UNITED NATIONS,
October 17 – Five days after
Inner City Press was told by a
UN Security officer that it is
on UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' list of
people banned from entering
its premises as
"demonstrators," Guterres' UN
Security did nothing on
October 16 as a meeting in the
UN's ECOSOC Chamber was
shouted over by demonstrators
whom UN Security did nothing
to stop. Video
here. On October 17
before the UN noon briefing
from which Inner City Press
was banned for the 106th day
in a row, Inner City Press put
in written questions of the
type Guterres' Communicator
Alison Smale has said out be
answered. The only one
answered three hours later was
this one: "October 17-2:
Regarding yesterday's
disrupted 1:15 event in the
ECOSOC Chamber, please state
why UN Security did not act,
whether it or the wider
Secretariat has received
complaint(s) and how you can
justify banning a journalist
now 106 days for filming and
covering the Budget Committee
meeting after 7 pm while no
similar action after the
October 16 actual disruption /
hostile environment."
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric's
deputy Farhan Haq wrote back
to Inner City Press,
"Regarding question 17,2, we
can say the following: The
sponsoring Permanent Mission
is fully responsible for the
content and conduct of the
meeting. It is not the
role of UN security to
physically remove any delegate
from a meeting unless they
pose a physical threat." Of
course, this doesn't even
purport to answer about the
glaring double standard. It
was not only delegates /
diplomats: it is reported that
"Toward the end of the
meeting, U.N. security
officials ordered out more
than a dozen pro-Cubans in the
balcony who had joined in the
shouting;" those chanting were
described as diplomats and
supporters." The
non-diplomats, are they banned
like Inner City Press? Or that
only happens if you are asking
and writing about Guterres?
The UN is becoming a
dictatorship. While Inner City
Press' ten-year media
accreditation was withdrawn on
August 17 by Guterres' Global
Communicator Alison Smale for
allegedly being disruptive,
the actual disruption of a UN
meeting did not trigger any
removal, much less banning.
The difference appears to be
that Inner City Press was
asking about and inquiring
into corruption by the boss,
Guterres. His use of force and
of his secret banned list is
limited to protecting himself,
and it seems his son Pedro's
undisclosed business links in
Angola, Namibia, Sao Tome,
Timor Leste and Cabo Verde.
Someone is going to have to
explain this double standard -
and reverse it. Even the
Security officers who enforce
the ban are not told the
reason why a person is on the
list: whether it was for
actual violence, or writing
articles questioning the
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' misuse
of public funds, for example.
One told Inner City Press the
secret list includes
"demonstrators" and "political
activists," audio here.
Guterres
or apparently his head of
Global Communications Alison
Smale, if only as a proxy, can
put a journalist on the list
without any review, any
notice, any appeal. It is a
dictator's dream come true.
Inner City Press was
physically ousted twice by
Guterres' UN Security this
summer as it reported on his
now-15 flights to his home in
Lisbon with public funds, his
trading away of Cameroon human
rights abuses for favors in
the Budget Committee, and now
his son Pedro's undisclosed
business links in Africa.
Smale on August 17, without
once speaking to me covering
the UN for Inner City Press
for 11 years, withdrew my
media accreditation.
But it's
gone further than that. For
example, on October 11 I
showed up for a film screening
about sex trafficking, “Love
Sonia,” to which I had been
invited by the UN Office of
Drugs and Crimes. UNODC's New
York director personally put
me on the list for a post
screening reception and came
and met me and took me to the
UN gate to sign me in, since
my ticket - which she said
she'd seen - mysteriously
disappeared.
UN
Security refused to allow the
NY director of UNODC to sign
me in. “Even if he had a
ticket we'd have to check,”
one officer said. I was told
that a supervisor would come
out, and that UNODC would
speak to them. But after one
hour it never happened.
Guterres' chief of staff Maria
Luiza Viotti left the building
and I audibly told her, I'm
invited but I'm being blocked.
She did not even break stride.
The UN has
given me nothing in writing
that I am banned. Guterres'
spokesman has stated it as a
fact, without explanation or
rationale, on October
9 and 11, while refusing
to answer my e-mailed
questions despite Smale's
promise they would be answered
to supposedly respect my
"journalistic endeavours."
Another UN Security officer
told me, No one is going to
help you. You are on the list.
I asked him, who else is on
the list? He mentioned
“demonstrators” and "political
activists" and others. Audio here.
Tellingly,
NOT on Guterres' banned list
are those who pleaded guilty
to UN bribery for example
in the Ng Lap Seng - John Ashe
case. They are not banned by
Guterres, UNlike the
journalist who most closely
covered those convictions, and
the current
UN bribery case of Patrick Ho
and the China Energy Fund
Committee. Guterres is fine
with bribery, but bans those
who investigate and expose it.
UNSG Guterres
thinks he can ban people
without no notice, no due
process, no review? And that
it won't be noticed or
reviewed? Watch this site.
***
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