EU Statement – UN General Assembly Committee on Information: General Debate

 - As delivered -

Mr. Chair, Madam Under-Secretary-General, distinguished colleagues,

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

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the potential candidate country Georgia, as well as Monaco and San Marino, align themselves with this statement.

Let me start by congratulating you, Mr Chair and other members of the Bureau, for your election. We wish you a successful session of the Committee, and you can count on the EU’s strong support. We also thank the outgoing Bureau for its very valuable work.

At a time when the world faces a growing number of crises, the Department of Global Communications has the critical role of ensuring quality information to citizens, everywhere, whilst adapting to an ever-changing information environment. Our responsibility in this Committee is to provide guidance to the Department based on a shared understanding of the challenges – and there are many – under which the UN operates, here in New York and around the world.

In this respect, we appreciate the DGC’s increasingly impactful communication activities and campaigns since the introduction of the 2020 Global Communications Strategy. The Cholera outbreak in Haiti, the dramatic situation in Afghanistan – especially for women and girls –, and the Black Sea Grain Initiative made necessary by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, are recent examples of the increased agility and effectiveness of the DGC in shaping the UN’s communication in times of crisis.

We also support your efforts, Madam USG, in coordinating communication across the UN system, and on all UN pillars, including by activating crisis communication cells when needed.

On climate and environmental action, the implementation of the SDGs and the human rights agenda, we welcome the Secretary-General’s messages on the urgency to act, which must be expressed by the entire United Nations system. We also encourage the DGC to take further steps to ensure that the entire UN system consistently uses, in all its communications, including in its reports and policy documents, the terminology of resolutions adopted by the General Assembly when available, or of statements of the Secretary-General, especially when referring to grave violations of the UN Charter.

Madame la Secrétaire générale adjointe,

Nous saluons vos efforts pour mobiliser des publics plus jeunes et plus diversifiés. En collaboration avec les États membres de l'UE, nous nous efforçons d'assurer une participation significative de la société civile et des jeunes au sein de nos délégations aux grands événements des Nations Unies, et de les associer à la fois aux activités de communication et à l'élaboration des politiques.  Les efforts du département dans cette perspective sont   très appréciés, en particulier au regard de l’importance primordiale, pour la jeunesse d’aujourd’hui et de demain, de plusieurs événements de haut niveau organisés cette année, y compris le Sommet sur les Objectifs de Développement Durable et la réunion ministérielle préparant le Sommet de l’Avenir.

El seguimiento de la OCA es una oportunidad para acelerar la implementación de la Agenda 2030 y fortalecer el sistema multilateral, incluyendo un mayor compromiso con todos los actores relevantes, como los jóvenes, la sociedad civil, el sector privado y los parlamentos. El hecho de que el grupo demográfico de 18 a 24 años sea hoy el mayor segmento de audiencia en las plataformas multimedia de las Naciones Unidas es muy prometedor a este respecto.

We are also determined to counter information manipulation and interference, including disinformation. The Department of Global Communication plays a key role in making the United Nations a reliable source of information in a highly polluted information environment. We commend the Secretary-General's determination to address this challenge, based on the success of recent initiatives such as Verified, and to tackle not just unintentional misinformation, but also intentional information manipulation and disinformation on a broader range of issues, such as climate change and hate speech, attacks against UN staff in the field, or attempts to interfere in electoral processes.

Regrettably, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is a blatant example of the use of information manipulation and disinformation in official UN meetings, including in the Security Council. We condemn the deliberate spread of false narratives, particularly in an attempt to justify an aggression against another UN member state, or subsequently regarding the causes of food insecurity. Russia abuses the UN system, diverting  attention and resources away from its aggression against Ukraine and  the dramatic consequences for Ukraine and for the world.

In this respect, it is a sad irony that a leading agent of this war propaganda will represent the Russian Federation today in this Committee.

How can anyone trust the so-called “information” coming from a state that keeps intensifying its crackdown on the civic space, including independent media and journalists? We call on Russia to immediately and unconditionally release all those imprisoned for politically motivated charges, and to repeal its oppressive legislation. We stand in solidarity with all those, in Russia and around the world, who are prosecuted or intimidated for simply doing their work or for speaking the truth.

Mr Chair, Madam USG,

We support the preparations of a Code of Conduct for information integrity on digital platforms, proposed by the SG, to ensure accountability of the multiple actors at play – both public authorities and private actors. The focus on digital platforms is justified by their amplifying impact of harmful contents produced also by other sources, but it is key to consider the entire information environment – including audio-visual and print media – and the broader digital ecosystem, such as the use of fake websites, messenger services, bots or fake identities, etc. A holistic approach is also needed, covering platforms from all regions. The Code of Conduct should involve all stakeholders, including states, civil society and the private sector and formulate recommendations for their responsible behaviour in the information environment.

We also support media and information literacy (for which a “global week” was proclaimed by a GA resolution in 2021) to address in a preventive way the challenge of information manipulation and disinformation. It is crucial to empower citizens around the world to make their own informed choices, and to equip them with the skills needed to build resilience against discriminatory, violent, false or misleading content, manipulated information and disinformation, while ensuring the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of expression. This also requires striving to reduce inequalities and the various digital divides between and within countries, including the gender digital divide.

These challenges can only be addressed collectively and through a multilingual approach. Promoting media literacy, tackling information manipulation and disinformation, explaining the UN’s work across policy areas and on all continents necessitates an equal treatment of all six official languages. Multilingualism is both a core value of the UN and a condition for the Organization’s efficiency, performance and transparency. The DGC should further mainstream this principle in all its operations and communicate more consistently about it. We also support the DGC’s dissemination of information in other languages, especially at the local level through the UN information Centres.

Mr Chair,

The EU and its Member States reiterate their strong support for the DGC’s work in service of citizens across the world. We extend our thanks to the G77 and China, in particular the Cuban delegation as coordinator, for the zero draft of the resolutions under the item “Questions relating to information”. We look forward to fruitful discussions with Member States to agree a text on the two annual resolutions that is both ambitious and consensual, and reflects the current challenges faced by the UN in the information environment.

Thank you for your attention.