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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, July 14 –How corrupt has Antonio Guterres made the UN? Before roughing up and banning Inner City Press in July 2018 and since as it asks about his failure to disclose his links to UN briber CEFC China Energy, in March 2018 Guterres and his deputy Amina J. Mohammed remained silent as Nigeria openly violated international refugee law by sending 47 people to Cameroon. On 22 March 2018, Inner City Press asked Nigeria's Permanent Representative to the UN Tijjani Muhammad Bande about the 47 people. Videohere. He replied that he cannot answer, he doesn't know all the facts. "I would need information" about it, he said, "I am looking for verification." Now banned for 376 days and counting, including from even covering the UN General Assembly, Inner City Press will have more on this.

 Even then Inner City Press was told that a basis of its restriction  in the UN by Guterres was its use of Periscope. It is a position that the UN was unwilling to put in writing, despite requests from September 2017 through January 2018, because it is so clearly retaliatory. But Inner City Press was told that its live-streaming, from the 38th floor to the third floor from which it was evicted, is not appreciated by UN officials who themselves rarely use, and don't understand, new media. The UN cannot admit that it is for critical coverage of Guterres, failing for example on Cameroon, or his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed with her rosewood signature scandal, that it remains evicted and restricted. So they point to a new technology, live-stream video on Periscope, for which the UN has not promulgated any rules. Before streaming from the third floor, Inner City Press explicitly asked the Department of Public Information to provide an escort or minder and was told it was not necessary. Those in the chain at DPI include Hua Jiang and Darren Farrant, who don't tweet much less Periscope, and Alison Smale - now after a tenure of censorship with Inner City Press still banned prepares to leave.

  On UN corruption Macau-based businessman Ng Lap Seng's assistant Jeffrey Yin was sentenced to seven months in prison. During the two hour sentencing argument, repeated reference was made to Yin's role in wiring money from Ng's Chinese bank to Terra Trading in Francis Lorenzo's Dominican Republic. As Inner City Press reported, El Salvador's Ambassador Carlos Garcia wrote a letter supporting the now clearly corruption transfer - and yet he is still involved in UN "Sustainable Development Goals" circles. Yet the UN is apparently not even monitoring the case and sentencing(s). On 1 March 2018 Inner City Press asked Antonio Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: Yesterday in the Southern District Federal Court, the aide, Jeffrey Yin, to Ng Lap Seng, which was convicted of UN bribery, was sentenced to seven months in prison, and it was a long, two-hour sentencing argument in which a lot of information came out about the UN.  I wanted to know whether the UN had anyone monitoring that, to ensure that those involved at the UN are held accountable, interviewed?

Spokesman:  It's not a question I'm able to answer right now." And he never did - only arranged for Inner City Press to be roughed up and banned.

On 29 March 2018 Inner City Press asked Guterres' top three spokespeople a simple question: "where *is* the Secretary General? And where will he be, each day prior to his appearance Monday in Geneva? Again, has the Secretary General or anyone in his team spoken with Michel Sidibe of UNAIDS following the reports of his threats to staff who have come forward with harassment complaints?" Past noon on March 30, despite Guterres' spokespeople putting out  statement from him about Liberia, no answer. On March 29 Guterres refused to answer Inner City Press' question about sexual harassment at UNAIDS, about which Inner City Press had been asking the UN all year. Then as since, Guterres covers up sexual harassment.

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