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In UN Inner City Press Is Banned From Cameroon Peacebuilder Event by UN Censorship Alliance Collusion in Guterres List

By Matthew Russell Lee, Audio

UNITED NATIONS, October 23 – When the chair of the UN's fact-finding mission on Myanmar Marzuki Darusman spoke in the UN's Third Committee on October 23, Inner City Press which has previously asked Darusman questions about his similar roles on Sri Lanka and also Bhutto was banned from entering by a no due process order of UNSG Antonio Guterres' Alison Smale, Myanmar style. Hours later it was barred from entry to a session about women peacebuilders including from Cameroon, which Inner City Press more than any other media in the UN has been covering, leading to its roughing up and ouster by Guterres. This was the ad for that, sent to Inner City Press by several disgusted or conflicts correspondents: "invitation below to a mixer for UN Journalists and NGOs who are in New York for the Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security, taking place TODAY, Tuesday, October 23rd from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm... Sherwin Bryce-Pease, President, United Nations Correspondents Association, Dear journalists, Please join us on Tuesday afternoon for an informal mixer between journalists and NGOs covering the Security Council and Human Rights at the UN in NYC. Attendees will include NGO staff and women peacemakers from Yemen, Syria, Palestine, South Sudan, Western Sahara, Cameroon, Philippines, and more who are in NYC for the Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security. When: Tuesday 23 October, 5pm to 7pm, UN Secretariat, Drinks and nibbles provided." That was Tuesday afternoon, in the UN Censorship Alliance. But do they and their Smale and Guterres control even member state events? Watch tis site. Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, Darusman said that the military's posts on Facebook showed genocidal intent and are being saved for prosecutorial purposes. That implies due process, something that at least for the press today's UN does not have. So is the UN failing on human rights? Yes - and under Guterres, for example in Cameroon, the UN is outright ignoring and undermining human rights. Michelle Bachelet, picked by Guterres, has yet to do anything. Will Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, set for an October 24 press conference from which Inner City Press is also set to be banned, be similarly silent? Here is her report, which states among other things, "in Paletwa Township, Chin State, clashes in May between the Tatmadaw and
Arakan Army resulted in the deaths of five civilians. Further clashes in May and June led to the internal displacement of approximately 1,000 people, in addition to the approximately 1,300 people who had been displaced to India in late 2017 and who reportedly have not returned home." The UN maintains a secret list of people banned from entering its premises. 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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