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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, May 30 – Amid his complicity in the killing of civilians in Cameroon and his refusal to even audit UN briber CEFC China Energy to which he is linked, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has used public money to fly himself and his team, including spokesman Stephane Dujarric from New York, for himself to receive the Charlemagne Prize of Aachen.

 There is no showing of benefit to the UN, much less the people it it supposed to help. There have been no answers by Dujarric to banned Inner City Press' questions including: "May 29-3: On the use of public funds, and transparency, given that you've only said SG will "travel on to Aachen in Germany, from 29 to 30 May to receive the International Charlemagne Prize, an honour which has been awarded anually since 1950 for efforts made in the service of European unification.       The Secretary-General will be back in the office on Monday, 3 June" - where will the SG be from May 30 to June 3, separately, at what cost to the public including security costs?"

   And, tellingly, there is a propaganda story about Guterres on Deutsche Welle, complete with inaccuracies.  Debased DW, or maybe just the bylined David Ehi, reports: "When he did not stand for a third term as UNHCR chief in 2015, rumors swirled that he held ambitions for the UN's top job. Guterres was initially regarded as an outsider, as many people would have preferred to see the first female UN secretary-general, preferably from Eastern Europe." No, there is a system of geographical rotation. And Guterres begged Ban Ki-moon for a one year extension at UNHCR and was turned down.

  Still, even the propaganda recounts that "In the second term of his minority government, however, he came under increasing pressure due to an unbalanced distribution of EU funds: Large chunks flowed into ambitious projects such as the 2004 European Championship in football at a time when rural infrastructure in the country was crumbling. The collapse of a bridge that left more than 70 dead and the poor PS results in local elections finally spelled the end of the Guterres government in December 2001." To try to save the UN, and lives, Guterres could not be dumped from the UN fast enough.

   But DW (or Ehi) calls Guterres a "guardian," despite the deaths he distractedly oversees, in Cameroon and elsewhere. Who is writing this stuff?

  Visible in the photo, not on the UN website, of Guterres at the Charlemagne podium is Dujarric himself, flown over for the occasion. Maybe he too will use this junket to go home, to Paris. To this has the UN, and coverage of the UN, descended.

Earlier in the year Guterres told the world, on video, to join the UN for an "urgent" Earth Hour and turn off the lights between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm on 30 March 2019. But at the UN itself, the lights were ablaze through the entire hour, as live streamed by Inner City Press here. And up at the empty $15 million mansion Guterres sometimes lives in, on Sutton Place and 57th Street, the third story lights were on, and even a UN Security car in front: pure waste. Periscope here.

  Now on Monday May 27, the mansion has been empty since Saturday, video here, but the UN won't say where Guterres has been for two days. In fact, Guterres' lead spokesman Stephande Dujarric who has refused to answer the written questions of Inner City Press whom he has banned proudly displayed the prosciutto pizza he ate on May 27, tagging (CNN) relative Federico S. Quadrani, here.

  Tellingly, Dujarric displaying his pizza to the sycophants he spoon feeds in the UN Press Briefing Room garnished Likes from the long time Voice of America correspondent Margaret Besheer with whom Dujarric worked to get Inner City Press banned, here, and for example another Dujarric crony Jon Banner now working as EVP of corporate Pepsi. Bon appetit! We'll have more on this.

  Since the UN not only conceals Guterres' use of public funds to loll around his house in Lisbon but doesn't even provide any real schedule or read outs when Guterres is ostensibly working, here's from the public schedule of Austrian "Federal President Dr. Ing. Alexander Van der Bellen - Monday, May 27th  - 3.30 pm: Conversation with UN Secretary-General António Guterres (Presidential Chancellery)." We'll have more on this. And on this, in Vienna: Uyghurs: China's Concentration Camps in a Mute World, 28 May 2019 from 18:30-20:30. Guterres, of course, is fully in the pocket of China, including after UN briber CEFC China Energy's bid to buy the oil company of Gulbenkian Foundation whose payments to Guterres were omitted, intentionally it seems clear, from Guterres' financial "disclosure" covering 2016.

On May 24 banned Inner City Press asked in writing: "May 24-4: As the SG heads to Vienna, please immediately state his position on the many UN sexual harassment issues at UNOV, on which banned Inner City Press has previously asked you (without repsonse) and reported on e-mails leaked it it for example: "Mr Zabaar said the #Metoo Movement is in conflict with the UN code of conduct" and "Ms Kuleshnyk compared the name of the Club with an hypothetical Club named Osama Bin Laden." A cover letter recites that " Mr Guterres had a staff meeting in the VIC on May 14, 2018, and Monica publicly asked him for his support in a question. Mr Guterres reserved his reply." What is the SG's position? And provide in writing updates on and read-out from this most recent trip.  May 24-4a: Separately, state today whether the SG is stopping over in Lisbon either on his way to UNOV or thereafter, and if so at what cost to the public, including security costs."

  But of course, from the corrupt spokesman of Guterres Stephane Dujarric, no answer at all, just jokes with his scribes about the New York Mets. The mansion is empty. After his "executive time," Guterres in Vienna is said by Inner City Press sources there to be headed to the ultra expensive Hotel Sacher. Here's his public schedule: "27 May to 2 June 2019      The Secretary-General will arrive in Austria on Monday, 27 May to attend a number of meetings around the 40th anniversary of the UN presence in Vienna.  He will also attend the annual meeting of the R20, an organization that brings together leaders from around the world of politics, business and the private sector who are focussed on fighting climate change.  He will travel on to Aachen in Germany, from 29 to 30 May to receive the International Charlemagne Prize, an honour which has been awarded anually since 1950 for efforts made in the service of European unification.        The Secretary-General will be back in the office on Wednesday, 3 June." So wait - after he spends public money to get a bogus prize - Kid Charlemagne - where is he going? Guterres is corrupt, he steals public money and has roughed up and censors the Press that asks. #DumpGuterres.

Guterres' hypocrisy was repeated, corrupting yet others, on 29 April 2019 when Guterres fresh back from a craven trip to China held an undisclosed dinner party with a half dozen Ambassadors, who left their limousines out on Sutton Place with their motors running and spewing exhaust for more than an hour. Video here. Inner City Press filmed it and asked, for example, Sweden's Ambassador Olof Skoog about it and Guterres' now 300 day censorship. But they have done nothing. Guterres is killing the UN. We'll have more on this.

Before Inner City Press was roughed up by Guterres' Security on June 22 and July 3, 2018 and banned since then, it insistently asked for disclosure of how many of Guterres' publicly funded trips took him through his real home, Lisbon. The questions are not been answered by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who on 2 November 2019 simply bicycled away as Inner City Press asked about Guterres' failure in Cameroon and attempt to get even Park East Synagogue to oust Inner City Press from covering his October 31 speech about tolerance.  Guterres' hypocrisy, specifically about the environmental and Earth Hour, was covered by the Columbia Journalism Review which wrote about his ouster of Inner City Press. But he just doesn't care, becuase he doesn't have to, legally, with impunity. He is corrupt. On Saturday 16 March 2019, the supposedly environmentalist UNSG Antonio Guterres arrived at the $15 million publicly funded mansion in which he lives alone in not one but two large four by four vehicles, with six guards. Video here. What a waste, what hypocrisy. This was two days after Guterres guards physically pushed Inner City Press out of the line for a press freedom event in the UN it was invited to and had a ticket for, then refused to provide the banned-by-Guterres list they said was the basis of their action. Totally corrupt. On March 2 with Guterres presumably in New York but not in the mansion at 5 pm - there were no UN security vehicles nearby - he nonetheless left all lights in the second floor blazing. This is pure waste, pure hypocrisy given what Guterres claims about his commitment to sustainability - all the more so because it was broad day light. On matters ranging from censorship and corruption to this, the hypocrisy gets worse and worse. On November 20, the day Guterres accepted the resignation of Erik Solheim -- which Guterres hypocritically demanded on November 19 -- for similar misuse of public funds to travel to Oslo and Paris, Inner City Press asked Guterres who his travel to Lisbon was any different. Guterres refused to answer, got into the back of his publicly funded Mercedes and drove off. Video here. On November 21 Dujarric was asked how / where Guterres would spend the next day, US Thanksgiving and replied Guterres would be "glued to his email." But past 11 am on November 21 there was none of the usual UN Security in front of the $15 million publicly funded mansion on Sutton Place where Guterres (sometimes) lives. Vine video here. Before 9 am on Monday November 26 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and his two spokesmen: "November 26-3: As asked November 23 without any answer at all, please immediately state where SG Guterres has been since November 21, how much it has so far cost the UN budget / public, including in light of the Spokesman's response on Nov 21 that the SG would be “scrolling his email” and in the context of officials such as previous host city Mayor and now UN official Bloomberg disclosing when he was out of town and where - and of SG Guterres now reported role in demanding Erik Solheim “pull himself, now” for just such undisclosed personal travel?" Twelve hours later this was not answered, despite the promise of answers from Guterres' Communicator Alison Smale to UNSR David Kaye. But at the day's noon briefing Inner City Press was banned front, when asked why Guterres has said nothing on Ukaine, Dujarric said: "the Secretary-General is on plane on his way back to New York as we speak.  He is being fully briefed on the situation." So that's admitting Guterres was gone - while refusing to say where or how much it cost. And so much for being "glued to his email." Today's UN is corrupt. On Friday November 23 when the Spokesperson's Office was open, people getting paid, Inner City Press submitted five written questions including, beyond Cameroon, DRC and India, this: "November 23-3: Please immediately state where SG Guterres is, how much it is costing the UN budget / public, including in light of the Spokesman's response on Nov 21 that the SG would be “scrolling his email” and in the context of officials such as previous host city Mayor and now UN official Bloomberg disclosing when he was out of town and where." Even by the next day, and still now, not one of the questions was answered, including about a Kenyan priest killed by Biya's army in Cameroon, despite UK USG Alison Smale's promise to UNSR David Kaye that questions would be answered. Back on September 7 Inner City Press reported that Guterres intends to use even Kofi Annan's death and the September 13 event in Ghana as a pretext to again fly to Lisbon. He'll turn it into a five day junket, leaving New York on September 11 (when he's arranged a Myanmar white washing CPPF meeting, also reported exclusively by banned Inner City Press, here), offer praise sure to be ironic of Kofi Annan who Rest in Peace never had a critical journalist roughed up and banned - then fly to Lisbon on the public dime, until September 16. How much will it cost? The UN refuses to answer. But it is not their money. And the climate of cover up includes Guterres not disclosing his own son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres' business links in Africa and elsewhere. We'll have more on this: it is what journalism is supposed to do, hold institutions and those who lead them accountable. Here from multiple member state sources and open source are the dates of Guterres' first 14 -- 30% of total UN trips - through Lisbon for each of which Inner City Press has asked, and not been answered, and live-stream Periscope of the UN's empty massion on 57th Street and Sutton Place for which it was roughed up and banned:

1/13/2017-1/20/2017    NY->Lisbon->Geneva->Davos Platz->Zurich

2/9/2017-2/20/2017            NY->Istanbul->Riyadh->Dubai->Abu Dhabi->Muscat->Doha->Cairo->Frankfurt->Bonn->Munich->Lisbon

2/24/2017-2/27/2017    NY->Lisbon->Geneva

3/25/2017-3/31/2017    NY->Lisbon->Amman->Baghdad->Arbil->Gaziantep

5/9/2017-5/22/2017            NY->London->Beijing->Strasbourg->Geneva->Lisbon

5/25/2017-5/29/2017    NY->Catania->Lisbon

6/20/2017-6/26/2017    NY->Entebbe->Lisbon

6/27/2017-7/4/2017            NY->Washington DC.->Geneva->Lisbon, (30/06/2017 - 04/07/2017 in Lisbon)

11/3/2017-11/7/2017    NY->Lisbon

2/12/2018-2/19/2018    NY->Kuwait->London->Munich->Lisbon

3/14/2018-3/16/2018    NY->Rome->Lisbon

5/11/2018-5/19/2018    NY->Lisbon->Vienna->Brussels->Washington DC

5/23/2018-5/31/2018    NY->Geneva->Lisbon->Paris->Bamako

7/6/2018-7/11/2018        NY->Lisbon->Addis Ababa->Kinshasa

  Do the member states paying for this - whom Guterres' Smale quotes without name as supporting the roughing up of and permanent ban on Inner City Press, agree with this? Do they know this? How arrogant or out of touch a self-styled world leader is has been revealed in the Leader's contemptuous approach to freedom of the press and whose who even gently chide him on it, including a Nobel Peace Prize winner. No, this is not a reference to Donald Trump, but to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The Nobel Peace Prize winner who has sought the reversal of Guterres' outrageous 56 day and counting ban on Inner City Press even entering the UN is Jose Ramos Horta of Timor Leste, still serving Guterres' UN, who told Inner City Press on August 27, "Dear Matthew I did reach the very inner sanctum of the UN system reporting on your case to no avail. Apologies but I don't know what else I can do." Later on August 27 an independent journalist asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric why things are not fixed with Inner City Press' access, since it "looks bad" given other attacks on press freedom. Video here. Dujarric tried to cut the journlist off, insisting to say this is about freedom of the press would be wrong. (Then why is it in the Press Freedom Tracker, here, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among others for example in the UK, Japan, Italy and Cameroon?) Dujarric changed the earlier reference to Inner City Press being in a "garage ramp" - something Guterres' Grand Inquisitor Alison Smale never asked Inner City Press about - to being in the "parking lot." (Inner City Press' pass worked to get there, many use it as a way to exit, and several senior UN official, anti-Guterres sources of Inner City Press ask to meet it and give it documents there. Maybe that's the reason.) Dujarric then said that Inner City Press creates a "hostile environment" for the diplomats, some times correspondents and always UN officials it covers. Seems clear the ban is entirely about freedom of the Press, freedom to question, and a Secretary General and vindictive team of holdovers who seek to retaliate against questions and coverage, including live streamed covering, with a lifetime ban with no appeal. Here is an example of Inner City Press' August 28 questioning at the Delegates Entrance, since Guterres and Alison Smale have banned it from the Security Council stakeout. Is this hostile?  Would Guterres, former NYT bureau chief Smale and former former Dujarric like to write Inner City Press' questions? Its articles? Perhaps to omit all refernce to Cameroon and what Guterres did and didn't do? On August 28 during an empty noon briefing Inner City Press was again banned from, it asked in writing Dujarric, Alison Smale, Amina J. Mohammed and others 13 questions including: "At yesterday's noon briefing you said I am banned because I was “found in the parking lot.” Since no one spoke to me about this, please state when and where, and explain how that is a violation if non resident correspondents' passes open those doors, unlike the bathrooms on the 4th floor, and how this Trumped up into so serious a violation as to ban me, including from the upcoming UNGA week. Also, again, name the diplomats (and UN staff and journalists) you yesterday publicly said I created a hostile environmental for. Honestly, that was not my intent. But I have a right to know. And it sounds troublingly similar to questioning and critique: free press. August 28-2: This is again a request to be informed -- including if the question is view as hostile - of the reason on the SG's Public Financial Disclosure page USG Smale is not listed, while Natalia Gherman who was named to her position later than USG Smale is listed and has made public disclosure - and for an explanation why Smale did not recuse herself as was clearly called for from banning me." While two other questions were answered on August 28, these were not touched. This is censorship.  For now, though, Nobel Peace Prize winner who has worked for the UN has been rebuffed. What they say Trump is, Guterres is as well and more so - only Guterres has actually roughed up and banned a critical journalist for 55 days, with total impunity. Hence this story. After having covered the UN since 2005 for Inner City Press, and pursued stories of UN under-performance from Sri Lanka to Darfur and Haiti to Yemen and most recently Secretary General Antonio Guterres' failure and conflict of interest on Cameroon, at 4 pm on Friday August 17 I got a four page letter from Under Secretary General Alison Smale, formerly the New York Times' Berlin bureau chief. We've put the letter on Scribd here, Patreon download here. 

The letter informed me, without a single opportunity to be heard and offer rebuttal, that “your accreditation is hereby withdrawn pursuant to the Guidelines.” It cited what it called three previous warnings. But on further inspection there is no there, there. See below. In the middle of the now 55 day ban, Jose Ramos Horta who has known and answered Inner City Press for years wrote to it, somewhat comedicly, "I am puzzled by such an extreme DPI decision of banning you for life from UNHQ for reporting purposes. Here in Timor Leste our Govt never ever barred a journalist from entering a public space and reporting even though our Media has never been friendly with Govt officials.I cannot imagine how serious an offense you may have committed that may have justified such an extreme action by DPI. Did you throw a bomb, rotten eggs, tomatoes, spaghetti at some guy? I shall try to reach the SG." And then, on August 27, "Dear Matthew I did reach the very inner sanctum of the UN system reporting on your case to no avail. Apologies but I don't know what else I can do." This is how arrogant and out of touch Guterres is, Lusophone or not. People would report this about Trump, whole profiles of those they say should have spoken out - Mattis, Kelly, members of Congress and the Senatre - and isolation and rage. But what about Guterres? Jose Ramos Horta, who has never had a problem being public, is a man of integrity, on the right side on this one when all is said and done. What about others? We'll have more, much more, on this - there has been other outreach, and more to come. One individual, even with a former NYT Global Communicator like Alison Smale, cannot be allowed to censor like this, to impose a ban on a journalist for the first time in 40 years, an active journalist Guterres and Smale and UNnamed others want to prevent or hinder Inner City Press from covering this UN General Assembly High Level Week and the UN going forward. We will not rest. Watch this site.

  In her lifetime ban letter, Smale also claimed that Guterres' spokesmen would answer Inner City Press' e-mailed questions. But this it false. Of the fourteen question Inner City Press e-mailed to them, and Smale, and Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed and others on August 23 and 24, not one was answered. Not one. Including: "August 24-3: Given that Deputy Spokesman Haq told IPS “we respect his press rights, but we also want to respect other’s press rights. And some journalists feel their press rights have been impeded by his actions” - state, since this is the basis of me being banned, who these are, and how they feel their press rights have been impeded by my actions. Also all video and other evidence that Haq alluded to to IPS should be produced, today, since it is the basis of my being banned." Nothing has been provided, eight hours later, by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric who was drawing pay all day after having essentially ordered or passed on from his boss the order to rough up Inner City Press. From the IPS article: "Lee has been known for asking thought-provoking questions during daily briefings and at press stakeouts. He has reported on global conflicts such as those in Sri Lanka, Congo, Somalia, and others... However, the incidents with Lee started back in 2012, when he was warned by the DPI to treat his fellow journalists with respect." That's not the case. In 2012, the President of the UN Correspondents Association Giampaolo Pioli, who had rented one of him Manhattan apartments to one Palitha Kahona then unilaterally granted his request or demand for an UNCA screening of the war crimes denial film of the Sri Lanka government he represented at the UN, ordered Inner City Press to remove from the Internet its article about the conflict of interest. Inner City Press declined but offered to publish any response, at any length. Pioli and the UNCA board demanded removal of the article, and ultimately Inner City Press quit UNCA and co-founded FUNCA, the Free UN Coalition for Access. The UN claimed it was uninvolved - instead, then head of Accreditation Stephane Dujarric tried to condition Inner City Press' re-accreditation as a resident correspondent on more positive coverage of the Secretariat, specifically his fellow Frenchman Herve Ladsous, the head of Peacekeeping who famously said peacekeepers would rape less if they had more "R&R." So from 2012 it was the UN trying to strong arm positive coverage of its officials, and using the aura of "other correspondents" in UNCA as the leverage - making UN the UN Censorship Alliance.

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