Questions relating to information – Fourth Cttee debate – Summary record (excerpts)

SPECIAL POLITICAL AND

DECOLONIZATION COMMITTEE

(FOURTH COMMITTEE)

9th meeting

held on

Wednesday, 6 November 1996

at 3 p.m.

New York

SUMMARY RECORD OF THE 9th MEETING

CONTENTS

AGENDA ITEM 87:  QUESTIONS RELATING TO INFORMATION

The meeting was called to order at 3.05 p.m.

AGENDA ITEM 87:  QUESTIONS RELATING TO INFORMATION (A/51/21, 372 and 406)

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2. Mr. SANBAR (Assistant Secretary-General for Public Information), presenting the Secretary-General's report (A/51/406) on the information activities of the United Nations, emphasized the current economic constraints.

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26. Efforts to provide practical training for media practitioners from developing countries continued.  Eighteen participants had just completed the annual training programme.  As part of the ongoing public information programme relating to the Middle East and the question of Palestine, the Department had intensified the training programme for Palestinian media practitioners begun last year.  In 1996, 10 Palestinians had taken part in the programme, aimed at providing them with practical skills for the long-term benefit of their community.  In addition, the Dag Hammarskjöld Library was currently providing training in the use of the latest electronic resources to two officials of the Palestinian Authority.  The Department was discussing further cost-effective activities, including an international forum in Gaza to review international assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

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39. Mr. SILANI (Observer for Palestine) said that the rapid contemporary advances in communication and information technology were affecting all aspects of life, and the United Nations should use them to advantage.  The availability of accurate and up-to-date information on the complexities of the question of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East could clearly help advance dialogue, understanding and support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and for the peace process in the region.

40. The Department of Public Information had an important role to play in furthering the Palestinian cause by continuing to educate the public about all aspects of the situation on the ground, as underscored in General Assembly resolution 50/84 C, which requested the Department to continue its special information programme on the question of Palestine for the biennium 1996-1997, and specified the various components of that programme.  The task of assisting the Palestinian people in the field of media development had been implemented, but the resolution as a whole had not, despite budgetary allocations for most of its provisions.  The Secretariat should not use its own judgement in cutting funds for mandated programmes, and any Member State opposing such a programme should take the matter up with other Member States.  The work of the Department of Public Information would not be done until peace was achieved in the Middle East.

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46. Mrs. DENGO (Costa Rica), speaking on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, …

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51. With respect to the important question of Palestine, the Department of Public Information should focus on full implementation of the special information programme on the question of Palestine for the biennium 1996-1997 as specified in General Assembly resolution 50/84 C, and not simply the provision relating to the training of Palestinian media practitioners.

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52. Mr. AL-AWADHI (Yemen) drew attention to the content of the third preambular paragraph and paragraph (e) of draft resolution A contained in part IV of the report of the Committee on Information (A/51/21), adding that action had also been adopted to support and devote attention to Palestinian matters and to implement the relevant resolutions in that respect.  …

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The meeting rose at 6.05 p.m.

This record is subject to correction.  Corrections should be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned within one week of the date of the publication to the Chief of the Official Records Editing Section, room DC2-794, 2 United Nations Plaza, and incorporated in a copy of the record.

Corrections will be issued after the end of the session, in a separate corrigendum for each Committee.