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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - CJR - PFT

UN GATE / SDNY COURT, June 24 – The increasing corruption of the United Nations under Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and of the UN Correspondents Association he works with to intimidate and then rough up and ban the investigative Press, has been made clear today in a statement by former Ambassador of Sri Lanka Palitha Kohona, who has been accused of war crimes in the White Flags Killings.  

 In an article he published on June 22 in the Asian Tribune, Kohona wrote / admitted once Inner City Press (he says, "the blogger") "began undermining Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, we mounted a quiet campaign against him within the UN press corps itself... information from our own sources was made available to many members of the UN press corps with a view to impugning the credibility of the man. It took a while, but his bravado unraveled when he fell afoul of the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Giampaolo Pioli, who commenced proceedings to take him to court. Then he began to spar with a number of respected journalists who were beginning to approach us... The UN proceeded to evict him from the room that he was occupying and eventually from the UN itself." See Guterres action, continued by Melissa Fleming, here. Both have been asked, including on June 22 and again on June 24, to explain - nothing, no response.

 Inner City Press wrote to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Here is their response:

"Hi Matt,  Thank you for reaching out, and apologies for the delayed response. Given the impact of COVID-19 on the press and the staggering number of recent attacks on the press, our team has been stretched thin and we ask for your patience as we are working through a high volume of urgent cases at this time. This is indeed a very concerning article, and we’ve shared this information with our colleagues on the research side to see if they can look into this further and see what, if anything, we can do.  Best,  Communications Committee to Protect Journalists - The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide."

   But not at the UN? Because of CPJ's friends there? They have not even told Guterres to stop banning the Press - instead, they do photo ops with him. Access journalism "protection"? We've love to be proved wrong - Inner City Press must be restored to the UN to ask questions for example on this, unasked by others, and unanswered when Inner City Press in writing asked..

  Who is Kohona referring to, as helping him? Well, as a first example - there are more - here's an article Inner City Press published at the time, with people who are still at the UN working with Guterres:

Pamela Falk of CBS told Inner City Press on February 22 that writing to the big media companies on the UN Correspondents Association board about their policies "could constitute a crime."

    As well as being the president of UNCA, which in 2012 tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, Falk is a lawyer -- but she did not specify what crime this would be.

   Nor would the UN, whose Media Accreditation boss Stephane Dujarric on February 27 filed a false complaint against Inner City Press for reporting Falk's comments.

   Shown that his complaint was false -- Inner City Press had said loudly, “you are on the record” and Falk said “he's going to write this up,” audio here -- Dujarric refused to retract it.

   Rather, another UNCA “leader,” Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, along with Reuters' Michelle Nichols, filed their own false complaints with UN Security, apparently based on Inner City Press replying to Witcher hissing “lies and distortion” by saying, “lapdog.”  (Significantly, Falk on February 22 called Inner City Press "a mugger.")

    Despite repeated requests, the UN won't disclose even a summary of the complaints -- to which it has nonetheless twice in Kafka-esque form demanded a written response -- nor its rules for the filing of false or pre-textual complaints, as the New York Civil Liberties Union asked the chief of the UN Department of Public Information on July 5, 2012 regarding an ejection attempt by UNCA before Falk blithely took it over.

Those elections, those in UNCA, used by Kohona to oust Press:

Here are the December 2103 results, compared to votes in December 2011 for the "candidate" or their predecessor

   So - a war criminal used UNCA to get Inner City Press thrown out of its UN work space and then the UN, for undermining Guterres (who was also questioned by Inner City Press about Cameroon, and undisclosed financial links with UN briber CEFC China Energy). These people are (war) criminals. We'll have more on this - for now, here's more from Kohona (he does not disclose that he paid UNCA's Pioli money) --

"he published a story headed, 'Fish balls (his term for Sri Lankan fish cutlets) and wine to tempt the journalists'. ... He was also known to exchange information with diplomats at very important missions, some of whom had excellent sources within Sri Lanka. He was also a useful tool to some to embarrass the former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Subsequently, he began undermining Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

But we mounted a quiet campaign against him within the UN press corps itself with a view to exposing him and even forcing him to reveal his financiers.  Information from our own sources was made available to many members of the UN press corps with a view to impugning the credibility of the man. It took a while, but his bravado unraveled when he fell afoul of the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Giampaolo Pioli, who commenced proceedings to take him to court. Then he began to spar with a number of respected journalists who were beginning to approach us for information on the man.

Eventually, he clashed with the Alison Smale, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, who declared that Lee’s “conduct has consistently breached” the UN’s media guidelines and “does not meet the established professional standards required of all correspondents granted access to United Nations premises.” As a result, his accreditation to cover the UN was withdrawn consistent with the terms of the US – UN Head Quarters Agreement (Agreement Between the United Nations and the United States Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, Signed June 26, 1947, and Approved by the General Assembly October 31, 1947). The UN proceeded to evict him from the room that he was occupying and eventually from the UN itself." 

What will CPJ, David Kaye, RSF et al do? Watch this site.

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