UN and as state media with many fewer articles and questions have from your Office, and to restore my resident correspondent accreditation, and S303, forthwith, during this month you are handing such status to some (including as is relevant in S-303, Inner City Press' work-space) who rarely come in, publish little and ask no questions at all.  Thank you.  Sincerely,  Matthew Russell Lee, Esq., Inner City Press Past (and future?) Office at UN: Room S-303, UN HQ, NY NY 10017."

  How has the UN become so corrupt? Take for example the 18 March 2019 UN Photo with this caption: "Secretary-General António Guterres (centre right) poses for a group photo with the Executive Committee of the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA).  First row from left to right: Betul Yuruk (Anadolu Agency); Giampaolo Pioli (Quotidiano Nazionale); Edith Lederer (Associated Press); Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Chef de Cabinet; Valeria Robecco (ANSA News Agency), UNCA President; Mr. Guterres; Alison Smale, Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications; Maria Khrenova (TASS News Agency); Seana Magee (Kyodo News); and Oscar Bolanos (OMB News).   Second row from left to right: Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General; Sherwin Bryce-Pease (SABC South Africa); Farnaz Fassihi (Wall Street Journal); Widad Franco (NHK Japan Broadcasting); Melissa Kent (CBC/Radio-Canada); Nabil Abi Saab (Al Hurra TV); Luke Vargas (Talk Media News); Carole Landry (Agence France Presse); and Erol Avdovic (Webpublicapress)." We'll have more on this.

While Guterres was refusing throughout 2018 to begin any UN audit into China Energy Fund Committee, implicated in the UN bribery prosecution US v Patrick Ho, Guterres had a secret: his role on the board of Gulbenkian Foundation which was trying to sell its Partex Oil affiliate to CEFC. See Inner City Press' first exclusive report here.

   A now-removed Gulbenkian Foundation web page says Guterres continued as a board member into 2018. Archived here. In fact it was on 9 February 2018 that Gulbenian tweeted that Guterres was no longer on the board - AFTER it was reported that Gulbenian was trying to sell, or even had already sold, Partex to CEFC. This is called guilty knowledge.

   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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