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As UN Bans Inner City Press E-Asks Spox Dujarric About Corruption Bahrain Colombia Cameroon China SG Censorship 400+ UNanswered

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

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 17 – 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 17 more than two hours before the UN noon briefing, Inner City Press submitted 727 questions, including why it continues to be lawlessly banned from entering to ask questions in person: "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, 3-16. 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 17-1:  What is the SG's and separately UN Women's response to detailed staff complaints this month regarding Izeduwa Derex Briggs? What has been done on these complaints about UN Women including travel waste since they have been made? 

April 17-2: On Bahrain, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that A court in Bahrain has sentenced 139 people to prison, and revoked the citizenship of all but one, after convicting them of terrorism charges.  Sixty-nine defendants were given life sentences, while the others got terms of between three and seven years.  They were accused of setting up a cell linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.  The Sunni-ruled kingdom has accused Iran of fomenting unrest among its Shia majority community since it put down a pro-democracy uprising in 2011? 

April 17-3:  On Colombia, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that indigenous organizations reported that close to 50 leaders of native communities have been killed so far in 2019? 

April 17-4:  On China and press freedom, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) on Tuesday released the results of its yearly poll, which involved 535 journalists and 1,003 members of the public. The general public gave the city’s press freedom 45 points out of 100, down from 47.1 the year before – a record low? What is each of yours - particularly the SG's - response to the letter written and sent by Burundi activist Manisha Lievin? To the April 15 letter to the SG, DSG and USG Smale for which receipt has not even been acknowledged, other than a single lawless line from MALU: "Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M66561081, has been declined"? 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 15-3: On Burundi, what is the SG's comment and action if any on the six schoolgirls and one boy, arrested last month for doodling on the Burundian president’s photo and charged with “insulting the head of state" and expelled them permanently from the school, now facing charges of “insulting the head of state"? 

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 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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