| While
UN Uses
Security to
Ban Press
Michaud Email
to Staff about
Cutbacks Is
Leaked Here
by
Matthew Russell Lee
UN GATE, Nov 19
–
On World Press
Freedom Day,
the United
Nations of
Antonio
Guterres
claimed to be
in support of
journalists
being able to
do their work
without
hinderance.
But UN Global
Communications
chief Melissa
Fleming put
out a video of
Guterres
equating what
he (and she)
characterize
as
disinformation
as the threat
to press
freedom,
Guterres has banned
Inner City
Press from
entering the
UN since 2018,
when it exposed
the omission
of links to
bribery firm
CEFC China
Energy from
his financial
disclosure.
On
June 19, 2025,
Inner City
Press
submitted an
application to
cover the UN
General
Assembly,
letter here.
Five
months later,
nothing. No
answer.
Totally
corrupt. And
now we
exclusively
publish this,
leaked to
Inner City
Press by UN
whistleblowers,
from the head
of UN Security
Gilles Michaud
who is
complicit in a
non-public
permanently
banned from
the UN without
due process
list:
Dear
colleagues,
I would like
to update you
on our
restructuring
process, with
a focus on our
field
operations.
As
you recall, we
were forced to
initiate this
process
earlier this
year when the
Finance and
Budget Network
(FBN) decided
on a 20%
reduction to
our JFA budget
for 2026. This
budget funds
primarily our
operations in
the field as
well as parts
of
HQ.
We reviewed
and
reconfigured
our
operational
footprint. In
the field,
this has meant
painful but
inevitable
decisions:
closing
certain
offices,
reducing team
sizes, and
establishing
more
multi-country
offices. At
HQ, it has
required
consolidating
desks and
reorganizing
several
units.
Second, staff
were invited
to express
interest in
Agreed
Termination/Early
Separation.
To help limit
involuntary
separations,
we also
carried out a
matching
exercise
within DFO to
reassign
affected
international
staff from
posts that
were being
frozen to
posts in the
new footprint
– either
current
vacancies or
positions
becoming
vacant from
agreed
terminations.
This process
helped us
preserve a
number of jobs
and reduce the
number of
colleagues
facing
separation.
However,
we were not
able to
replicate this
exercise for
national
staff, simply
because
locally
recruited
personnel
cannot be
moved
internationally.
Without the
flexibility of
international
mobility, we
were unable to
match national
colleagues to
alternative
positions in
the same way.
Despite all
efforts, the
scale of the
budget cuts
means that 33
of our locally
recruited
colleagues
have now
received
separation
notices.
Several
peace
operations are
now reviewing
their
Integrated
Security
Workforce
structures in
light of their
own budget
pressures, and
any
adjustments
they make will
naturally
affect
colleagues
serving in
those
components.
Looking ahead,
we cannot yet
know what 2026
holds for the
UN and for
UNDSS. Later
in December,
we will hear
from the
General
Assembly on
the SG’s
revised
estimates,
which includes
a proposed
16.7% cut to
our Regular
Budget (the
other half of
our budget
which funds
much of our
uniformed
Safety and
Security
Services).
Sincerely,
Gilles
Gilles
Michaud
Under-Secretary-General,
UNDSS
There
has been no
answer to an appeal
to Guterres
head of
security
Gilles
Michaud.
But
now, with
Inner City
Press' UN and
SDNY covering,
including the
Sean Combs
trial, being
picked up all
over the
world, the application.
Watch this
site.
***
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