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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Periscope
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UN GATE, Oct 1 – In the United Nations, a list of speakers for the UN General Assembly week Sept 22-29 was released, photo here.

  On September 14, the day before Volkan Bozkir took over as President of the General Assembly, Inner City Press wrote to his spokesperson Brenden Varma "to request the password(s) to access and ask a question at the September 15 press conference."

  Varma replied, "This will be my first hybrid press conference, and I’m not sure how virtual access works. Please follow up with MALU."

   MALU, run by Melissa Fleming, has not answered. So Inner City Press emailed Varma this question: Why is there NO CONTENT on the PGA's "Ethics and Transparency" page, given that this was the lone reform after it was shown that PGA Ashe took bribes from Ng Lap Seng, and PGA Kutesa arranged bribes from CEFC China Energy? How much did Mr. Bozkir spend on his campaign for PGA? Who paid for all travel? Who are the staff members and who is paying each one?

  The response? Brenden Varma, "spokesman" of PGA, blocked Inner City Press on Twitter. Photo here. This is the UN, and Bozkir.

Now after the block of Inner City Press' IP address from accessing UN website was lifted after it told Varma's mentor Stephane Dujarric that Volker Turk's briefing was on UNTV, we belatedly see this: "The Office of the President of the 74th Session of the General Assembly currently has 44 team members (including the President)... 26 staff are seconded from member states 8 staff are provided for by regular UN budget (4 administrative assistants, 2 from the senior executive team, 1 team leader and 1 Special Adviser) 5 staff are recruited through voluntary contributions to the OPGA Trust Fund 4 secondments from the UN system – DESA, UNICEF, and DGC."

Inner City Press asked, But that doesn't comply even with the lame post-Ashe reform -- who pays the 26 staffers? Why hide the ball?

Now a mere two days after the above on October 1, the number have changed, untransparent and now not credible: "16 staff are seconded from Member States."  So the number changed -- including 74 to 75 - but still no transparency.

Update: New spin of incompetent censors in  @UN_PGA  office - on September 28, 2020 they published data from the previous year. Totally incompetent

Corrupt - Inner City Press must be allowed to enter and ask questions by these censors.

  Now while refusing all of Inner City Press' written questions about it while entertaining Al Jazeera's questions, it emerges that Bozkir took $500,000 from Qatar - for what? - and still refuses to disclose who works for him, much less who pays them. Interim profiles here (Toni-Shae Freckleton, and Inga Kanchaveli) and here (Nehali Anupriya - nepotism). Inner City Press should be immediately admitted for UNGA 2020 and electronic briefings.

   Ghoulishly, while blocking Inner City Press and refusing its question about PGA Office transparency, Varma bragged that the Office's 33 staff come from 30 countries - but the link was blocked to Inner City Press' IP address. Still, for now we have this (Turkey-heavy) list, and the "Ethics" page still doesn't say who pays them. They should be ashamed and we'll have more on this, and these: "Tegan Brink, Chef de Cabinet, SENIOR CABINET Farrukh Khan, Deputy Chef de Cabinet; Oncu Keceli [Turkish], Deputy Chef de Cabinet; Ceren Ozgur Senior Political Adviser [Turkish dipomat]; Alexandre Stutzmann, Special Adviser, UN 75 Strategy & Implementation

ADMINISTRATION Faisal Ibrahim, Special Adviser to the Chef de Cabinet & Head of Administration; Keithlin Caroo, Personal Assistant to the President of the General Assembly; Evelyn Ojwang, Executive Assistant to the Chef de Cabinet; Meriem Heddache, Administrative Assistant

COMMUNICATIONS & MEDIA Brenden Varma, Director of Communications & Spokesperson [censor]; Orla Murphy, Speechwriter; Amy Quantrill, Deputy Spokesperson & Lead Speechwriter [paid for by UK?]; Carl Mercer, Communications Adviser & Speechwriter; Denise Kling, Communications Adviser; Nevena Toaso, UN75 Communications & Events

PEACE AND SECURITY Saada Hassan, Team Leader; Woo-jung Han, Senior Adviser; Hanizah Mohd Izzuddin, Adviser; Muhammed Enes Uslu, Adviser

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT Toni-Shae Freckleton, Team Leader; LIU Shaoxuan, Adviser; Mohammed Shaker, Adviser; Sara Al Ahmed, Adviser; Nehali Anupriya, Adviser

HUMAN RIGHTS [ha] & HUMANITARIAN Hila Wesa, Team Leader; Gail Farngalo, Senior Adviser and Gender Equality Lead; Igor Bondiuk Adviser' Anna Fritzsche Adviser

REFORM [ha], LEGAL AND BUDGET Fernando Marani, Team Leader & Chief Legal Adviser [that's a laugh - open censorship]; Peter Stone Senior Adviser; Inga Kanchaveli Senior Adviser; Ahmad Almaududy Amri Adviser; Youssef El Mezouaghi Adviser."

Watch this site.

 Most resident correspondents write nothing, or only propaganda. And who will decide on these "very limited non-resident" [sic] who will be allowed in? Varma called on three separate Turkish media... This is the beginning of a series. Thread here.

 In the first morning there are China and Russia, Qatar, Morocco and Iran. Cameroon's Paul Biya  is on Friday September 24. Watch this site.

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