UNITED NATIONS,
June 28 – More than sixteen
months ago, acting against
Press coverage of Ban
Ki-moon's links to UN
corruption cases, the UN
Department of Public
Information had Inner City
Press physically
ousted from the UN.Audio
here.
Since then
an UNrelenting campaign of
harassment by UN Security
(DSS) and the requirement that
Inner City Press unlike other
media have minders to
stake-out public events in the
UN has continued.
And while DPI
including its Officer in
Charge Maher Nassser claim
that Inner City Press can work
fine, for example on June 28
to stakeout the General
Assembly's High Level meeting
on education and the SDGs
featuring Irina Bokova and
Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed in
the ECOSOC Chamber, Inner City
Press was required unlike
other media to go get a UN
minder. Further limitations
were set on it - as people
spoke to it, including
criticizing some recent
Secretariat moves, Inner City
Press was told that it had to
leave. This is censorship, for
corruption. Back on June 14
before Inner City Press went
to Haiti to hear
from the UN's cholera
victims, the UN hindered
it in staking-out the UN
speech on cholera in Haiti,
where the UN killed 10,000 by
negligently bringing the
disease, Inner City Press was
required to get a DPI minder,
who demanded from the
beginning that Inner City
Press only stakeout the first
and last minutes. A blue roped
in pen, to which only Inner
City Press was confined while
other UN correspondents,
unconcerned with Haiti,
strolled freely by. You should
leave now, Inner City Press
was told - but pushed back,
saying that Deputy SG Amina J.
Mohammed who gave the speech
(instead of Antonio Guterres)
should answer or at least have
to hear questions about
accountability. Meanwhile DPI
official who has continued
these restrictions, telling
Inner City Press it should be
grateful to be in the building
at all, is talking about
"annual leave." Inner City
Press has added the speech here,
and this additional report, here.
Watch this site. On June 7 as
Inner City Press tried to work
on its Libya scoop (UN
"strategic review" by
Jean-Marie Guehenno) even the
supposedly open bullpen area
was full of Diplomats. To this
has the UN descended:
Diplomats as "journalists,"
state media or those merely
taking dictation from
missions, with investigative
press evicted, restricted and
left nowhere to work. "New" UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres, on his 144st day in
charge of the UN on May 25, told
Inner City Press that his
reform proposals are public.
But Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
refused to give Inner City
Press even a copy of Guterres'
budget speech, much less a
chart of who he has hired on
the 38th floor. Later on May
25 an NGO
representative - who wrote
to Dujarric to get Inner City
Press thrown out of the UN -
was allowed through the
turnstile onto the UN's second
floor, where Inner City Press
cannot go without one of
Guterres' minders. This is a
new low, after Guterres put
out a statement that "on World
Press Freedom Day, I call for
an end to all crackdowns
against journalists – because
a free press advances peace
and justice for all." What
about the UN's crackdown on
the Press, without hearing or
appeal, and the crackdowns of
WIPO and FAO Inner City Press
has asked the UN about, on
before of the Free UN
Coalition for Access whose
sign DPI threatened to tear
down, before evicting Inner
City Press without a hearing
or appeal? We'll have more on
this. For now, 7-minute video
here.
Petition
here. On the afternoon
of April 26 to cover a UN
Security Council meeting about
peacekeeping in Africa, Inner
City Press unlike other media
was required to get a minder,
which was not immediately
available. After several
Ambassadors spoke to Inner
City Press, about that
meeting, Western Sahara,
Syria, North Korea, the UN's
lack of reform and other
issues, the DPI minder or
escort told Inner City Press
it had to leave. This as
Morocco state media, that used
to work for the UN, walked up
and down the second floor
freely, along with other
correspondents. This came
after Inner City Press was
banned in the morning from an
"open" meeting of the Burundi
Peacekeeping Commission, which
it covers; it asked holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
without response. While DPI
"Officer in Charge" Maher
Nasser's lone response
has been "Matthew U
have same access as 3000
other journalists," that is
false. As simply one example,
on April 25 when the UN
Security Council met on
Western Sahara, Morocco state
journalists were allowed free
access up and down the second
floor of the UN, and Inner
City Press was not. On April
26, despite claims by DPI that
DSS "gives priority" at the
metal detectors, there was a
single long line and Inner
City Press despite arriving
early was late to cover the UN
Security Council. It appears
that the DPI executive who use
accreditation as their
personal or national way to
settle scores don't even watch
the UN noon briefing, where
Inner City Press asks the most
questions. Or maybe that's the
reason for these ongoing
restrictions and threats or
worse. We'll have more on
this. Another new low: after a
few days of Inner City Press
using a table left by the UN
in the UN lobby to work,
including editing videos of
Antonio Guterres' spokesman's
non-answered about censorship
in Cameroon, on April 18 the
UN Department of Public
Information which evicted
Inner City Press for reporting
on corruption told it
"multiple people" want it to
stop using the table. On what
basis? If UN staff and others
use it? Apparently the goal is
to, post-eviction, make Inner
City Press disappear, or to
stop it from being contacted
by sources about UN
corruption. A diplomat, told
of DPI's "disgusting"
statement Requests have been
made to the top floor of the
UN. Watch this site. Also,
unlike other media, now Inner
City Press has a "witching
hour" of 7 pm, after which its
pass does not work. This
meant, for example, that the
"Peace Is" event in the
General Assembly lobby,
ironically overseen by the
Department of Public
Information and its Officer in
Charge Maher Nasser, Inner
City Press could only cover
until 6:56 pm, in the middle
of a performance of flutes and
dancers. Periscope video here.
The Officer in Charge has
still not substantively
responded to the straight
forward requests
submitted to him in writing 11
days ago. We'll have more on
this.
On April
10, Inner City Press was
required to get a UN
Department of Public
Information minder to cover a
meeting on "Ad Hoc Working
Group on the Revitalization of
the Work of the General
Assembly Third thematic debate
on the selection and
appointment of the
Secretary-General and other
executive heads." Ambassadors
then approached Inner City
Press to say, among other
things, they favored a single
term for the Secretary General
and other top officials, to
preserve independence from
pressure from the most
powerful countries to get a
second term. Then a UN
Security supervisor, who last
week banned a Latin American
ambassador from speaking to
Inner City Press, had his
underlying guard come to
demand to see Inner City
Press' minder - this while he
allowed another correspondent,
reportedly vying for a UN job,
to run down the hall after a
diplomat. Meanwhile a DPI
official stiffly walked by,
follow by the UN Security
official responsible for
this. This is today's
UN: corrupt.
More to follow.
On April
7, the annual Rwanda genocide
commemoration by the UN which
failed so badly in 1994 took
place in the Trusteeship
Council Chamber. To cover it
as it has in previous
years, Inner City Press
was required to get a DPI
minder to escort it; the
minder stayed while diplomats
approached Inner City Press to
speak, including about the
UN's current failures on Burundi
and Cameroon
as well as Yemen and Syria.
Then the DPI minder said, You
have to go, and escorted Inner
City Press back outside the
turnstile. When the event
ended Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, who had sat
on the podium with the DPI
Officer in Charge Maher Nasser
who has had before him for a
week Inner City Press' formal
request
for restoration, gave through
the turnstiles to head to the
elevator. He passed, seemingly
oblivious, by the very
location of censorship,
chatting with a staffer whose
promotion Inner City Press has
covered (which Guterres'
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric called "despicable").
This is today's UN.
Back on
April 3, the continuing
restrictions by DPI meant that
after entering through the UN
metal detectors and having its
backpack / office searched in
detail, Inner City Press has
to request a DPI "minder" to
stakeout the day's meeting on
UN Security Council reform. As
other correspondents walked by
without minders, Inner City
Press was behind a red rope.
When a Latin American
country's Permanent
Representative approached
Inner City Press to ask
questions - ironically, one
was about DPI's censorship - a
UN Security official came over
to "break it up." This is
censorship, and has been
raised.
On March
31, the day after a ghoulish farewell
event for DPI's Cristina
Gallach, Inner City Press was
still restricted, and could
not for example stake-out a UN
Security Council session about
"hybrid war" without being
overseen by a UN minder. This
is censorship.
Back on
March 23, because it is still
unlike other UN correspondents
required to enter through the
metal detectors with tourists,
Inner City Press was unable to
cover the UN Security Council
meeting beginning with UK
Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson, whom it wished to ask
about the cut off of internet
to Anglophones in Cameroon for
more than 60 days. Call it
double censorship, with the
UN's role as shameful.
Gallach's Department of Public
Information claims that the
press it has evicted is
facilitated through the metal
detectors, around tourists
whom DPI propogandizes. This
DPI claim is false, as are so
many. Mend it or end it.
On March 6,
Inner City Press had to
curtail coverage of an event
in the UN General Assembly
lobby about Sexual Violence in
Conflict, including the rapes
in Minova in Eastern Congo
about which alone asked UN
Peaekeeping's Herve Ladsous
until he stopped answering,
because of Gallach's ongoing
curfew: 7 pm. After that hour,
unlike other correspondents in
the UN, Inner City Press' pass
no longer opens even the first
turnstile (it still does not
open the second floor
turnstile at any hour).
So Inner City Press had to
suspend broadcasting amid the
speech
by new Deputy Secretary
General Amina
J. Mohammed.
Quickly before having to leave
altogether, Inner City Press
went to the Ghana National Day
it was invited to and
Periscoped the Permanent
Representative's speech,
here, including on
Security Council reform which
Inner City Press asked
Deputy SG Mohammed about and
a dance
afterward, here. And
then it had to go, under
Gallach's censorship order.
Ghoulishly, Inner City Press
is informed that Gallach may
even be re-applying to keep
the post that has been
advertised. That would be a
travesty: Gallach's unilateral
decisions must be reversed.
Watch this site.
On March
1, 2017, Inner City Press was
unable to cover an event on
the UN Conference Building's
second floor to which it had
been invited. It informed the
sponsor that due to Gallach's
evicting order and reduction
in Inner City Press'
accreditation, it can still
not get through the turnstile
to the second floor. So the
sponsor moved to put Inner
City Press on the list of
public guests to enter through
the General Assembly lobby but
was told not, that is not
possible for the Press. So,
entirely Banned - while the
Egyptian state media to which
Gallach is trying to give
Inner City Press' long time
shared office, Akhbar al Yom,
rarely comes in, and asks no
questions at all.
Meanwhile, despite the top job
of DPI that Gallach has so
badly mishandled being opened
for applications, on March 1
some said Gallach is trying to
stay on in the job. That would
be a travesty, not only in
light of her no due process
eviction of and continuing
restrictions on the Press, but
also her failure to do any due
diligence on Ng Lap Seng,
under house arrest for UN
bribery. Gallach is
responsible for DPI's "Wonder
Woman as UN Ambassador"
fiasco, and paid public funds
for a trainer to tell
DPI-accredited NGOs that
Detroit, Michigan is a "third
rate city" in "flyover
country." Staying on at the UN
even now reflects what's wrong
and budget cut-worthy in
today's UN. Anything past
March 31, in any capacity,
would just make it worse.
Watch this site.
The
continuing hindrance of Inner
City Press' coverage ranges
from formal General Assembly
meetings to February 20 events
on "revitalizing the General
Assembly" to the SDGs and even
the death
of Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin.
Inner City
Press arrived early at the UN
to cover revitalization or
reform, but could only get to
the area in front of the
meeting when accompanied by an
escort, and a watchful minder
throughout. Several diplomats
commented on it; some saying
they'd like to talk with the
Press, but not like this. This
is censorship, targeted
censorship. Other
correspondents who do not
cover the UN as closely or
critically wandered by without
any minders required.
After news
broke of the death of
Ambassador Churkin, Inner City
Press returned for a 3 pm
meeting at which, because of
the death, a handful of other
correspondents also staked
out. But while the UN
correctly allow them to roam,
Inner City Press was limited
to a penned in area, even as
the SDGs were discussed. Given
what DPI under Gallach claims,
this is hypocrisy, too. And it
must end.
Egyptian
state media Akhbar al Yom's
rarely present correspondent
Sanaa Youssef to whom Gallach
is trying to give Inner City
Press' shared UN office was
once again not present, and
has yet to ask a single
questions. This is a scam.
On February
17 for the tenth anniversary
of the adoption of the
International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons
from Enforced Disappearance.
Wanting to
ask about disappearance from
Kenya to Western Sahara, Inner
City Press arrived early to
get the still-required minder
to accompany it to the area in
front of the Trusteeship
Council Chamber, where other
journalists and it before the
retaliatory eviction one year
ago could go without any
minder. But there was a
delay, and be the time Inner
City Press was escorted, the
sponsors and attendees had
already gone in. A pen that
several interlocutors called
absurd was established.
Inside, a
Moroccan "inter-ministerial
delegate" talked about armed
conflict in "the southern part
of our country" - that would
be Western Sahara. France
along with Argentina announced
a pledge. But the delay and
restrictions made it
impossible to pursue these or
other questions. This is a
pattern.
Back on
January 24, there was an event
ironically about "propaganda."
Here
was the definition given, in this
tweeted photo.
While the
event went on, Inner City
Press under Gallach's 11-month
old eviction order was
required to leave before 7 -
its UN pass stops working in
UN turnstiles at that time.
On January
17, for an event involving
Gallach herself as a speaker,
despite having been invited --
not by the UN -- and having
its RSVP confirmed, Inner City
Press was stopped by UN
Security and not allowed to
enter. Video
here.
In any event, with the
UN pass that Gallach has
reduced, Inner City Press
cannot get through any
turnstiles to work after 7 pm.
Gallach herself appears in the
UN Office of Internal
Oversight Services audit
of the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe
(RIP) UN bribery case, at
Paragraphs 37-40 and 20b, as
having done no due diligence
of Ng Lap Seng's buying of UN
events and even its Slavery
Memorial. Audit
here.
She
and Ban Ki-moon, to punish and
make more difficult coverage
of their links to these cases,
evicted Inner City Press and
restrict it to this day, 11
months later. As to Ban, Inner
City Press on January 17
appeared in a 19-minute interview
about corruption and
censorship on Seoul's TBS
radio. On the lower
profile, entirely
unaccountable Gallach, we'll
have more.
This is a litmus
test of press (UN) freedom.
Gallach's
censorship order of February
2016 prevented Inner City Press
in December 2016, for the first
time in years, from covering the
UN budget process, including on
human rights and Burundi,
another of Ban Ki-moon's
failures.
For years Inner City Press has
been virtually alone in covering
the late night Fifth (Budget)
Committee session in which
billions of dollars are carved
up. But in 2016 for the first
time, following Gallach's
retaliatory eviction order and
ghoulish restriction regime of
minders and the putting off of
pass, Inner City Press could not
cover the budget.
By seizing Inner
City Press' long time office --
and awarding it to an Egypt
state media Akhbar al Yom whose
correspondents Sanaa Youssef
rare comes to the UN and never
asks questions -- Gallach and
Ban have made so that Inner City
Press cannot enter the UN after
7 pm. But that, of course, is
when the budget process happens.
In December 2016,
for example, Burundi cut the
funds for human rights observers
and the UN mission the Security
Council mandated but has yet to
deploy. Inner City Press covers
these, but was Banned from
covering the process by Gallach.
This is a cover up.
Meanwhile
Gallach is showing her true
colors with article such as that
“amateurs” killed journalism.
Really? Energetic online media
that actually covers UN
corruption is a threat to
deadbeat stenography or
non-existent journalism like
that of Akhbar al Yom's
correspondent?
Gallach is the wrong person to
have control of the UN
Department of Public
Information. She also did no due
diligence on Macau based
businessman Ng Lap Seng in the
John Ashe case, and is
responsible for the UN's Wonder
Woman fiasco. She must go.
***
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