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UNITED NATIONS,
October 15 – While
UN Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres has
yet, for
example, to
speak clearly
about the
human rights abuses
against
Anglophones by
Cameroon after
he offered
unmitigated praise
to 35-year
president Paul
Biya on
September 22,
now his head
of Global
Communications
Alison Smale
wants to
re-brand or at
least
re-introduce
him to the
public. In an
October 3
“Town Hall”
meeting in New
York City on
which Inner
City Press has
exclusively reported,
Smale said
there is a
“need to get
the Secretary
General out
there.” She
said Guterres,
a former prime
minister of
Portugal, “is
not so widely
known in this
country or
indeed in
other parts of
the world.”
Video here.
As Inner City
Press has
asked
Guterres'
holdover
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric about
without
answer, Smale
has said she
will hire
outside
consultants,
contrary to
the
recommendations
of the UN
Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions,
click here for
that, with
video. The
questions are
directed to
Dujarric after
Smale has
repeatedly
refused to
answer
detailed
questions from
Inner City
Press, for
example on
September 12 here
and September
26 here.
Isn't it a
conflict of
interest for a
Department and
person openly
focused on
there being
only positive
portrayals of
the UN and
Guterres have
the unfettered
right to
restrict the
critical
independent
Press and
reward
no-shows and
sycophants? And
as Inner City
Press asks the
UN about this
and such other
UN failures as
in Cameroon
and uploads
the answers
into YouTube
and Google
News, suddenly
it is
downgraded
without notice
in Google News
to a "blog,"
no longer in
Google News
Alerts,
re-Tweeted
photo here,
and
demonetized in
YouTube. This
is censorship,
a newer kind
that Paul
Biya's
ham-handed
moves on the
Southern
Cameroons
Broadcasting
Corporation
SCBC - our
question is to
prove who is
behind it.
There is a
history, for
example here,
with the UN.
Watch this
site.
Smale in the
Town Hall
meeting
claimed her
office and
e-mail doors
are open, and
twice focused
on Guterres'
trip to the
Central
African
Republic later
this month as
a “key
opportunity to
show what we
can do,
editorially,
with forward
planning with
people on the
ground
portraying,
telling the
story of the
peacekeepers
and the people
they are
helping.”
Some have a
different
experience, of
sexual and
other abuse.
Only this
week, Inner
City Press asked
the UN about a
young woman
allegedly
drugged and
raped by UN
Peacekeeper(s)
in Bambari in
CAR. At what
point does
hiring
consultants to
try to
emphasize only
the positive
become a cover
up, even a la
Harvey
Weinstein? And
what of the
UN's cover up
of the abuses
in Cameroon?
We'll have
more on this.
Meanwhile as Canada joins The
Netherlands at the UN in Geneva
in calling for an investigation
of possible war crimes in Yemen
including the Saudi-led
coalition's killing of
civilians, Canada has continued
a $15 billion arms deal with
Saudi Arabia. When Canadian
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
held a press conference at the
UN on September 21, Inner City
Press went early, intending to
ask him to explain this
incongruity or seeming
hypocrisy. Trudeau's spokesman
announced that the questioners
had been “pre-determined,” but
did not explain how. So in a
lull after what the spokesman
called the last question - would
Trudeau be a mediator on
Venezuela - Inner City Press
asked about Canadian arms sales
to Saudi while calling for a
probe. At first Trudeau said he
was happy to answer the
question. Then he said no, he
would not reward “bad behavior,”
and instead reached out for
question in French about day
care. Now Inner City Press has
seen that Google / You Tube have
ruled that the video of this
question and answer is "not
suitable for most advertisers,"
and those not monetizable. Photo
here.
Why not? (Inner City Press has
spoken more recently on October
12 on Canadian TV, about its
national's sell-out of Rohingya
in Myanmar, here.)
And why, suddenly amid its
questions about hypocrisy and
Yemen and Cameroon and UN
corruption, has Inner City Press
been downgraded in Google News?
We'll have more on this. (Inner
City Press notes that
pre-determining questioners is
bad behavior. Apparently the CBC
journalist who was given the
first question agreed to it; the
organization only the day before
sent an Egyptian state media
correspondent as the lone “pooler”
in Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' meeting with General
Sisi.) Earlier on September 21
when UK minister Alistair Burt
came in front of the UN Security
Council to speak about
accountability for Daesh in
Iraq, Inner City Press deferred
to a timely question about the
referendum in Kurdistan. Then
during lull - identical to
that in which it put its
question to Trudeau - Inner City
Press asked Burt about his
quote, about accountability for
the bombing of civilians in
Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition
with UK bombs, that "Our view is
that it is for the Coalition
itself, in the first instance,
to conduct such investigations.
They have the best insight into
their own military procedures
and will be able to conduct the
most thorough and conclusive
investigations.” Inner City
Press asked how he can say this,
given that the Saudis have
investigated less than five
percent of the killings. Video here.
Burt's answer focused on the
peace process - what peace
process? At least Burt answered,
and did not like Trudeau try to
call merely asking the question
in a lull "bad behavior" - we'll
have more on this.
***
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support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
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