| UN Bans
Press Reporting on Whistleblowers as BBC
Lets Guterres Off Hook By Audio Theft
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell
Book
BBC-Guardian
UK - Honduras
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NY
Mag
UN GATE, June 21
– The UN's retaliation is not
limited to banning
Inner City Press that
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres doesn't like - he
also fired and penalizes UN
staff who dare speak out about
the Organization's
abuses.
On June 16,
a week before a documentary on
the topic that includes leaked
audio first published by Inner
City Press, Inner City Press
asked UN Spokespeople Stephane
Dujarric, Farhan Haq and
Melissa Fleming:
"What are the
comments and actions if any of
SG Guterres on the BBC piece
about UN whistleblowers being
retaliated against, set for
worldwide view on June 21 but
presumably already in the SG's
awareness? See this."
No answer
from the UN. Instead, they
arranged for a colloquy about
a useless "hot line" with
pro-UN Qatar state media,
which asked about Guterres now
acting on these "new" cases of
sexual misconduct. But the
hands down the pants happened
long ago, and was exposed by
Inner City Press - and the
audio used without credit in
the documentary shows Guterres
covered it up.
While Team
Guterres has not answered
Inner City Press, on June 20
BBC World tweeted, "The BBC
was handed a secret recording
of Ben Swanson, staff had come
to him in tears describing how
an assistant secretary general
had put his hand down her
trousers."
HANDED?
Inner City Press exclusively
published the audio long ago
on SoundCloud here.
It has asked
the BBC about it, and why
its correspondents so rare ask
about UN wrongdoing including
banning Press, in which some
of them have colluded.
BBC's arch
response: "Reference
CAS-7209948-F6D6K3 Dear
Matthew, Many thanks for
contacting us about ‘The
Whistleblowers: Inside the
UN’, and our reporting around
this story. We’ve
discussed your complaint with
the programme team. An audio
clip featuring Ben Swanson,
director of the investigations
division of the Office of
Internal Oversight Services
(OIOS) at the UN, was given to
us...we don’t see any need to
credit this further. We
hope this helps to clarify
matters and wish you all the
best, BBC Complaints
Team
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
Please note: this email is
sent from an unmonitored
address so please don’t reply.
If necessary please contact us
through our webform (please
include your case reference
number)." Not even a
"previously published by Inner
City Press." And BBC did not
even bother to send anyone to
the June 21 noon briefing to
ask.
Who
is responsible? Director Ben
Steele, producer Jennifer
O'Mahony and others. Their
above-quoted sleight of hand
in crediting is not just worst
practice - it lets the UN and
Guterres off the hook. The BBC
reports, "The office of the UN
Secretary General says it
remains committed to
"sanctioning any staff, junior
or senior, found to have
engaged in sexual harassment".
This this ignores that the UN
has been aware of the hands
down the pants audio for MORE
THAN A YEAR, when Inner City
Press exclusively first
published it and asked the UN
about it. We'll have more on
this - and on others
responsible.
***
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