SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES PROFESSIONALISM, IMPARTIALITY OF PRESS CORPS IN REMARKS TO GENEVA ASSOCIATION OF UN CORRESPONDENTS
Press Release
SG/SM/6951
SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES PROFESSIONALISM, IMPARTIALITY OF PRESS CORPS IN REMARKS TO GENEVA ASSOCIATION OF UN CORRESPONDENTS
19990407 Following are the remarks of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the fiftieth anniversary dinner of the Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents in Geneva on 7 April:I am doubly delighted to be with you tonight. It is always a pleasure for me to come back to Geneva, and it is always a pleasure for me to spend time with journalists. Perhaps it is even an added pleasure for me to spend time with journalists I do not see very often.
The reception you have given me is living proof that absence makes the heart grow fonder -- or perhaps it is a reminder that nobody is a hero in their own work station. Your colleagues in New York tend to see me every morning as I arrive at work and, as I'm sure you know, it's hard to look like a hero first thing in the morning.
Like your counterparts in New York, you cover the whole gamut of United Nations activities. But unlike your counterparts in New York, you have no Security Council to doorstep and usually no Secretary-General to ambush (though I am always here with you in spirit). What you do have to deal with are the intricacies of UNIDIR, UNHCR, WHO, HCHR, UNCTAD, ECE, WMO and other constellations from the pot of our alphabet soup -- covering everything from weapons to the weather. Bill Richardson, the straight-talking former United States ambassador to the United Nations in New York, summed it up: "The UN does its heavy lifting in Geneva."
In your coverage of all these issues, you have displayed the professionalism and impartiality that has become a hallmark of the United Nations press corps. I do not need to tell any of you how to do your job -- though you sometimes show no hesitation in telling me how to do mine. But, I can say that I sometimes do not envy you; you not only have to grasp what is going on behind all the acronyms, you have to translate it into language that ordinary people can understand.
And, as any fly on the wall at our internal meetings might tell you, there are those among you who at times amuse us, at times bemuse us, at times impress us and at times terrify us. But, never has there been one among you who allows us to sit back and relax. And since I do believe that the first enemy of success is complacency, I hope that you will keep it up.
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We do, in fact, have much in common. Three decades ago, your founding member and ex-president John Myers wrote on the occasion of this Association's twentieth anniversary: "Our association is like a ship. The ship's company changes continually over the years, as some grow old and others move elsewhere. Newcomers learn their skills from those who remain on board. The ship must always sail on, as surely as before, even when all who first embarked are gone."
More than 40 years ago, Dag Hammarskjöld compared the United Nations to a ship too -- a ship aboard which "we have to meet the impatience of those sailors who expect land on the horizon tomorrow, also the cynicism or sense of futility of those who would give up and leave us drifting impotently".
In this game of international comings and goings, many of us are tempted to become cynical. That applies in equal measure, I think, to those of us who have chosen a career in international public service and to those of you who have selected to work in international journalism.
We see so much; we meet so many; we sometimes think we've heard it all. It could even be that we are at our most cynical when we are diplomats talking about journalists, or journalists talking about diplomats. As one of your colleagues once remarked, "A diplomatic correspondent is someone who stands around in corridors waiting to be lied to". But, I would also venture that inside every one of us, there lurks an idealist or at least a believer. By that, I mean someone who believes that what he or she does is important and can make a difference.
Whether we are out there in the field, or back here at headquarters -- we are, therefore, truly privileged. For we have an opportunity every day to be involved in issues that affect people's lives. We should never take that privilege for granted. I believe that it is our responsibility to admit this to ourselves now and then -- and I believe that doing so actually enables us to do our job better.
I am happy to say that, compared to most institutions, the United Nations press corps and the United Nations itself operate in an atmosphere of remarkable trust and transparency. Correspondents covering the world body have a commendable grasp of what it is that we do. This has been a source of immeasurable strength to us in the United Nations at a time when we have come under criticism from some quarters -- criticism that is sometimes warranted, but often largely based on misunderstanding or plain myth.
That is why you are our partners. And that is why, for as long as you keep helping us with our heavy lifting, we will do all we can to help you with yours. Given the many miles of corridor you have to cover every day at the Palais, I think you must all be very fit. So, I know I can count on you, not just to have a wonderful fiftieth anniversary, but to keep it up for the next 50 years.
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