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By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 5 – At the UN, the door for access to the public gallery of the UN Security Council had been locked for days. On March 27, Inner City Press asked and was told it was at the request of the Office of the President of the General Assembly, so that people didn't "wander" into their office on the UN's third floor. Since then, ghoulishly, the door has been unlocked to some journalists and not others -- the Press evicted by the UN cannot get through, and missed a Council stakeout. This is the two tier carrot and stick UN of Antonio Guterres and Alison Smale - if you don't criticize the UN you have access, if you pursue UN corruption stories, you are hindered. At the March 27 UN noon briefing, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access asked the spokesman for the PGA, who said on camera that he would look into it. Video here. Later he emailed Inner City Press: "I can confirm that OPGA did not make any sort of request to have the 3rd floor doors locked. That was a decision by UN Security. In that regard, questions on this matter should be directed to the UN Secretariat." But on March 28 the door remained locked (Inner City Press Periscope video here). So at noon on March 28 Inner City Press asked Secretariat spokesman Farhan Haq, who didn't answer during the on camera briefing but later emailed Inner City Press this: "UN Security has explained that the doors are locked as a security measure to prevent any visitors wandering away from their guided tour into the Secretariat Building.  Once they are in this building, they said, they have full access to most of the floors." So it's true - in the name of keeping the public out (of the Secretariat), the UN is keeping people out of the public gallery of the Security Council. And where is the Department of Public Information, which is supposed to advocate but instead engages in censorship? Before a 9:20 am photo opportunity before the meeting of German Foreign Minister Heike Mass and Secretary General Antonio Guterres, many complained about the door, about reclusive head of UN Department of Public Information Alison Smale and her too-friendly interlocutor, the UN Correspondents Association. "All they want to do is have parties," a long time UN correspondent, not this one, said. This UN Department of Public Information, acting against Press coverage of UN corruption cases, without hearing or appeal had Inner City Press physically ousted from the UN.  Audio here.

 And now, as with the door on the 4th floor that allows only "resident correspondents" to use the bathroom, there are two tiers of access to the Security Council. The Press which alone asked about the restriction on all at Stephane Dujarric's noon briefing - is left without access, others who didn't ask (and in the case of Egypt state media Akhbar al Yom's Sanaa Youssef don't come and and haven't asked a question in ten years) now have more access. State media indeed.

 Since then DPI's requirement that Inner City Press unlike other media have minders to stake-out public events in the UN has continued.  On March 22 Inner City Press sought to cover the General Assembly event on water, with for example Lake Chad having shrunk by 90%. But to get to the GA, unlike other state and sycophant journalists, Inner City Press had to get a DPI minder, and then had to build its own cage, admitted of blue rope. There were already journalists there, with no cage, including one from a country under multiple sanction. But today's UN trusts their state media, not the investigative Press. UNTV didn't even have Antonio Guterres' speech on, initially. But outside, even behind the rope, Inner City Press was approached by the Permanent Representative of out of the Lake Chad countries, who said if nothing is done in ten years the Lake is gone. The decade of water - will today's UN fail again? The rapper Pitbull cancelled on the UN, for an 11:15 am press conference.
The UN has been targeting not only Inner City Press for censorship through its Department of Public Information under Alison Smale, but also its sources, for retaliation. It was reported and quoted here:  "Looks like UN is making efforts to ID people who send stuff to media: 'Identified a computer used to print an email that was later leaked to Inner City Press, by correlating an URL on the top of the leaked document with Webmail & DHCP logs.' Are they punishing whistleblowers?"

Well, yes. And the investigative Press.

On March 14, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq about the above-quoted and he said, since the UN has confidential information it can and does investigate leaks and leakers. Video here. The decay or need for reform at the UN Department of Public Information was shown again on March 12, when DPI's UN Photo called Arancha Gonzalez of the ITC the UN National Security Adviser, here, and on March 14, when its Alison Smale found time to praise with presence the Saudi event on women, Periscope here (Smale was called USG for DPI and not "global communications" as she aspires to - apparently it justifies her ongoing lawless censorship) while still not responding to months of petitions about having content neutral rules for free press.  This came just days after March 9, when DPI's now flagship UN News mis-named the UN's scandal plagued peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic “MONUSCO” instead of its actual name MINUSCA. Photo here; DPI also mistakenly called Najat Rochdi a "High Commissioner." That came on the same day that DPI chief Alison Smale was criticized, both fairly and unfairly, in a General Assembly meeting held in the Trusteeship Council. Inner City Press, covering the meeting but only with the escort or minder that Smale's DPI requires of it but not more than a hundred less prolific, less critical and seldom present correspondents, put questions after Smale's holdover adviser Hua Jiang sped out of the meeting to a critic, then politely to Smale herself. She acknowledged little action to date on the criticisms, at least one of which should have been directed to the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management. But all bureaucratic niceties aside, how can a former New York Times editor have presided without explanation or response over a system of press accreditation with no rules, with blatant targeted restrictions, for more the six months? In October Smale said she acknowledged the need for the “courtesy” of a response to the Press' petitions - which has yet to come - and on March 9 seemed to indicate an acknowledgment of the need for rules. But where are they? After the reiterated exchange, Inner City Press demurred for days. On March 12 it reiterated the request for rules, to Smale, Guterres and his chief of staff, and Deputy Amina J. Mohammed: "Dear USG Smale, SG Guterres, DSG Mohammed & CdC Ribeiro: I am writing to formalize my oral request to USG Smale on March 9. Specifically, that Inner City Press be given an opportunity to be heard on why, after now more than two years of restricted access to the UN for having pursued the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery story into the UN Press Briefing Room, it should be restored to its long time office and resident correspondent status. Beyond my particular case - on which Special Rapporteur David A. Kaye wrote to DPI about the lack of due process, here. There is as I mentioned again to USG Smale on March 9 the need for UN rules not only on how a journalist gets due process before any eviction, but also for how a once-evicted journalist can pursue reinstatement. I have been told I am not even on any list, as correspondents who ask less and produce less than I do about the UN have come after I was evicted, and been made resident correspondents. I have covered, among other stories, Cameroon, DPRK, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Sudan, the new (Nov 2017) UN bribery case of Patrick Ho and CEFC China Energy and the issues raised by a UN Security Inspector openly praising a controversial GA speech (the Iran bomb fuse cartoon speech), in both 2016 and this month - and for this last story, I'm told I face further complaints or restrictions. Similarly lawlessly, as I live-streamed on Periscope a recent SG photo op with Egypt's new Ambassador I was suddenly told by UN Security that I could not record audio, even as UNTV recorded audio. This is Kafka-esque and must end, this month which marks the 25th month. I will be trying to cover the UNSC and CSW, with the absurdly required DPI minder or escort. A meeting on this should be held this week by USG Smale or one of you." 24 hours, nothing. We will continue on this. The deadline is now. Watch this site.

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