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Madam Chair,

Madam Under-Secretary-General,

Distinguished colleagues,

I have the pleasure to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia, as well as, Monaco.

We want to thank you Madam Under-Secretary General for the opportunity to exchange on the Global Principles for Information Integrity. We are impressed by the thorough process and extensive outreach that you have done. The five identified principles are both relevant and comprehensive.

I would like to convey three main points:

Message 1: We need the Global Principles urgently to help counter threats to information integrity so as to safeguard the effectiveness of our democracies and the UN.

Information risks concern all of us as it poses a critical threat to the interconnected information ecosystem. We are very concerned about the dramatic consequences that the spread of mis- and dis-information and hate speech has for the UN: it not only affects negatively the UN’s mandate implementation, but also the safety of its staff. Letting information manipulation continue to develop will hinder the attainment of our common objectives, notably peace and security, respect and promotion of human rights and the realisation of the SDGs.

With the numerous important elections this year, it is even more important to strengthen the information ecosystem now.

This means increasing media literacy, strengthen independent media, addressing risks posed by AI and tackling foreign information manipulation and interference.

Madam Under-Secretary General, due to the urgency of this matter, we call for actionable recommendations for stakeholders, for the use of existing and globally recognised definitions as well as for language that is future-proof.

How will the recommendations of the Global Principles concretely help the different stakeholders address information risks effectively, also over time?  

What resources are available to tackle the adverse effects of information risks at the UN?

Message 2: Achieving information integrity goes hand-in-hand with protecting freedom of expression and access to safe and reliable information.

Advancing information integrity requires human rights based and whole-of-society approaches. We need to pursue a multi-stakeholder approach that includes governments, the tech industry, media organizations and civil society to successfully tackle information risks. At the same time, we are aware that this approach requires considerable time and resources to build effective alliances and platforms. 

The root causes of information risks must be addressed in a holistic way:

• The principles should address how to achieve information integrity through free media, as well as transparency and accountability of the digital platforms. However, it must also address the responsibility of States to ensure a healthy information environment and refrain from using means, such as disinformation campaigns, that undermine democratic processes;

• They must give guidance on how to protect journalists. They should outline the need to establish systems that protect civic discourse and freedom of expression, while having safety practices for vulnerable groups, especially minors.

• Finally, if we want to have the greatest impact, we have to adopt a multilingual approach in this work. Promoting information integrity and explaining the work of the United Nations in all policy areas and on all continents requires equal treatment of all official languages.

How will you ensure the Principles’ wide-spread dissemination so that all stakeholders are aware of them and draw from them?

How can the UN actively drive forward coalition-building around the Global Principles among stakeholders on a global level?

Message 3: Finally, the EU stands ready to share its experience in tackling root causes of information risks and countering them

The EU has aimed to address the root causes of lacking information integrity through various measures. We have garnered strong experience that can be useful in the context of this exercise. I think in particular of:

• the EU Digital Market Act and the EU Digital Service Act regulates the digital sphere and mitigate systemic risks for democratic and electoral processes;
• the EU Code of Practice on Combating Disinformation brings together the major online platforms with experts from civil society and researchers to set standards to fight disinformation;
• the EU Regulation on transparency of political advertising encourages tailored policies to promote information integrity online;
• the EU AI Act tackles challenges to information integrity posed by AI;
• And the Defence of Democracy package aims at ensuring a free, fair and resilient election process and tackle foreign information manipulation and interference.

Member states have further engaged in cross-regional and cross-sectoral policies and initiatives on these issues.

As these challenges affect all of us, we encourage more opportunities to discuss this issue, share best practices and experiences.

We stand ready to exchange on lessons learnt and engage constructively in our shared efforts to promote information integrity.

Thank you.