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Litmus Test on Press Freedom (and on "MUNGA") - Inner City Press on July 25 applied to the UN to regain access to report, including on UNGA week. On July 27, formal request to USUN (and State) for action on it by PR Mike Waltz, Tammy Bruce, Jeff Bartos et al.
Here is the letter to them
July 27, 2026
Via USUN form: https://usun.usmission.gov/contact/ (submitted)
Dear Ambassador Waltz, Ambassador Bartos, and Ms. Bruce:
Inner City Press, an American news organization, requests that the U.S. Mission formally support its and my pending UN accreditation application, filed July 25, 2026 with the Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, seeking restoration of resident correspondent status and access now, for the 2026 General Assembly High-Level Week and beyond.
On July 3, 2018, while covering the UN's Fifth (Budget) Committee, I was physically removed by UN Department of Safety and Security officers and on July 5 barred from re-entry. Eight years later there has been no hearing, no written findings, and no appeal — a due-process failure the UN's own Human Rights Council has twice heard, and which UN Special Rapporteurs on Freedom of Expression and on Human Rights Defenders have separately raised with UN leadership.This is squarely a matter for the U.S. Mission. Under the 1947 U.S.-UN Headquarters Agreement, the United States, as host country, bears specific obligations concerning access to UN Headquarters on U.S. soil. The State Department has long asserted a duty to protect American citizens, including journalists, from arbitrary mistreatment by entities operating within U.S. jurisdiction. An American journalist barred for eight years without any process from an organization headquartered here, under a treaty the United States signed, is a modest, legitimate ask for U.S. diplomatic support — not adjudicating press freedom abroad, but enforcing an agreement made at home.
I submitted this information through the Mission's form earlier in Amb Waltz' tenure, and have published UN corruption stories I must assume the Mission is aware of. Every weekday, I submit new written questions to the UN, cc-ing USUN. USUN has the same duty to take this action as it would for US citizens attacked overseas. There can be no political- or content-based litmus test for State and USUN providing this assistance to a US journalist - in fact, this is a litmus test not only for the UN but also for USUN and State.
For ease of action - please confirm receipt, then confirm action - a copy of the application is at https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28515554-application-amid-un-secretary-general-transition-inner-city-press-applies-again-for-accreditation-here/
I formally ask that the Mission raise this with the Secretariat, request a written explanation for the exclusion, and support prompt approval of the pending application this week.
Respectfully,
Matthew Russell Lee, Inner City Press
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