Mr. Chairman,
I have the honour to participate on behalf of the countries members
of the Rio Group in the debate on the item
"Questions relating to information" in the Special Political
and Decolonization Committee. I wish, first of all, to
thank the Secretary-General for his report, which comprehensively reviews
the activities of the Organization in the
field of information from the Committee's meeting, last May, to the
present. We also thank the
Under-Secretary-General, Mr. Hogen Kensaku, for his introduction of
the report of the Secretary-General, as
well as the staff of the Department of Public Information for their
tireless devotion to the task of implementing the
communication policy of the United Nations.
Mr. Chairman,
The Organization is making increasing use of the new communications
and information technologies. The United
Nations website is being continually enriched with contributions from
the various departments and the report of
the Secretary-General indicates that the use of the Internet will continue
to grow in the future. The countries
members of the Rio Group support this trend, which we see as making
use of a means of dissemination of
information that has grown exponentially in recent times.
We believe, however, that in order for this dissemination to truly
achieve the universality sought by the
Organization, more effort is needed to achieve parity between the six
official languages. While we note with
satisfaction the expansion of the Spanish language website, the objective
of the Rio Group continues to be greater
parity in the content of each of the sites in the six official languages.
Nor can we ignore the fact that not all the people of our countries
have access to information and communications
technologies. That is why we consider it important to maintain the traditional
channels of information, such as radio
and television, which have greater coverage in the developing countries.
We therefore welcome the initiatives
announced by the Secretary-General in his report concerning the expansion
and improvement of United Nations
radio programming in different languages and commend the Organization
for its live broadcasts, particularly those
in Spanish, which are widely heard in our countries through radio stations
that have rebroadcast agreements with
the United Nations.
The just concluded Millennium Summit was the most recent event in
the life of the Organization and, as evidence
of our commitment to the United Nations, the countries of the Rio Group
were represented at the highest level in
that forum. We therefore had the opportunity to see at first hand the
work done by the Department of Public
Information in the field of communications and in the provision of services
to news media.
We note with satisfaction the improvements in the provision of services
for the communications media and wish to
encourage the Department of Public Information to continue working to
provide more and better services to the
correspondents accredited to the Organization's Headquarters and to
representatives of the media who travel
here to cover particular events. We believe that the establishment of
the future United Nations news service will
mark an important step in that direction.
We also note with satisfaction the continuation of training courses
for journalists from developing countries and are
of the view that these courses should be increased in number and expanded
in the future, to include a larger
number of participants from a larger number of countries.
Mr. Chairman,
The countries members of the Rio Group attach great importance to
the work of the local United Nations
information centres, which have done and continue to do an outstanding
job not only in disseminating the activities
of the Organization, but especially in creating greater awareness within
national communities of the different issues
that are dealt with by the Organization, in the political, economic
and social fields as well as in the areas of
disarmament and the promotion and protection of human rights.
The merging of these Information Centres with the local offices of
the United Nations Development Programme
has been an experience whose results have been mixed. We therefore believe
that the issue should be looked at
on a case by case basis and always in consultation with the authorities
of the host country, so that whatever option
is chosen would have positive results in terms of the relations between
the United Nations and the local
community.
Mr. Chairman,
For some time now, the Secretary-General in his reports both to the
Committee on Information and to the
General Assembly, has been speaking of the proliferation and growing
complexity of the tasks performed by the
Department of Public Information in order to meet the increasing need
for information materials from Member
States, delegations at Headquarters, the communications media and the
public at large. We welcome this trend,
since it is evidence of the interest in and impact of United Nations
activities on the lives of men and women
throughout the world.
Nevertheless, as part of the current review of United Nations peacekeeping
activities, changes have been
proposed in the size of the Department of Public Information, which
would mean reductions in posts and the
transfer of offices from the Department to other areas.
In this regard, the countries members of the Rio Group wish to state
that we support the process of discussion of
the Brahimi report and the recommendations of the Special Committee
on Peacekeeping Operations in an active
and constructive manner. We understand that it is in the interest of
all States Members that the activities of the
United Nations in the field of peace and security should be made more
effective. We believe, however, that all
key decisions must be taken with the agreement of the States Members
and we take this opportunity to declare
our willingness to participate in the dialogue which this will require.
In the specific field of public information, we believe that all the
changes to be made should take into account the
need to maintain the quality and quantity of the information services
of the Organization and to support its
projection into the future. We hope that the fruitful dialogue upon
which we are about to embark will contribute to
the strengthening of the work of the Organization. Lastly, we wish to
commend in particular the Chairman of the
Committee on Information, Minister Elhassan Zahid, and the other members
of the Bureau for the work which
they have done.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
