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DPI/Comité de l'information de l'AG - Débat et déclarations générals - Communiqué de presse (extraits) Français
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Source: General Assembly
Department of Public Information (DPI)
25 April 2012

General Assembly
PI/2026
        Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

MEMBER STATES' SUPPORT WILL STRENGTHEN DETERMINATION OF PUBLIC INFORMATION

DEPARTMENT TO 'INFORM, ENGAGE AND ACT', SAYS COMMUNICATIONS CHIEF

As Committee on Information Concludes Debate, Speaker Calls Department
Reliable Source that Keeps Pace with World’s ‘Deafening Cacophony of Messages’


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Background

The Committee on Information met this afternoon to conclude its general debate. (For more information, please see Press Release PI/2022 of 20 April.)

Statements

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IHAB HAMED (Syria), ...

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He further called on the Department to increase its communications efforts on the question of Palestine, particularly the continued suffering of the Palestinian people due to the Israeli occupation. In that connection, the Department should continue to implement its annual information programme on Palestine and bolster coverage of Israel’s violations of the Geneva Conventions. ...

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ESHAGH AL HABIB (Iran), ...

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The Department had the important responsibility to raise international awareness about the serious deterioration of the humanitarian and economic situation of the innocent Palestinian people, he said, warning against “Islamophobia” and the defamation of Islam geared towards dehumanizing Muslims. He called on the Department to counter that phenomenon and to facilitate dialogue between different civilizations and cultures.

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SOMAIA BARGHOUTI, Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations, aligning herself with the Group of 77 and China, stressed the importance of the Special Information Programme on Palestine, maintained in accordance with the General Assembly resolutions. Adopted unanimously, they were a reflection of the worldwide support for educating about the situation of the Palestinian people. She commended the Department, particularly the Palestine section, for its activities, including the organization of the seminar, held in Budapest, Hungary. She also thanked the Department for organizing an art exhibition in New York. The Department played a very important role in training of broadcasters and journalists, which no doubt contributed to freedom of press. She called on the Department to promote other activities requested by the General Assembly on the Palestinian question, including the dispatch of news teams to the region, in order to convey the situation on the ground.

She said the Israeli occupation continued to limit the role of Palestinian journalists to cover the violations perpetrated by the Israeli army. Israelis continued the use of rubber bullets and tear gas against journalists who were covering Israel’s illegal settlements. Freedom of press in the Occupied Palestinian Territory was under violent attack. That forced journalists, on numerous occasions, to stay away from the regions targeted by the Israeli army. Thus, often, acts of aggression were not covered by the press. All international institutions and Member States should protect foreign journalists and put restrictions on Israeli forces. Despite the Israeli blockade of Palestinian access to information technologies, the Palestinian Government continued to strive for such access. The Palestinian Government also strove to protect journalists, she said, highlighting a new bill being drafted to protect international journalists in the region. Against the backdrop of Israel’s colonialist activities, she believed that the Department’s Special Information Programme on Palestine supported an end to the occupation and worked to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their unalienable rights among all nations, with pride and dignity.

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For information media • not an official record
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