UNITED NATIONS,
October 18 – The UN maintains
a secret list of people banned
from entering its premises.
Inner City Press, after being
roughed up by UN Security
while covering the UN Budget
Committee on 3 July 2018 has
been put on the list,
apparently not by Security but
rather the UN Department of
Public Information under
Alison Smale. Relatedly,
Smale's Media Accreditation
and Liaison Unit (MALU) seized
Inner City Press' journalistic
equipment including its
cameras. Inner City Press has
repeatedly asked to be
permitted to enter, under
escort if demanded, and at
least recoup its cameras. But
Smale's MALU has without
explanation refused, and as of
noon on October 18 -- 107 days
after seizing the cameras --
could not explain where they
are, nor why it never
responded in any way to Inner
City Press' application in
early September to cover UN
General Assembly high level
week. Nor has Smale's MALU run
by Tal Mekel answered these
Press questions: "I had asked
that I simply be allowed in,
escorted if necessary, to get
them. Since even this was
denied, I am asking you now:
What is this
banned-from-the-UN or “current
and active barred notice”
list? How can you Department
of Public Information, beyond
withdrawing media
accreditation in order to
censor, also bar the
journalist as a person from
entering the UN? I was barred
from CPJ's and Reuters' press
freedom event, and from a
UNODC film screen even though
accompanied by the head of
UNODC's office. What is this
list? How many people are on
it? Is anyone else given
notice? (I wasn't). What is
the appeals process? How many
people has MALU put on it?"
MALU, and Guterres' spokesmen
despite Smale's claim the UN
answers Press questions, have
not answered. The UN has gone
rogue. When Inner City Press
exposed the existence of
Guterres' banned list, with
audio and video, Google's
YouTube immediately declared
the video "not suitable for
most advertisers." Which
ones would it
not be
suitable for?
Inner City
Press appealed
and on October
18 the YouTube
Team replied,
After manually
reviewing 2 of
your videos,
we’ve
determined
that they are
suitable for
all
advertisers:
By contrast, the
UN does not allow any appeal
after - or hearing before -
banning a media from the UN.
That has been raised to, among
others, the Committee to
Protect Journalists, which
allowed Guterres' UN to bar
Inner City Press from their
Reuters events in the UN, and
will again today October
18. CPJ's Joel Simon and
Robert Mahoney have been informed
throughout, have done nothing
about it. Nor to our knowledge
about such demonetization: it
seems they represent
corporate, even state, media.
We'll have more on this
Guterres ban list:
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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