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UN GATE / SDNY COURT, Feb 21 –  Inner City Press on 5 July 2018 was banned from entering the UN, two day after it was physically removed from conducting interviews outside meeting about the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' $6.7 billion budget.

  Then Guterres' Department of Global Communication, run by Melissa Fleming, issued a letter banning Inner City Press from the UN - for life. With no due process, no right of appeal.  Guterres has put the UN in the US Press Freedom Tracker, here. Guterres' Spokesman Stephane Dujarric falsely promised on camera that he would be answering banned Inner City Press' questions - but see below.

     On February 21 before what would have been a noon briefing by Stephane "French Whine" Dujarric, except he canceled it for a five minute stakeout by Guterres at which Guterres took no questions, Inner City Press submitted yet more questions, including why it continues to be lawlessly banned from entering to ask questions in person. Inner City Press has asked:

 February 21-1: On Togo, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres that in the family ruled country voter will head to the polls on Saturday to choose their next president.  Incumbent Faure Gnassingbé will face six rivals, including long-time opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre.  Members of the diaspora are supposedly allowed to cast their ballots for the first time, although only 300 were able to register.  Mr Gnassingbé of the ruling Union for the Republic is running for a fourth term.  Constitutional changes were jammed through last year allowing him to seek re-election - an issue which sparked huge protests. His family has ruled the country for over half a century.  

February 21-2: On China, press freedom and coronavirus (on which you have refused all of Inner City Press' questions about the UN' preparations if any), what are the comments of SG Guterres and separately of USG Melissa Fleming on that Nepal’s media has condemned a statement made by the Chinese embassy regarding an article published in The Kathmandu Post. The statement shared by the Chinese ambassador, Hou Yanqi, on Twitter, was circulated by various other media outlets. It objected to the article with the accompanying illustration of Mao Zedong, and identified the Editor-in-Chief of the news agency by his name with disparaged language. It also reported that the embassy made a “veiled threat of further action”.  The Post had republished an article titled, “China’s secrecy has made the coronavirus crisis much worse”

February 21-3: On Lesotho, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that the prime minister of Lesotho Thomas Thabane has failed to appear in court where he was due to be charged with the murder of his estranged wife.  There has been pressure for Mr Thabane to resign immediately but he said on Thursday he would step down in July. 

February 24-4: On Turkey and the Kurds / Kurdistan, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on the safety of veteran Kurdish media-freedom campaigner Hakki Boltan after he was detained during a police raid on his home in Turkey’s south-eastern city of Diyarbakir yesterday.  He was taken into custody along with Peoples’ Democratic Party official Abdurrahim Alcicek as security officials swooped on homes in the city centre and the Baglar and Yenisehir districts. 

February 21-5: On corruption and Angola, on which you refused to answer yesterday, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on the Luanda Leaks exposure of Isabel dos Santos of Angola, and as Inner City Press has repeatedly asked, what are his comments and action on the repeated retweeting of Isabel dos Santos' denials by his close staffer Aguinaldo Baptista? After, for example, exposure of the corrupt urban development project near Luanda for which some 3,000 families were driven from their homes to make way for the development? And now after The Portuguese bank EuroBic has announced it will end its business relationship with Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos. 

February 21-6: Immediately describe the role of Angola and the dos Santos family in the campaign of Antonio Guterres ot become UNSG. 

February 21-7: On UN sexual exploitation and abuse - alleged - as Inner City press asked in writing in 2019 without response, this is a request that you immediately provide the if-asked information for the report of UN rape in Darfur data dumped to Conduct and Discipline website on the morning of January 17 and the "if asked" information about the two new cases of sexual exploitation in CAR by Cameroonian UN "Police" that were put online after 5 pm on December 30 (a day when you refused to answer 7 questions including on previous UN rapes), and the (Dec 19) rape case by a UN Volunteer in DRC in June 2019 - what nationality? What's been done for the victim(s)? and the Dec 9 sex abuse cases in CAR by Gabon, DRC and Morocco UN "peacekeepers, and the Dec g  about the Office of the Special Envoy for the Sahel, and the two more November 26, 3 pm cases of sexual exploitation in CAR by Cameroon troops in September 2019 (!)

February 21-8: On SG Guterres' Town Hall in Geneva, on which you refused Inner City Press' Dec 20 question, what is your summary of what SG Guterres said given that Inner City Press has now publishing more of it? Please explain SG Guterres' statement that interns should not (ever) be paid, and how this is not create unfair advantage for the most affluent? And again, what is your comment on what he said about whistleblowers, and if it in fact it is any way complied with in the cases of Emma Reilly, Miranda Brown, Kompass and others? 

February 21-9: As previously and repeated asked, where has UNSG Antonio Guterres been for the past week(s), and how much public money has he spent? Is he going directly to and from Pakistan? Previously from Addis? Or any stop overs? At what cost? 

February 21-10: On press freedom and Kosovo, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres and separately USG Melissa Fleming on that Kosovo Prime Minister Edi Rama is well known for his dislike of Albanian media and journalists, calling them “dogs”, “disgusting”, “idiotic”, and “parasites” (you can see a list of 42 of his most recent insults here). Not content with just targeting domestic media, he has extended his attacks to media in Kosovo as well.  Earlier this week, Rama said that Kosovo media platforms T7 and Gazeta Express were spreading “chauvinist hatred against Albania”.

  February 20-1: On Sri Lanka, what are the belated comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who oversaw a brutal end to a decades-long conflict with Tamil separatists, said on Wednesday the country was withdrawing from a United Nations resolution investigating alleged war crimes.  Rajapaksa was president when Sri Lankan troops defeated Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009, but rights groups accused the army of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the conflict.  His brother Gotabaya, who is now president, was defense secretary at the time 

February 20-2: On Cameroon, given the evidence that the government is responsible for the killing of the civilians in Ngar / Ngarbuh, please explain why it is not capitulation or corruption for SG Guterres to call for Biya's government to investigate itself - particularly now that the government is claiming only five civilians were killed and was not its fault: Government spokesperson,  Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi maintained the stance earlier advanced by the Minister of Defence-refutes allegations of any massacre of the population in Ngarbuh... The fire is said to have extended to nearby dwellings, killing five people, including one woman and four children 

February 20-3: On Kenya, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres and separately of his Resident Coordinator Sid Chatterjee on that since December 25, 2019, police in Kenya have shot dead at least eight people in Nairobi’s Mathare, Kasarani, and Majengo settlements?

February 20-4: What are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres and separately USG Melissa Fleming on that China on Wednesday ordered three reporters from The Wall Street Journal to leave the country over what Beijing deemed a racist headline... Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said a Journal opinion piece -- titled "China is the Real Sick Man of Asia" -- had a "racially discriminatory" and "sensational" headline, and slammed the newspaper for not issuing an official apology 

February 20-5: On corruption and Angola, on which you refused to answer yesterday, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on the Luanda Leaks exposure of Isabel dos Santos of Angola, and as Inner City Press has repeatedly asked, what are his comments and action on the repeated retweeting of Isabel dos Santos' denials by his close staffer Aguinaldo Baptista? After, for example, exposure of the corrupt urban development project near Luanda for which some 3,000 families were driven from their homes to make way for the development? And now after The Portuguese bank EuroBic has announced it will end its business relationship with Africa's richest woman, Isabel dos Santos. 

February 20-6: Immediately describe the role of Angola and the dos Santos family in the campaign of Antonio Guterres ot become UNSG. 

February 20-7: On UN sexual exploitation and abuse - alleged - as Inner City press asked in writing in 2019 without response, this is a request that you immediately provide the if-asked information for the report of UN rape in Darfur data dumped to Conduct and Discipline website on the morning of January 17 and the "if asked" information about the two new cases of sexual exploitation in CAR by Cameroonian UN "Police" that were put online after 5 pm on December 30 (a day when you refused to answer 7 questions including on previous UN rapes), and the (Dec 19) rape case by a UN Volunteer in DRC in June 2019 - what nationality? What's been done for the victim(s)? and the Dec 9 sex abuse cases in CAR by Gabon, DRC and Morocco UN "peacekeepers, and the Dec g  about the Office of the Special Envoy for the Sahel, and the two more November 26, 3 pm cases of sexual exploitation in CAR by Cameroon troops in September 2019 (!)

February 20-8: On SG Guterres' Town Hall in Geneva, on which you refused Inner City Press' Dec 20 question, what is your summary of what SG Guterres said given that Inner City Press has now publishing more of it? Please explain SG Guterres' statement that interns should not (ever) be paid, and how this is not create unfair advantage for the most affluent?

February 20-9: As previously and repeated asked, where has UNSG Antonio Guterres been for the past week(s), and how much public money has he spent? Is he going directly to and from Pakistan? Previously from Addis? Or any stop overs? At what cost? 

February 20-10: On press freedom and Colombia, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres and separately USG Melissa Fleming on Colombian authorities' arrest warrant against journalist Edison Lucio Torres?

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