42^nd Session of the Committee on Information 

India statement by

A Amarnath, Counsellor

September 2-4, 2020

Thank you Mr. Chair,

Allow me to begin by thanking you for your leadership in ensuring that the Committee of Information meets and discharges its mandated function, despite the challenging times. I also thank Under Secretary-General Melissa Fleming’s presentation of the Secretary-General’s report on the activities of the various Divisions of the Department of Global Communications. As always, it was a pleasure to listen to your strategy and vision for the DGC.

India aligns itself with the statement made by Guyana on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. As many of my fellow colleagues have mentioned, we are tackling a tidal wave of misinformation through the Internet, social media and other news and communication platforms. This has been more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people around the world have been craving for information, checking social media, following news constantly, and discussing the daily statistics about infection rates and deaths. This anxiety and fear of the virus has been exploited through deliberate dissemination of unauthenticated information, unscientific data, fake news and competing narratives across multiple platforms. The need for accurate, impartial and timely information has never been greater before.

Mr. Chair, 

In such desperate circumstances, it is heartening to see DGC ensuring business continuity and supporting the larger UN system to position the UN as the most authoritative and authentic source on scientific knowledge, best practices, including through the ‘Verified’ campaign. We also take note the attempts made by the DGC to promote multilingualism, notably the appropriate use of non-official languages of the United Nations in its communications during the pandemic. We reiterate that the people of this planet dream, read, hear, watch and gossip in languages beyond the six official UN languages. And so we would like to see DGC’s ongoing global outreach efforts in languages other than official languages be strengthened.

I would also like to mention the 2020 Global Communication Strategy of DGC, which envisages transformation of the public from being mere  consumers of news and information to responsible individuals, wanting to contribute to the shared global challenges. India welcomes this action-oriented approach, which attempts to give a human face to the otherwise sundry-statistics. 

Mr. Chair, 

UN Peacekeeping missions have been at the heart of the United Nations since its formation. In this regard, India appreciates the Department’s role in spearheading the communication campaign to project the service and sacrifice of the UN peacekeepers as well as the contribution of countries, who are sending their uniformed men and women, to serve in peacekeeping missions to maintain international peace and security. The assistance provided by DGC to revamp the websites of the Peacekeeping Missions has also added value to this important campaign. 

India is concerned by the growing attacks on attacks on UN peacekeepers, which also results from the anti-UN propaganda. We underscore the importance of this critical issue and urge the DGC to work together with Field Missions and tailor its communication strategies accordingly to address it. Maintaining the Peacekeeping websites in local languages would be a useful step further broaden the outreach of this information and achieve the above objective.

As part of its strategic communications, India would also like to see greater focus in the remarkable work done in the area of South-South cooperation in promoting the SDGs and achieving the Agenda 2030. Highlighting such efforts is particularly relevant during the ‘Decade of Action’. 

Mr. Chair, 

We take note of the extensive work done by the News and Media Division of the DGC and its efforts to promote multi-lingualism. I also take this opportunity to thank the Division’s support in commemorating the International Day of Yoga and helping the global Yoga community in promoting the message of Yoga to fight social isolation and depression during the pandemic and Yoga’s significant role in the psycho-social care and rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients in quarantine and isolation. 

The strain on its financial resources requires DGC to look at innovative ways to raise resources beyond the regular budgetary allocations to carry out its mandated tasks especially in non-official languages. In this regard, we are happy to partner with the DGC in evolving a unique model to mainstream and consolidate news and multimedia content through the UN News online portal and social media in Hindi. Within a short period of its commencement, UN’s Hindi Twitter account has witnessed a surge in its subscription and it has more than 5 million followers today. We hope to continue this partnership with DGC to enhance the visibility and impact of such efforts. 

India also welcomes the important role played by the UN Academic Impact in creating a vibrant and diverse network of students, academics, scientists, researchers, think-tanks and many institutions of higher education, which are the new ideas, inventions and solutions to the many global challenges we face emerge. We appreciate UNAI for providing the link between the UN and these important stakeholders. We also appreciate the efforts taken by the Library to continue some online training programs virtually, but we would like to see the return of the full training schedule at the earliest. 

Mr. Chair, 

Let me conclude by assuring you and the Department of Global Communication of India’s continued support to the Department's activities and initiatives. 

Thank You.