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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Periscope
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UN GATE, Sept 11 – In the United Nations, on September 1 a list of speakers for the UN General Assembly week Sept 22-29 was released, photo here.

   From 2006 into 2018, Inner City Press closely covered each UNGA week from inside the UN, asking questions in the UN Press Briefing Room (which which France once threatened to use Secretary General Antonio Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric to have it removed and its accrediation pulled). Guterres used force, here.

  Now on September 11, while still banning Inner City Press after 801 days, Guterres has issued this hypocritical statement: "The Secretary-General is appalled at the continued and increased numbers of attacks against journalists and media workers around the world.  The recent killing of Julio Valdivia Rodríguez, a journalist at a newspaper in the State of Veracruz, Mexico, is yet another example of the hazardous and difficult conditions in which many journalists work globally.       The Secretary-General condemns all attacks and killings of journalists and calls on the respective authorities to ensure that they are thoroughly investigated and that those responsible are held accountable.       The Secretary-General reiterates his call that a free press is essential for peace, justice, sustainable development and human rights. No democracy can function without press freedom, which is the cornerstone of trust between people and their institutions. When media workers are targeted, societies as a whole pay a price.      Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General   New York, 11 September 2020."

  Now, after Guterres without any due process had Inner City Press roughed up by his personal guards and banned from the UN since, Inner City Press on September 5, 2020 submitted a formal application to cover this 2020 UNGA, including for access to the UN' online briefings, to ask questions about such crises as Cameroon, Yemen and China's expansionism. Receipt has been confirmed: photo here.

  Guterres' chief propagandist Melissa Fleming, spending public money on a vanity podcast while refusing questions about what the UN actually, wants to limit physical entry into the UN building to so-called "resident correpondents." But even if that were legitimate (it is not), there is no reason to similarly limit access to online briefings. The IMF doesn't - Inner City Press is given the codes and asks questions and get answers.

 Thin skinned Guterres is abusing his position to block the Press from covering actual leaders. So what will new President of the General Assembly Bozkir Vulkan do? And member states? We have asked and will continue reporting. Watch this site.

 Most resident correspondents write nothing, or only propaganda. And who will decide on these "very limited non-resident" [sic] who will be allowed in? This is the beginning of a series. Thread here.

 The censored UNGA Week will be even more lame than usual, with most speeches - other than Trump's? - by video. Still in the first morning there are China and Russia, Qatar, Morocco and Iran. Cameroon's dictator Paul Biya, supported in his killing like many others by Guterres, is on Friday September 24.

 Yet only the same old retirees and state media will be allowed in, they say. Inner City Press will have more on this.

  Earlier on September 1 Inner City Press wrote to the Niger Mission, as incoming UN Security Council president, with questions about Cameroon, Somalia and UNsexploitation.

 The email address on the Niger Mission's UN web page did not work; it bounced back. A Direct Message on Twitter to @Niger_ONU was not answered.

This as Sani I. Mahamadou, Deputy Chief of Staff to Niger's president, bragged online of a "Very big day for Niger, who begins his month of presidency of the United Nations Security Council." They're off to a terrible start.

  Apparently Niger PR Abdou Abarry could only handle questions from pre-screened in-house correspondents, one of whose media has no story by her since 2017, another with no stories at all, at least one - actually, more -- a repeated #MeToo violator. Periscope here.

 Niger has not said a word about the slaughter in Cameroon, nor about the UN Peacekeeping sexploitation exposed by Inner City Press.

  The Program belatedly went up - with countries on which Niger ignored and censored questions: Myanmar, Somalia, where UNMAS sent local staff to be killed, and Colombia and South Sudan. There will be Francophonie on September 8. We have now written directly to the Mission's 404 spokesman - and will have more on this.

When Guterres' spokes- / hatchetman Stephane Dujarric holds his noon briefings this month while refusing all questions from Inner City Press despite an on camera promise. And Indonesia? We'll report.

Watch this site.

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