Questions relating to information – SecGen report (excerpts)

Questions relating to information

Report of the Secretary-General

 *  A/57/50/Rev.1.

 I.  Introduction 

1.   In its resolution 56/64 B of 24 December 2001, the General Assembly requested the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information at its twenty-fourth session and to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session on the activities of the Department of Public Information and on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the resolution. The present report is prepared in response to resolution 56/64 B and updates the information already provided.¹

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 IV.   General public information activities

 A.  Services to the media

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25.   The Department provided logistical support for the indigenous journalists sponsored to attend the first session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May 2002 as members of the indigenous media project run by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Department’s training programme for broadcasters and journalists from developing countries is being held this year from 9 September to 18 October. The programme provides junior and mid-level media professionals working at Headquarters for a six-week stint with in-depth knowledge of the work of the United Nations and its related organizations. This year, the Department has invited participants from Afghanistan, Algeria, Brunei Darussalam, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Estonia, Guatemala, India, Qatar, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Slovakia and Tonga, as well as journalists sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of Germany. To date, over 300 journalists from more than 140 countries have participated in the programme. The Department has also scheduled a media training programme, to be held from 1 October through 15 November 2002 at Headquarters, for eight Palestinian journalists.

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 V.   Thematic information programmes

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46.   In accordance with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly, the Department of Public Information continued to sensitize public opinion on the question of Palestine through its special information programme. An international media seminar, the eleventh in a series launched in 1991, was organized on 17 and 18 July 2002 in Copenhagen. Media representatives and experts discussed the question of peace in the Middle East and ways and means to break the deadlock. The Department is in the process of reissuing two booklets, “The United Nations and the Question of Palestine” and “For the Rights of the Palestinian People”, and one brochure, “ The United Nations and the Question of Palestine”, in the six official languages of the United Nations.

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