Note to Correspondents

Secretary-General to Answer Questions from Public on Social Media 13 September

On Tuesday, 13 September, starting at 11 a.m. New York time, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be answering questions live from the public on several social media sites, streamed live on Facebook, Weibo, Livestream and UN Webcast.  Juju Chang of ABC News will act as moderator and put the questions to the Secretary-General.

As world leaders prepare to gather in New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly, this global conversation with the Secretary-General asks users of social media to pose questions on subjects of concern to them:  What more can we do to stop wars from breaking out?  What can one individual do in the fight against climate change?  What’s it like to be Secretary-General of the United Nations?  It is a rare opportunity for the public to get answers straight from the top.

Questions from the public are still being collected through Twitter (using the hashtag #asktheSG) in all six official United Nations languages plus Portuguese and Kiswahili.  Questions in Chinese are also being posted on Weibo.  As of Monday, 12 September, over 5,500 questions have been posed to the Secretary-General.  On Weibo alone, over 80,000 messages about the event have been exchanged.

Here are some relevant links for the global conversation:

Event page:  www.un.org/askthesg

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/UNwebcast

Twitter using #asktheSG:  http://www.twitter.com/un

Weibo (Chinese):  http://www.weibo.com/UN

Livestream:  http://www.livestream.com/unitednations

UNWebcast:  http://www.un.org/webcast

Tumblr:  http://united-nations.tumblr.com/

For questions about the event please contact Andreas Damianou, Chief of United Nations Webcast, at tel.:  212 963 6733 or by e-mail:  Damianou@un.org.

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For information media • not an official record