Mr. Chairman,
We congratulate you on your appointment to lead our works, and we extend our congratulations to the other members of the Bureau. We wish you success in the exercise of your responsibilities and we guarantee our cooperation.
We would like to express our gratitude to Mrs. Cristina Gallach, Under-Secretary-General, for her work as head of the Department of Communications and Public Information, and we welcome Mr. Maher Nasser, Acting Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, to whom we wish success in his work.
Our delegation endorses the statements by Ecuador, on behalf of the Group of 77 and China and by El Salvador, on behalf of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). We also support the statement by Peru on behalf of the Group of Friends of the Spanish.
Mr. Chairman,
We thank the Secretary-General for the submission of his reports contained in documents A / AC.198 / 2017/2, 3 and 4, which enable us to better assess the work developed by the Department of Public Information (DPI) in the implementation of General Assembly resolution A / 71/101.
The work of the Committee on Information, of the Department of Communications and Public Information and of the Information Centers, is essential for the dissemination of information on the work of the United Nations, and to promote the transparency and accountability of the Organization. Even though progress has been made in different sectors in charge of the DPI, there is still a long way to go.
We reiterate the importance of taking into account the information realities and contexts of each audience in the design of any communication and information strategy. The message disseminated by the United Nations must be accessible to all. The use of new information and communication technologies is important, but more conventional forms of information dissemination should not be overlooked.
Our delegation recognizes 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. Taking this premise into account will ensure a more universal access to the contents disseminated by the Organization.
Mr. Chairman,
We are concerned that the issuance of daily press releases has not been expanded to all official languages, in accordance with the principle of parity of the same. General Assembly resolution A / RES / 71/101 A-B requested the Department of Public Information, as a matter of priority, to develop a strategy to deliver daily press releases in all six official languages and to submit it, at the latest, at the thirty-eighth Session of the Committee on Information. After a year, neither the strategy nor the report is yet available.
Another claim of the Committee has been that the Journal of the United Nations should be available in all official languages. On this regard, only one proposal has been received within the framework of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Revitalization of the General Assembly.
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.
Mr. Chairman,
More than 50 years after the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 1514 (XV) establishing the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and 50 years after the occupation of Palestinian lands, the promotion of the eradication of colonialism and other forms of foreign occupation, and the support for the Palestinian cause, should remain a priority task in the work of the DPI, as provided in an important number of resolutions.
Another issue of great interest is the use and access to the Internet and to the new information and communication technologies. Unfortunately, we face the reality that millions of people still do not have access to the vast resources available on the Internet. Unequal access to these technologies further increases the digital divide between the countries of the North and the countries of the South, as well as the already existing lack of equity and social justice.
Therefore, we must implement actions that allow a more social appropriation of information technologies, aimed at reducing not only technological but also social gaps.
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.
Mr. Chairman,
Our delegation reiterates its strong rejection of the use of ICTs in violation of international law. It should be ensured that the use of such technologies is fully consistent with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the International Law, in particular with the respect for sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of States.
In January 2014, on the occasion of the Second CELAC Summit held in Havana, the region of Latin America and the Caribbean was declared a Zone of Peace, among other objectives, to foster friendly relations and cooperation among the nations of the region and among other nations, regardless of the differences among their political, economic and social systems or their levels of development; to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors.
However, such efforts are systematically threatened. An example of this is the continuing 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. Through illegal radio and television broadcasts, the Cuban radio spectrum has been permanently attacked from abroad, broadcasting programs specially designed to incite the overthrow of the constitutional order established by the Cuban people. On average, during 2016, 1,875 hours a week were broadcasted illegally to Cuba through 25 frequencies from the territory of the United States.
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.
In conclusion, we reaffirm 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. We are committed to these goals and willing to work with all States to make them a reality.
Thank you very much