CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by Ambassador Pedro Nuñez Mosquera, Permanent Representative of Cuba, at the general debate of the Committee on Information. New York, 27 april  2010

 

Mr. Chairman,

First and foremost, on behalf of the Cuban delegation, allow me to congratulate you on your election as Chairman of the Committee on Information. I would like to extend my congratulations to the rest of the Bureau.

Cuba fully associates itself with the statement by the distinguished delegation of Yemen on behalf of the G-77 and China.
Mr. Chairman,
Cuba appreciates the report submitted by the Secretariat on the activities of the Department of Public Information. The thorough and differentiated manner, in which the report has been presented this year, in separate thematic reports, contributes to show more clearly and precisely the diverse tasks the Department undertakes and the challenges it faces to fulfill the mandate given by the General Assembly. 
Particular attention should be paid to the work of the 63 Information Centers that, spread all over the world, convey the message of the Organization and provide information on such crucial issues as poverty, effects of climate change, impact of diseases, among others.
In this respect, we welcome the adoption of General Assembly resolution A/RES/64/243 deciding the establishment of an information center in Luanda, Angola. We likewise thank the Government of that sister nation that, for over five years, have generously offered to provide rent-free premises for the creation of this center. We hope the Secretary-General do every possible effort for its establishment. We are confident this new Center will contribute to take the knowledge on the most pressing matters in the contemporary world to the Portuguese-speaking African peoples.   
Mr. Chairman,
The accelerated technological development on communication and information and related technologies is not equal for all, and there is an increasing gap in the access to these new technologies.

 

The developing world cannot have access to such technologies with the speed or efficiency the developed world does. The digital divide between the North and the South does not decrease. There is a growing number of people connected to the Internet. At the end 2009, there were 1.8 billion users. However, in many countries, people with no access to that service remain the majority. While in Africa only 4% of the population has access to the Web, in other regions of the world over 70% of the population does.      

On the other hand, the information flow takes place in a very worrisome manner. News being disseminated or silenced are those convenient for those with the power, for the big information control centers, which all too often impose deception, manipulate history, legitimate discrimination, and insult freedom of speech and information.  

We must start thinking on how to change this reality and on practical measures enabling the rational use and a more social appropriation of information technologies. In this regard, the United Nations has a key role to play

The use of broadcast mechanisms, such as the radio, should continue to be promoted as a means to contribute to informing the vast illiterate populations existing in the countries of the South.
Mr. Chairman,
Cuba continues to be the object of constant radio and television aggression by the US Government.
This radio electronic aggression openly infringes the rules of International Law that govern the relations among States, and the rules and procedures of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
The illegal radio and television broadcasts against Cuba do not convey information; on the contrary, they distort and forge it, seeking to promote the Cuban people’s unease with and questioning of its Revolution. They do not seek the respect for values as objectivity and attachment to the truth. Instead, they fabricate deception with premeditation and encourage destructive hate
Since the beginning of this aggression, almost 25 years ago, the Cuban Government has denounced its illegal character in different fora, particularly the ITU, bearing in mind this radio electric warfare violates the Constitution, Convention and Radio-communications Regulations of that Organization.
On 26 March this year, the 53rd meeting of the ITU Radio Regulations Board reiterated its previous conclusion that US transmissions cause harmful interference in Cuban stations registered in the Master International Frequency Register. It also urged the US Administration to eliminate this harmful interference and charged the Office to review the situation and take actions in accordance with the procedures established in the Radio Regulations.
Mr. Chairman,
Each week, US-based stations broadcast to Cuba thousands of hours of radio and television through 34 different frequencies of medium and short waves, FM and TV. On February this year, there were 2,185 hours a week of illegal transmissions. They generate 231 to 258 hours a day of programs that have nothing to do with balanced and objective information.
Several of such stations belong or provide services to organizations linked to well-known terrorists who live and act against Cuba in US territory, with the full consent of the US Federal Administration authorities.
The US Congress approves an annual budget of over $30 million of federal funds for these kinds of actions against Cuba. In less than two decades, the US Government has spent about $500 million for this purpose.
This rising figures and the new methods used for the radio and TV aggressions by the US Government against Cuba, including the use of Commando Solo military airplanes and other aircrafts, costing $5 million a year, evidence a full disregard for the rules governing international relations and the violation of the ITU agreements to which US is signatory.
Cuba reiterates its condemnation to this aggression and fully rejects the intention of the US Government to maintain radio and television broadcasts to Cuba, in fragrant violation of existing international rules regulating the radio electronic spectrum.
The choice of the kind of information the Cuban people wishes to receive is a sovereign decision of our country, and not of those who, in the US Government, waste taxpayers’ money and plot with terrorist elements in their plans against the Cuban Revolution.
Although these new radio and television aggressions have been and will continue to be neutralized by Cuba, our country has the obligation and the right to denounce these illegal actions and demand their cessation.
Once again, Cuba denounces these illegal actions in this forum and demands their immediate cessation. We will continue exercising our sovereignty and independence, and we will take every measure we can to repel these aggressive actions.
Thank you
(Cubaminrex-Misión ONU)

 

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