UNITED NATIONS,
October 25 – When Inner City
Press wanted to cover a press
conference by the UN Special
Rapporteur on the implications
for human rights of the
environmentally sound
management and disposal of
hazardous substances and
wastes Baskut Tuncak on
October 15, it wanted to ask
not only about Trafigura's
dumping on Cote d'Ivoire and
others' on Somalia, but also
the UN's own poisoning
of Roma by putting them
on top of a toxic waste dump.
But Inner City Press was
barred, has been banned from
entering the UN for 113 days
by Antonio Guterres amid
questioning his performance on
Cameroon, Somalia and Haiti,
where like in Kosovo his UN
pays nothing for harm caused
while he spends public money
flying 15 times to his home in
Lisbon. Inside the brief
briefing the questions were
about Fukushima in Japan -
important to be sure, but
indicative of the blind spots
of the UN Censorship Alliance
that Guterres' no due process
(dis) accreditor works with.
Tuncak to his credit brought
up Kosovo, and even Haiti, but
no one in the UN Briefing Room
followed up on the connection.
That just the way Guterres,
Big Tony, likes it, and how
his Smale brings it about
without accountability. Inner
City Press on October 24 was
invited to a UN Day event with
panelists from Burundi, Syria,
Cameroon and South Sudan it
said yes, and was told to come
to the UN Visitors Entrance
with others to be escorted in.
But a UN Security officer,
while letting in all others,
told a UN staffer from UN
Women, Matthew Lee is banned.
After some time, UN Security
Inspector Matthew Sullivan, on
whose for profit events in the
UN and inordinate political
links Inner City Press
previously published
exclusives, came to the gate.
He said You are on the barred
list. Inner City Press asked
to see the barred list.
Sullivan said it is an
"internal document" and that
UN Security is not a police
department - which couldn't do
this - but is private. He
added that on the Freedom of
Information Law request Inner
City Press submitted to Mayor
Bill de Blasio's Police
Department regarding their
knowledge of a UN barred list,
the UN already spoke to the
NYPD, presumably to block
release of any information -
and to block any due process.
Video
here.
Inner City Press
has asked the UN: "October
24-2: Please explain how the
UN's so-called “barred list”
can, as Inspector Sullivan
told me today, be considered
an “internal document” even to
those who have been put on it
without due process, and
please also immediately
describe the UN's contacts to
discourage responses to Inner
City Press' Freedom of
Information requests, to NYPD
and elsewhere. Additionally,
please today state what was
ever done regarding Inspector
Sullivan's involvement in for
profit events in the UN, and
regarding my formal complaint
to USG Drennan regarding
assault and harassment by Lt
Dobbins and others UNnamed."
Six hours later, nothing.
Watch this site.
Before Sullivan came out,
another UN Security supervisor
told Inner City Press that
filming was "unethical" - and
when the camera was off, out
came Lt Ronald E Dobbins who
assaulted Inner City Press on
3 July 2018, no discipline, no
response, still on the
payroll. This is the UN on UN
Day under Guterres. The UN
maintains a secret list of
people banned from entering
its premises. Even the
Security officers who enforce
the ban are not told the
reason why a person is on the
list: whether it was for
actual violence, or writing
articles questioning the
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' misuse
of public funds, for example.
One told Inner City Press the
secret list includes
"demonstrators" and "political
activists," audio here.
Guterres
or apparently his head of
Global Communications Alison
Smale, if only as a proxy, can
put a journalist on the list
without any review, any
notice, any appeal. It is a
dictator's dream come true.
Inner City Press was
physically ousted twice by
Guterres' UN Security this
summer as it reported on his
now-15 flights to his home in
Lisbon with public funds, his
trading away of Cameroon human
rights abuses for favors in
the Budget Committee, and now
his son Pedro's undisclosed
business links in Africa.
Smale on August 17, without
once speaking to me covering
the UN for Inner City Press
for 11 years, withdrew my
media accreditation.
But it's
gone further than that. For
example, on October 11 I
showed up for a film screening
about sex trafficking, “Love
Sonia,” to which I had been
invited by the UN Office of
Drugs and Crimes. UNODC's New
York director personally put
me on the list for a post
screening reception and came
and met me and took me to the
UN gate to sign me in, since
my ticket - which she said
she'd seen - mysteriously
disappeared.
UN
Security refused to allow the
NY director of UNODC to sign
me in. “Even if he had a
ticket we'd have to check,”
one officer said. I was told
that a supervisor would come
out, and that UNODC would
speak to them. But after one
hour it never happened.
Guterres' chief of staff Maria
Luiza Viotti left the building
and I audibly told her, I'm
invited but I'm being blocked.
She did not even break stride.
The UN has
given me nothing in writing
that I am banned. Guterres'
spokesman has stated it as a
fact, without explanation or
rationale, on October
9 and 11, while refusing
to answer my e-mailed
questions despite Smale's
promise they would be answered
to supposedly respect my
"journalistic endeavours."
Another UN Security officer
told me, No one is going to
help you. You are on the list.
I asked him, who else is on
the list? He mentioned
“demonstrators” and "political
activists" and others. Audio here.
Tellingly,
NOT on Guterres' banned list
are those who pleaded guilty
to UN bribery for example
in the Ng Lap Seng - John Ashe
case. They are not banned by
Guterres, UNlike the
journalist who most closely
covered those convictions, and
the current
UN bribery case of Patrick Ho
and the China Energy Fund
Committee. Guterres is fine
with bribery, but bans those
who investigate and expose it.
UNSG Guterres
thinks he can ban people
without no notice, no due
process, no review? And that
it won't be noticed or
reviewed? Watch this site.
***
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