UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION ADDRESSES COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION, AS IT OPENS TWO-WEEK SESSION

Press Release
PI/1243/

UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION ADDRESSES COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION, AS IT OPENS TWO-WEEK SESSION

CORRECTION

In Press Release PI/1243 of 1 May, the statement by the Chairmen of the Committee on Information beginning at the bottom of page 2 should read, as follows:

The Chairman of the Committee on Information, ELHASSANE ZAHID (Morocco), said the twenty-second session would be a historical one. The United Nations, through the Committee, should be better understood. The Committee’s work was crucial, because it would influence the policy of the Organization in the century ahead. It should be a transition of an international era into a global era. The Millennium Summit should receive widespread support from the public and the Member States.

He said that the programme of the Department of Public Information, as well as the human resources and financial resources for implementation of the programme, had been approved in General Assembly resolution 54/249 in Part 7. All the mandates entrusted to the Committee could, therefore, be expected to be brought to a happy conclusion.

In remarks on the working methods, he said that in its report on the twenty- first session, the Committee had proposed meetings of working groups between the annual session meetings. However, interest in an inter-sessional meeting was limited. Only six Member States had reacted to a letter from the Chairman asking for topics. None of the topics proposed had resulted in sufficient interest. He, therefore, invited all delegations to take advantage of this session to tackle the topics they were interested in.

He proposed an amendment to the Agenda, since many reports presented by Department would not receive substantive examination. He proposed two days of meetings for this new item. Thus, there would be three days of general debate, two days to examine reports, three days of informal consultations and one day for conclusions and recommendations.

Also, the sixth full paragraph on page 3 should read, as follow:

After resumption of the meeting, Agenda was amended, as follows:

-- After Item 7, insert “8. Consideration of the various reports submitted by the Secretary-General”. The items will be renumbered accordingly.

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