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

UNITED NATIONS GATE, July 15 – 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 July 12 three hours before the UN noon briefing by Deputy Farhan Haq  - Dujarric is away on vacation for the whole month of July -- Inner City Press submitted 1032 questions, including why it continues to be lawlessly banned from entering to ask questions in person: "There are more than 600+ 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 belatedly sent on May 20 about sexual exploitation allegations and 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, 3-30 (one answer in the entire month - corrupt), and now May 1-13, 15-17, 21-31, June 3-28, and July 1-2, 8-12 many questions. 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. 

July 15-1: On Myanmar, beyond Inner City Press' exclusive about the SG's pressure to move the army to the "good child killers" List B, what are the SG's comment and actions on that The Ta’ang Human Rights Network has claimed that the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army (RCSS/SSA) has committed human rights abuses against over 170 Ta’ang people? Those abuses were committed by members of the RCSS in Kyaukme, Namkhan, Namhsan, Muse and Namtu townships in Shan State. 

July 15-2: On Gambia and democracy, what are the SG's comments and actions if any on the concerns the new president, Adama Barrow, will go against a promise not to run again. He has said won’t be honouring an agreement to step down after three years and is considering running in the next election. 

July 15-3: On Croatia, what are the SG's comments and actions if any on President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic's recent admission during an interview on Swiss television that Croatian officials are engaged in summarily returning migrants and asylum seekers to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in some cases with force? 

July 15-4: On UN corruption, bribery and Croatia, what are the SG's belated comments and actions - any audit?? - now that CEFC China Energy's Patrick Ho has in a court filing shown that he used the UN to meet with, among others, Croatia President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic? Why has Guterres not amended his online public financial disclosure covering 2016 which omitted money he received in 2016 from Gulbenkian Foundation which tried to sell its oil company Partex to UN briber CEFC China Energy? 

July 15-5: On UN corruption and lawlessness, what are the SG's belated comments and action if any on that, in the CITO office, Salem Avan was a guest speaker a public paid attendee event "Social Innovation Summit," which was considered as an outside activity.   A sanitized portion remains on YouTube for now, here. But the key part was taken down two years ago, to cover up. Inner City Press has obtained it and exclusively published it on its YouTube channel, not yet raidable by Guterres, here:    Avan in his introduction speaks of the UN Fifth Committee ("the committee brought to you by the letters G and A and the number 5" (thank you Sesame Street), "they abuse us and then decide whether or not we get money") and every UN staff member ("You're smart people, this is unusual for me to be in a room with smart people").  He violated his responsibilities as a staff member, specifically Staff Regulation .1.2 (f) and ST/AI/2000/12 Section 4.2 and his behavior demeaned the UN in getting outside people just to laugh at the UN and its staff - (sometimes appropriately as in the cases of hypocrisy, but still). What has been done? 

July 15-6: On China and abuse of human rights and lawyers, what are the SG's belated comments and action is any on that n June, Ji Sizun received the news that he had won a prestigious human rights distinction, the Cao Shunli Memorial Award, in honour of the veteran Chinese activist who died in 2014 in police custody, after being denied needed medical treatment for months.  It would be a little more than one month until he himself died while under the watch of state security.  Ji, one of China’s most prominent “barefoot lawyers”, self-taught legal advocates, spent most of the last decade in prison in his native Fujian province.  He was in a semi-comatose state when he finished his most recent sentence of four and a half years in late April and was immediately sent to a hospital. On 10 July, two months after leaving prison, Ji, 69, died of unknown causes. 

July 15-7: On press freedom and the UK, what are the SG's comments and actions if any on that the Metropolitan Police warned journalists could be prosecuted for publishing diplomatic leaks? The Cabinet Office last week called in Met Police assistant commissioner Neil Basu, who issued a warning to the media that the publication of emails sent by Sir Kim Darroch could be “a criminal matter”... Now that the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled against public officials blocking critics on Twitter even if the official claims their account is private, what is the justification for UNSG Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, with the UN flag in his profile photo and Guterres promoting content, blocking Inner City Press? What is SG Guterres' response / reaction to UN DSS and Guterres' actions on Inner City Press being listed in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. In the UN, what has the accountability been for Lt Ronald E. Dobbins and those those refused on camera to give their names? 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"? This is a formal request for the UN's explanation of grounds for this denied, and since SGcentral, the SG's chief of staff and Deputy SG and USG Smale haven't even confirmed receipt of the April 15 letter much less responded, for reconsideration. 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. 

June 14-5: Since the SG claimed publicly that the mansion he lives in "cannot" be sold, please immediately provide any and all documents with such a restriction, and separately explain why the concept of cy pres or reformation of donor intent has not been explored. Separately,  Boutros Boutros Galli wrote in his book that the building was given by Arthur Houghton through the United Nations Association of the USA. What actual inquires, with UNA-USA or any successor to Houghton or Corning Glass, has Guterres made? 

June 11-1: On Cameroon, what is the SG's comment and action if any on this report from Chinese state media: "YAOUNDE, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon's House Speaker of National Assembly Cavaye Yeguie Djibril on Monday denounced foreign interference in the country's internal affairs which he referred to as "conspiracy."  "Cameroon has become an object of conspiracy intended to destabilize the country. To justify their interference in internal affairs, the conspirators pretend to denounce it." Again, how many offices / desk does the Secretariat give to Chinese state media inside the UN? 

May 15-3: On the Public Financial Disclosures for 2017 belatedly published over the weekend of April 27-28, please state why Mohammed Ibn Chambas, like the Executive Secretary of the UN Biodiversity Convention, Cristiana Paşca-Palmer, UNICEF's Henriette Fore, with documented links to ExxonMobil and others, USG Mark Lowcock (undisclosed while the Secretariat's speaker at the UNSC Arria on Cameroon), UNCTAD's Mukhisa Kituyi, UN Women's Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UNOG chief Michael Moller, UNDP chief Achim Steiner,  Heidi Mendoza, Adama Dieng, UN Security chief Peter Drennan, Rosemary DiCarlo and Nicholas Haysum, is not even on the list. OIOS chief Inga-Britt Ahlenius reported - why not Mendoza? Where IS Mendoza? Isn't it a bad practice for the UN's head (anti) genocide definition official to conceal from the public even cursory financial disclosure? Did DiCarlo decline to make any public disclosure despite being the UN's top political officer? What is the even plausible applicability of this line from SG Guterres' web page: "Please note that given the multi-cultural environment of the UN and the often security sensitive locations where UN staff are either working or come from, full public disclosure may not always be a viable or sensible option for certain staff members"? Why has Guterres changed the previous system in a which a "choosing not to disclose" statement was upload and listed, to one which helps conceal who reports and who does not?  Again, state why considering the UN bribery conviction of Patrick Ho of CEFC, and CEFC's attempt to purchase the oil company of Gulbenkian Foundation which paid Mr. Guterres in 2016 was omitted from his online public financial disclosure covering 2016, and why Guterres has not even started an audit of CEFC in the UN. 

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