(New York, 5 May 2009)

Mr. Chairman,

At the outset, I would like to congratulate you on your election as Chairman of the Committee on Information and the establishment of the new Bureau. I am confident that under your leadership, the current session will once again yield fruitful results.

The Chinese delegation thanks the Secretary-General for his informative reports on the Activities of the Department of Public Information (DPI), and commends the work done by the DPI under the leadership of Under-Secretary-General Kiyotaka Akasaka over the past year. The Chinese delegation supports the statement made yesterday morning by the distinguished representative of Sudan on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. Now I wish to emphasize the following points:

I. The role of DPI needs to be further strengthened. The basic function of DPI is to publicize the UN activities to the entire world. Over the years, DPI has worked to tell the UN story through various means such as thematic promotion, press releases, receiving tourists, and holding exhibitions, so as to communicate to the entire world the spirit of peace, cooperation and development advocated by the United Nations. The international community is now still confronted with many global challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation, shortage of resources, frequent outbreak of diseases and natural disasters, and spread of terrorism. The United Nations is playing an important role in resolving these issues. DPI should continue to explore new ways and work harder to publicize the United Nations, engage in various forms of cooperation with UN Member States, further promote the purposes and ideals of the United Nations across the world and lay a solid groundwork for a greater leadership role of the United Nations.

II. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, it is necessary to put greater emphasis on the issue of development. Development has all along been high on the UN agenda. A host of important consensus was reached on the issue of development at last year’s UN High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At present, the financial crisis is spreading across the globe, resulting in crisis in the real economy and social problems in many countries. In this process, developing countries are the hardest hit. This creates new difficulties for the achievement of the MDGs. The vast majority of the UN Member States are developing countries. The United Nations is therefore duty-bound to steer the world out of the crisis and protect the interests of developing countries. At this special juncture, DPI should guide the international media and public opinion to pay more attention to the difficulties that developing countries are facing in economic and social development, and call on the international community to fulfill its commitments to providing aid to developing countries and helping them overcome the difficulties and get out of the crisis.

III. More assistance should be given to developing countries in the area of press and communications. DPI needs to increase its input in expanding cooperation and exchanges with the media of developing countries and provide more human resources and technological assistance to strengthen their capacity to develop and disseminate information through national strength. DPI should work to facilitate that the Internet and other modern means of communications and dissemination benefit developing countries and the disparities between different countries and regions in information flows are narrowed.

IV. DPI should remain committed to providing accurate, impartial and balanced information. The United Nations should firmly and explicitly oppose bias and prejudice, and rebut and redress the unhealthy practice in some media coverage such as quoting out of context, wanton exaggeration, distortion, falsification and fabrication. The news media should be encouraged to honor their professional ethics and communicate information in an objective and balanced manner.

China will as always support the work of the Committee on Information and the Department of Public Information.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.