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As UN Bans Inner City Press E-Asks Spox Dujarric About Cameroon Comoros Morocco Nigeria SG Censorship 400+ UNanswered

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A, NY Post

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 12 – Inner City Press on July 5 was banned from entering the UN, the day after it filed a criminal complaint against UN Security for physically removing it from covering the meeting about the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' $6.7 billion peacekeeping budget, as witnessed and essentially cheered on by senior UN official Christian Saunders, tearing its reporter's shirt, painfully and intentionally twisting his arm and slamming shut and damaging his laptop. On August 17, Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale issued a letter banning Inner City Press from the UN - for life. With no due process. She and Guterres have put the UN in the US Press Freedom Tracker, here. Smale said, again, that the UN would answer Press questions to the Spokesman Stephane Dujarric and his Office; Dujarric said the same on camera. On April 12 more than two hours before the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press submitted 715 questions: "There are more than 400+ questions UNanswered. And Monday Sept 17, Tuesday Sept 18, Wed Sept 19 and  Thurs and Fri Sept 21, that whole week, no questions answered. Nor Sept 25, nor 28th - nor October 2 nor 3. While appreciating and using what was sent on March 28 in partial request to Inner City Press' questions about the UN bribery sentence of Patrick Ho of CEFC and CEFC's 2018 attempt to buy the oil company of Gulbenkian Foundation which paid the SG, no answers on Dec 17 or 18 or 19 or 20 or 21 - another FIVE days in a row, even as SG's direct conflicts of interest and failure to disclose emerge, and a newest low. No answers on January 30 nor 31 nor February 1 nor 4 nor 5 nor 6 nor 7 nor 11 nor 12 nor 13 nor 14 nor 15 nor 18 nor 19 nor 20 nor 21 nor 22 nor 25 nor 26 nor 27 nor March 1 - 27 (!) And now April 1, 3-11. No answers at all during those four days of the US v Ho trial showing corruption in the UN says it all. This ban is just censorship - and Inner City Press must be allowed back into the noon briefing to ask its questions in person and follow up on them. 

April 12-1: On Cameroon, what is the comment and action of the SG, beyond the golden statue, on that Aafarmer believed to be in his fourties has been attacked by elements of the Cameroon defence forces. The incident occurred at the Mile 16 neigbourhood in Buea, South West Region MMI has learnt. “I was in the house waiting for someone to come collect oil I brought from the farm the previous day when I saw the door forced open. I was asked if I live here. I answered with a yes, and I was asked to show the hideouts of Ambazonian fighters. I told them I don’t know the people they are asking after and that I’m just a farmer. They accused me of knowing them but I told them I could only recognise them as soldiers because I can see from their outfits (uniforms). As I insisted I don’t know the whereabout of those they are searching for, they started beating me. One of them proposed I should be killed and the other refused. They took my machete and repeatedly cut me on different parts on my body. They broke my doors and the doors of a neighbour who had died? 

April 12-2: On Comoros, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that Toufé Maecha, editor-in-chief of the privately owned daily Masiwa Komor, was detained by authorities and interrogated, and three newspapers have had their print runs seized following the election? 

April 12-3: On Morocco, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that Moroccan prison authorities have held an imprisoned journalist in a form of abusive solitary confinement for more than a year. A first instance court sentenced Taoufik Bouachrine, publisher of Akhbar el-Youm, one of the country’s last opposition newspapers, to 12 years in prison in November 2018. He was convicted on charges of aggravated sexual assault in a trial that some, including the United Nations’ Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, concluded was marred by due-process violations. Since his detention in Casablanca’s Ain El Borja prison in February 2018, authorities have not allowed Bouachrine to meet with other prisoners or converse with staff? 

April 12-4: On press freedom and Nigeria, what are the comments and actions if any of the SG and separate DSG Amina J Mohammed on that Jay FM, a Jos-based private radio station has taken legal action against the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over its prolonged shutdown by the commission? Mr Clinton Garuba, CEO of Jay FM, said that the case against NBC had been filed at Federal High Court sitting in Jos.  The CEO said that it became necessary to seek justice against the regulatory body, alleging that NBC had submitted itself to manipulations by some highly- placed power player. What is each of yours - particularly the SG's - response to the letter written and sent by Burundi activist Manisha Lievin? AGAIN, immediately explain how it is legitimate to ban from enter into the UN the media that has been asking about these and other questions, with no hearing or appeal.

April 11-1: On impunity, what is the SG's comment and action, including on accountability if any, on that a charge against a United Nations diplomat under the Land Transport Act was withdrawn in the Suva Magistrates Court today.  Deputy Head and Senior Sustainable Development Officer for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Tim Westbury was charged with the offence of driving whilst under the influence of alcohol.  The charge was withdrawn by the Director of Public Prosecutions following confirmation that Westbury had been accredited diplomatic status in Fiji as a result of his employment with the UN. So what happens to this UN drunk driver? 

April 11-3: On Libya, what is the SG's comment and response to that the Nepal Army, through the Office of the Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations in New York, has informed the UN about its willingness to withdraw its troops.  Brigadier General Yam Dhakal, spokesperson for the Nepal Army, told the Post that because Nepali blue helmets are guarding the headquarters, it will depend on Salamé—on how long he wants to stay there—before the 231-strong Nepali troops return. Only one official, who has been deployed as an observer, is staying in Tunisia while the remaining 230 are in Tripoli.    “Given the deteriorating security situation, we have conveyed our willingness to pull our troops out,” Dhakal said? 

April 10-1: On Somalia and UN sexual abusers, what is the SG's comment and particularly action on the UNDT finding that a convicted rapist was sent by the UN to Somalia? What is the SG's comment to the Somalia people, particularly women? As reported today by Inner City Press, citing UNDT/2019/045, it was UNDT itself which said it has confirmed that the person UNICEF sent to Somalia was "was imprisoned at Woodbourne Correctional Facility in New York State, United States of America, following a conviction on charges of rape in the first degree; unlawful imprisonment in the first degree; burglary in the second degree and assault in the second degree." Who will be held accountable? 

April 10-2: On Cameroon, what is SG Guterres' comment and action if any after the golden statue on that on 4 April 2019 Cameroonian soldiers, gendarmes, and members of the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) carried out a deadly attack on the North-West region village of Meluf, killing at least five civilian men, including one with a mental disability, and wounded one woman?Three of the bodies were later found mutilated, including one that had been decapitated. 

April 4-2: On UN bribery and censorship, what now is the SG's comment and response to the April 3article in Serbia about CEFC which Mr Guterres has refused to audit - and about his refusal to answer, and censorship of Press "Gutereš had and had his own financial link with the CEFC, through the Gulbenkian Foundation. On the orders of Guteres, on June 22 and July 3, 2018, the security came to me, and I was banned from reporting from the UN. In fact, Gutereš took advantage of his security from the UN to distance me from his speech at the Park East Synagogue, and recently physically stopped me while he entered the mosque in 96th Street"  and now this  - "Patrick Ho, a businessman who was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the world's corrupting affair, claims investigative journalist Matthew Russell Li in the documentary "Hong Kong Connection, Patrick Ho's List." Li, in a documentary broadcast on the Hong Kong Radio-Television portal, revealed Jeremic's role in this affair, a tens of millions of dollars, as well as his private dilutes, which he made while serving as the chairman of the United Nations General Assembly.  - Jeremic's testimony at the Ho trial was problematic because he turned out to be working for "CEFC Energy" (a Chinese conglomerate led by Ho, prim. Aut.) While serving as the chairman of the UN General Assembly. He took their money, exchanged e-mails with them ... He did many things. It is surprising to me that the focus of the prosecution was at Ho. The prosecutors used his testimony to show how Ho established a relationship, and in fact what Jeremic was doing might be worse for the public - Li said.  Investigative reporters also uncovered the flows of money flowing to Jeremic's accounts. Hoov CEFC paid Jeremic as a consultant a total of $ 5.3 million. It turns out that some companies that paid this money are completely phantom, because they do not exist at the registered addresses at all."  As always, what is the process of appealing or getting a hearing on the now 274 day ban amid this questions, or process to reapply which was denied summarily on 2 January 2019? How is this not censorship?)  and the translated 22 minute documentary about Patrick Ho and CEFC's bribes through the UN including Mr. Guterres' refusal to answer Inner City Press' question on it on 5 December 2018, and that Inner City Press for allegedly not complying with interview "rules" has been disqualified from reporting within the UN?  Again, the  sentencing memorandum includes quotes from his e-mails regarding aiming to violate sanctions and deal in arms not only to Chad but also South Sudan, Libya & Qatar. What is the SG's comment and action? Again, why has no audit even been begun of CEFC, at least like the one Mr. Guterres' predecessor did of Ng Lap Seng's Sun Kian Ip Foundation? Why did Mr Guterres omit payments from Gulbenkian Foundation, which sought to sell its oil company Partex to CEFC China Energy, from his public financial disclosure covering 2016? Where are the more recent public financial disclosures - has Mr. Guterres ended that program? Why? 

March 25-5: On your / Spokesperson Dujarric's recent podcast interview, please immediately explain what was meant by a relationship with journalists of "mutually assured destruction" - and why the podcast links are mostly 404/no longer online. 

March 25-8: On the SG's March 22 appearance on 96th Street, please immediately provide the name of the UN DSS officer who spoke to NYPD on 96th Street to get them to restraint in advance Inner City Press while UN Photo and others like AP walked freely, the basis for this censorship and any and all records regarding it. 

More here.

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