While mainstream media rail against President Trump’s attack on “fake news” media outlets as the “enemy of the people,” at the United Nations, an American reporter is trying to keep his reporting on the world body alive after being physically thrown out and barred.

Matthew Russell Lee, who runs the online Inner City Press blog, has long been a thorn in the side of many U.N. officials with his combative and relentless style of reporting. “ICP” puts out several lengthy stories a day about U.N. proceedings, with a particular emphasis on internal corruption, incompetence and lack of accountability at the international body.

In July 2018, Fox News reported that the United Nations security roughed up, tossed out and permanently banned this American reporter from its New York headquarters.

After he was removed from the building last July, the Government Accountability Project expressed alarm over the incident, saying it was unexplained and part of a “long history of harassment” against Lee.

The United Nations has treated US journalist Matthew Russell Lee in a discriminatory and, we believe, retaliatory manner. He has covered, in depth, a number of issues that have embarrassed the Organization, such as sexual abusescommitted by peacekeepers in Africa, the role of UN peacekeepers in bringing cholera to Haiti, and war crimes in Sri Lanka, among other problems.

After 40 years of operation, the Government Accountability Project can persuasively document that an institution cannot effectively police itself. This is why objective press coverage is necessary, and an international consensus on this point led to the inclusion of Article 19 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Matthew Russell Lee helps to ensure objective press coverage of the United Nations, and the UN must stop its harassment of him if it is to comply with its own principles.

Matthew Lee needs our help so he can keep up his reporting, shedding light on United Nations operations worldwide.