CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Statement by ambassador Pedro Núñez Mosquera, permanent representative of Cuba, at the general debate of the fourth committee on agenda item 54: questions relating to information.  New York, 19 October 2010.

Mr. Chairman,

Cuba appreciates the presentation of the Report of the Secretary-General contained in document A/65/277. The detailed and differentiated manner provides clarity and precision about the diversity of tasks being developed and about the challenges faced in order to fulfill the mandate given by the General Assembly.
We associate ourselves with the statements by the delegation of Yemen on behalf of the Group of 77 and China, and by Chile behalf of the Rio Group.
Mr. Chairman,
In the current global economic and financial crisis, amidst the accelerated environmental destruction, caused by the irrational use of resources, and in an environment in which the media is rapidly transformed, for millions of people in our planet, the subsistence priorities are more important than having access to Internet or to information and communications technologies.

For the hundreds of millions of illiterate people in the world, the right to freedom of expression is nothing but an aspiration. They urgently need to be taught to read and write. These are indispensable tools for them to distinguish at will, have their own criteria, and express themselves with true freedom.

Amidst this situation, the objective of the Organization of informing, spreading and promoting objective, balanced and impartial pieces of news to a public as wide as possible, is full of challenges.

First of all, the accelerated technological development on communications and information and related technologies, has not resulted in equal benefits for all. Instead, the divide in the access to new information technologies increasingly widens.
Developing world cannot have access to such technologies as rapidly and efficiently as developed world. The digital divide between the North and the South does not narrow, but continuously grows broader.
Although statistics show that there are ever more people connected to the web, by the end of 2009 there were 1.8 billion users, in a large number of countries, citizens without Internet access continue to be the majority. While in Africa only 4% of the population has access to the Web, in other regions of the world the percentage amounts to over 70%.
The decolonization of information must cease. The flow of information is produced in a very peculiar manner. The pieces of news being circulated or silenced are the ones convenient to those in power, to the large information control centers that all too often impose deceit, manipulate history, legitimate discrimination, and insult freedom of expression and information.

We must start thinking about how to change these realities and about practical measures enabling the rational use and a more social appropriation of information technologies. In this regard, the United Nations have a key role to play.
Mr. Chairman,
The 63 UN Information Centers throughout the world, particularly in developed countries, must continue to play a central role in the spreading of balanced information, and take into duly consideration the needs of the intended audience.
We are pleased by the decision adopted by the General Assembly on the creation of an Information Center in Luanda, Angola. We also thank the Government of this sister nation that for over 5 years has generously offered the premises for its creation free of charge. We expect the Secretary-General to make all possible efforts for its prompt creation. We are certain this new Center will help the spreading of information on the most crucial matters of today’s world to the peoples of Portuguese-speaking African countries.
The use of broadcast mechanisms, such as the radio, must continue to be promoted as a means to contribute to informing the vast illiterate populations in the countries of the South. In this respect, we welcome the news that the Department of Public Information continued incrementing its related network, and improvements to the radio programs were made aimed at improving the quality and range of its programs in other languages.
Mr. Chairman,
Cuba continues to be the object of constant radio and television aggression by the United States Government.
This radio aggression openly infringes the rules of International Law that regulate the relations among States, and the rules and procedures of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Illegal radio and television broadcasts against Cuba do not transmit information; on the contrary, they forge it and distort it, for destabilization and subversion purposes affecting the proper functioning of radio communications and producing interference to the service areas of six TV stations duly registered in the Master International Frequency Register (MIFR).
Last 26 March, the 53rd meeting of the Radio Regulations Board of the ITU urged the US Administration to eliminate this interference and charged the Office of the Board to supervise the situation and act in accordance with the procedures enshrined in the Radio Regulations.
Since the beginning of this aggression, the Cuban Government has denounced its illegal character in different fora, particularly in the ITU, bearing in mind that this radio warfare infringes the Constitution, the Convention, and the Radio-communications Regulations of that Organization.
Mr. Chairman,
Each week, US-based stations broadcast to Cuba over 2,185 hours of radio and television through 34 different frequencies of medium and short waves, FM and TV. Between 231 and 258 hours a day of programs that have nothing to do with balanced and objective information are generated from them.
The US Congress approves a budget of over $30 million of federal funds a year for these kinds of actions against Cuba. In less than two decades, the US Government has spent about $500 million for this purpose.
These increasing figures and the new methods used in radio and television aggressions by the US Government against Cuba, including the use of Solo Command and other military aircrafts, at an annual cost of $5 million, violate the rules regulating international relations, and the ITU agreements, to which the US is signatory.
Of the 23 stations broadcasting subversive programs against Cuba, 18 aim their signals directly towards our country. Three of them, La Voz de las Américas and the wrongly called Radio and TV Martí, are property of the US Government.
Several of such stations belong or provide services to organizations linked to well-known terrorists who live and act against Cuba in US soil, with the full consent of US Federal Administration authorities.
Cuba reiterates its condemnation of this aggression and rejects the intention of the US Government to maintain radio and television broadcasts to Cuba, in flagrant violation of current international rules on radio spectrum regulations.
Cuba demands the cessation of these illegal acts once and for all. It is our obligation to reject them and our right to continue using all available measures to repeal these illegal and aggressive acts, which violate our sovereignty, dignity and independence.
Thank you.

(Cubaminrex-Misión ONU)