Questions Relating to Information

A/RES/35/201View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 59 Questions relating to information, published in 1980.

What else is in this group?

77 documents · 1979–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/84 A-B	Questions relating to information resolutions	—	–
2024	A/RES/79/93 A-B	Questions relating to information resolutions	—	–
2023	A/RES/78/80 A-B	Questions relating to information resolutions	—	–
2022	A/RES/77/128 A-B	Questions relating to information resolutions	—	–
2021	A/RES/76/84 A-B	Questions relating to information resolutions	—	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

What subjects does this mandate have?

12 subjects

Fellowships Information Centres Inter-Agency Cooperation Journalism Mass Media Organizational Structure Press Releases Publications Radio Broadcasting Television Broadcasting Women Work Programme

What’s in this document?

41 operative paragraphs

Expresses its satisfaction with the relevant resolutions as adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at its twenty-first session, held at Belgrade from 23 September to 28 October 1980, in particular the resolution on the report of the Director-General on the findings of the International Commission for the Study of Communication:

Takes note of the invitation of the Director- General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to take immediate steps to initiate studies with a view to drawing up the fundamental principles underlying a new world information and communication order and exploring the possibility and desirability of such studies serving as a basis for a Declaration on the Establishment of a New World Information and Communication Order:

Expresses its satisfaction at the establishment within the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of the International Programme for the Development of Communication, which constitutes an important step in the establishment of a new world information and communication order and which aims at the development of infrastructures of communications of the developing countries in order to contribute lo narrowing the gap in the fields of information and communication between developed and developing countries as well as among developing countries themselves:

Invites Governments, non-governmental organizations and other entities in Member States to extend financial as well as technical support for the development of communication structures in developing countries and, in particular, to the International Programme for the Development of Communication:

Calls upon the Secretary-General to render full co-operation and support to the International Programme for the Development of Communication and to seek and encourage interagency co-operation and the participation of the agencies in the activities of the Programme and its Intergovernmental Council:

Invites Member States to facilitate the widespread circulation and study of the final report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems." to take into account its recommendations in the preparation and strengthening of their national communication capabilities and to include the questions relating to information and communication in their development strategy:

Takes note of the significant activities which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is undertaking with regard to the effects of the activities of transnational corporations in developing countries within the fields of its competence:

Reaffirms the vital need, at the operational level, for co-operation and co-ordination between the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organiza-

IV.

tion and other organizations of the United Nations system that are concerned with the question of information and communication;

Requests the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to submit a progress report on the implementation of the International Programme for the Development of Communication to the General Assembly at its thirtysixth session;

II

Expresses its satisfaction with the work of the Committee on Information as reflected in its report to the General Assembly at its thirty-fifth session;n 2.

Approves the report of the Committee on Information and the recommendations of its Ad Hoe Working Group contained therein; 34 3.

Reaffirms the mandate given to the Committee on Information in General Assembly resolution 34 / I 82;

Decides to increase the membership of the Committee on Information from sixty-six to sixty-seven, the new member to be appointed by the President of the General Assembly after consultation with the regional groups, as specified in the note by the Secretary-General dated 10 April 1980; 11 5.

Requests the Committee on Information to seek the co-operation and active participation of all organizations of the United Nations system, particularly the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in the fulfilment of its mandate;

Expresses its appreciation to the Joint United Nations Information Committee for its efforts towards improving co-ordination of the public information activities of the various organizations of the United Nations system, and calls upon it further to improve and strengthen such co-operation and co-ordination by reporting through the Administrative Committee on Co-ordination to the Committee on Information regarding the extent of and prospects for such cooperation and co-ordination;

Notes with satisfaction that the Department of Public Information of the Secretariat has already established constructive relationships with specialized bodies for co-operation between the non-aligned countries in the field of information and communication, as well as with other international and regional information organizations which are, inter alia, disseminating or ready to disseminate information from United Nations sources, and requests the Committee on Information to continue to examine the co-operation of the Department with those bodies and organizations with a view to promoting and further developing that co-operation;

Notes with satisfaction the contribution made by Governments, non-governmental organizations and other entities in disseminating material prepared by the Department of Public Information about the United Nations and its activities and requests that the Department should continue to examine ways further to utilize their contributions in this regard; . 9.

Reaffirms the importance of the rapidly increasing role of United Nations public information programn:ies in fostering public understanding and support of Umted Nations activities, and requests the Secretary- General to review the current activities of the De-

'A/34/853. partment of Public Information with a view to ensuring a better and more efficient use of its available resources;

I 0.

Reiterates the recommendations of the Committee on Information that additional resources for the Department of Public Information should be commensurate with the increase in the activities of the United Nations that the Department is called upon to cover for the purpose of public information, recommends that the Secretary-General should provide such resources to the Department for this purpose and requests the Committee for Programme and Co-ordination to review the relative growth rate of the Department and report to the General Assembly at its thirty-sixth session;

Reaffirms the importance of the role played by Development Forum and its decision that the continued publication of that periodical as an interagency project is essential, and that the Secretary-General should continue his review of its financial status, continue to seek to ensure long-term financial support for that publication from the organizations of the United Nations system and report on this subject to the Committee on Information at its next session;

Expresses its appreciation of the report on United Nations information centres submitted by the Joint Inspection Unit,'" as well as the comments of the Secretary-General thereon 17 for the purpose of making necessary improvements;

Invites mass media organizations in Member 13. States to promote, in the context of the establishment of a new, more just and more effective world information and communication order in keeping with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, understanding of the efforts of the United Nations system to achieve international social justice and economic development. international peace and security and the progressive elimination of international inequities and tensions;

Requests the Committee on Information to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-sixth session;

III

I.Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that:

The Department of Public Information, both in regard to general information about the United Nations and the fundamental questions with which it is

concerned, shall continue to orient its work towards dissemination of information mainly on problems concerning international peace and security, disarmament, peace-keeping and peace-making operations, decolonization, the promotion of human rights, the struggle against racial discrimination, the integration of women in the struggle for peace and development, the establishment of the new international economic order and the establishment of a new world information and communication order:

Special attention shall be given to the activities of the United Nations against apartheid and the work of the United Nations Council for Namibia;

United Nations efforts to provide broadcast media with programmes on women shall be continued;

Requests the Secretary-General to implement the recommendations of the Ad Hoe Working Group of the Committee on Information, as approved by the Com-

mittee in its report 34, and to report on the progress achieved to the General Assembly at its thirty-sixth session;

Requests the Secretary-General to take urgent measures to redress the present geographical imbalance in the staff of the Department of Public Information in order to ensure equitable participation of personnel from all countries, especially from the developing countries, particularly in posts at the senior and decisionmaking levels, in accordance with Article IOI, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, and to submit a progress report thereon to the General Assembly at its thirty-sixth session;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Committee on Information on a plan for regionalizing the Radio and Visual Services Division in a manner that would permit each regional section to be responsible for all radio, television and film productions for their respective regions;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the Committee on Information an over-all plan on the system of United Nations information centres, focusing on the evolving relationship between the Department of Public Information, at United Nations Headquarters, and the centres;

Requests the Secretary-General, in view of the increased volume and complexity of the activities of the United Nations information centres, to improve:

The network of information centres by reviewing (a) their functions and role in the structure of the Department of Public Information and by establishing, to the extent possible within existing resources, new centres, where deemed necessary, in particular one in Zimbabwe and one in Bangladesh, taking into account, inter a/ia, the need to ensure regional balance;

The capabilities of the centres by providing staff at a level commensurate with their increased responsibilities, particularly in the case of centres with large jurisdictions;

The availability of technical equipment, including telex facilities, to the information centres so as to increase the dissemination of information on the United Nations system;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the Department of Public Information shall remain the focal point for co-ordination and implementation of the public information activities of the United Nations;

8.. _Requests the Secretary-General to take immediately the necessary measures to ensure balance in the use of official languages in the publications and programmes of the Department of Public Information and to s~rengthen t~e effectiveness of the adaptation unitestablished for this purpose so that the best use is made of the resources for informing the public about United Nations actvities;

Requests the Secretary-General to initiate, as ~arly as possible, in-service training programmes, rangmg from two to four months, for journalists and broadcasters from developing countries, as envisaged in his report t? the General Assembly, 38 designed to benefit ~he_ maximum nu_mber possible of such persons, to comc1de to the maximum extent possible with the sessions of the General Assembly;

Also requests the Secretary-General to take the necessary measures:

To strengthen and improve the regional structure in the Radio Service of the Department of Public Information, paying particular attention to adequate programming in the various languages of the regions, and in this regard to provide the Committee on Information at its next session with a plan for the establishment, as a matter of priority, of a separate Caribbean Unit and for the expansion of the African Unit of the Radio Service;

To make specific proposals to the Committee on Information to increase the present number of shortwave broadcasts of the United Nations in order to place them on a daily schedule;

To prepare on an urgent basis, for consideration by the Committee on Information, the technical, financial and legal studies regarding international short-wave broadcasts by the United Nations using its own facilities and frequencies;

To clarify, as a matter of urgency, with the host (d) country the legal questions concerned with the proposal to introduce frequency modulation broadcasts by the United Nations in the Headquarters area, and to submit a report to the Committee on Information, including a detailed study on the technical and financial aspects of tr.e question;

To provide the Information Service at Geneva with the equipment necessary for the electronic recording and dissemination of visual information on United Nations activities, as far as possible from within existing resources;

(/) To provide adequate resources to the Department of Public Information to enable it to ensure full coverage, through press releases, of all important meetings and events at the United Nations;

To ensure that adequate facilities, allowing for better coverage and transmission of news, shall be made available, to the extent possible within existing resources, to journalists, particularly those from the developing countries, during the sessions of the General Assembly;

(~)

To ~llot permanent working space equitably at UnJted N at1ons Headquarters to representatives of news media, giving special attention to the needs of those from the developing countries;

(i)_ . To_ examine the poss\bility of strengthening the partJc1pat10n of the developing countries in the utilization_ of satellites for television broadcasting of United Nations programmes to the various regions, and to make recommendations to the Committee on Information in this regard;

To initiate the production of television programmes in Spanish;

Further requests the Secretary-General to explore the possibility of increasing the number of United Nations radio broadcasts to southern Africa by utilizing the facilities of more Member States;

Expresses its appreciation to the Secretary- <";ieneral for the progress achieved in the implementation of the recommendations contained in the 1979 report of the Ad H oc Working Group of the Committee to Review United Nations Public Information Policies and Activities, 39 and requests the Secretary-General to continue the implementation of all those recommendations;

'" Official Records of the General Assembly. Thirty-fourth Session.

IV.

--------------------~ Requests the Secretary-General to report on the As a result, the Committee is composed of the following Member implementation of the present resolution to the General States: Assembly at its thirty-sixth session;

Decides to include in the provisional agenda of the thirty-sixth session the item entitled "Questions relating to information".

IV.

,, Resolution 217 A (Ill).

·'' Resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.

Sec A/34/542, annex, sect. I, paras. 280-299.

•,, l:nited Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organi7ation, Records of the General Conference. Twentieth Session, vol. 1.

R esolw ions, pp. I 00- I 04.

"Resolution 33/73.

" Published in !°980 by the United Nations Educational. Scientific and Cultural Organization under the title "Many Voices, One World"

'" Official Records of the General Assemhly. Thirty,/ifth Se.1sio11. Supplement No. 21 (A/35/21).•

" See A/35/362.

"See A/35/362/ Add. I. annex I.

., !hid. annex II

9S --- --- - -

" Official Records of the General Assembly. Thirty-fifth Session.

.,. i\ 134 '-179.

Sufsplement No. 21 (A/35/21), annex, sect. V.

•\ 'J4.iJ79/i\dd.1

" A/35/603.

Supplement No. 21 (i\O4/21 and Corr. I), annex Ill, sect. C.

ALGERIA,

ARGENTINA,

BANGLADESH,

BELGIUM,

BENIN, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, BURUNDI, CHILE, COLOMBIA, CONGO, COSTA RICA, CUBA, CYPRUS, DENMARK, ECUADOR, EGYPT, EL S111.VADOR, ETHIOPIA,

FINLAND,

FRANCE,

UERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBUC. GERMANY, FEDERAL REPUBLIC 01', GHANA, GREECE, GUATEMM.A, GUINEA, GUYANA, INDIA. INDONESIA, (TALY, (VORY COAST. JAPAN. JORDAN, KENYA, LEBANON, MONGOUA, MOROCCO, NFTHLRL/\NDS, NIGI-_R, NIGERIA, PAKISTAN, Prnu, PHILIPPINES. POLAND, PORTUGAi. ROMANIA, SINGAPORE, SOMALIA, SPAIN, SRI LANKA, SUDAN, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC, TOGO, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO. TUNISIA, TURKEY, UKRAINIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN (REI.AND,

UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA,

UNITED STATES Of AMI-RICA, VFNEZ!IELA, V11:TN,\M, YEMEN, YUGOSLAVIAandZAIRI ..

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What else is in this group?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

IV.

II

III

I.Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that:

IV.

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