New York, 25 April 2017. At the United Committee on Information, Cuba recognized the need and importance of designing relevant strategies in the treatment of information, which guarantee its preservation, access and sustainable management, as evidence of the Organization's work processes.
At this forum, the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo, considered that advocating multilingualism and parity in the treatment of the six official languages of the United Nations is a crucial task in the design and implementation of UN dissemination and information actions.
She regretted that we face the reality that millions of people still do not have access to the vast resources available on the Internet, and thus, unequal access to these technologies further increases the digital divide between the countries of the North and the South, as well as the already existing lack of equity and social justice. In this regard, we must implement actions that allow a more social appropriation of information technologies, aimed at reducing not only technological but also social gaps.
Likewise, she highlighted that the United Nations has an important role to play in this regard, by disseminating objective, true and impartial news and by promoting the use of traditional mass media, especially the radio, among thousands of poor and illiterate people lacking other ways to access information.
The diplomat reiterated its strong rejection of the use of ICTs in violation of international law. She condemned the permanent radio and television aggression by the United States Government against Cuba, in violation of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and several provisions of the International Telecommunication Union. “Cuba hopes that these aggressions will be brought to an end and that the economic, commercial and financial blockade, which has caused serious damage to the Cuban people, with harmful effects in the field of information and communications, among other spheres of the Cuban society, be lifted”, she underlined.
The Cuban representative concluded by reaffirming the role that the Committee on Information should play in promoting the establishment of a new, more just and equitable world information and communication order, intended to strengthen peace and international understanding, as enshrined in its founding documents. She reiterated Cuba’s commitment and willingness in such efforts.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations