Director-General's remarks at the 75th Anniversary of the Association of Accredited Correspondents at the United Nations in Geneva

End-of-year reception on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of
the Association of Accredited Correspondents at the UN in Geneva (ACANU)
Friday, 6 December 2024 at 7.00 p.m.
WIPO

Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear Members of ACANU,

It is a pleasure for me to join you today and to see so many familiar faces of media representatives as well as representatives of the International Geneva community.

It is also an honour to address you on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Association of accredited correspondents at the UN in Geneva ACANU. 

I first heard of ACANU when I started my tenure as Director-General in 2019. It was quite a mysterious acronym for me, which quickly became familiar when I had the first exchanges with accredited correspondents – a dialogue which has continued during all these years, and which has grown steadily, as has the cooperation between my Office and the Geneva press corps.

ACANU’s 75th anniversary comes at a time when the media and the international institutions they cover in Geneva, as well as the entire multilateral system, increasingly find themselves under attack. 

Challenges come from every side: the failure to uphold human rights cause widespread violations and immense suffering. Multiple conflicts (from Gaza and Israel to Ukraine, from Myanmar to Sudan, and the list continues). Authoritarianism is on the rise. The climate emergency and growing inequalities are intensifying. We face multiple global challenges, and you are on the front lines in calling it out. 

We know that media professionals pay a heavy price to keep the world informed. According to Reporters Without Borders, in 2024, 56 media practitioners were killed worldwide in connection with their work, and 546 are detained. Recent years have seen an alarming rate of fatalities in conflict zones, particularly in Gaza, with the highest number of journalist and media worker killed in any war in decades. In addition, negative rhetoric targeting media workers is growing.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly called on all countries to protect journalists and ensure that media professionals can fulfil their indispensable role in upholding truth and accountability. 

The Pact for the Future, adopted in September by the UN Member States, underscored the importance of respecting and protecting journalists, media professionals, and associated personnel working in situations of armed conflict.

Next year, which will mark another significant milestone - the 80th anniversary of the United Nations Organization – will be crucial in setting the stage for the implementation of the Pact. It will be up to Member States and all relevant actors to ensure its principles are upheld, press freedom is respected, and journalists are protected every day, everywhere.

Let me also point out to one of the biggest challenges looming over our information ecosystems: disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate speech, which proliferate on social media.  These phenomena make peace harder to achieve and climate change harder to address. It erodes trust in public institutions, generating controversy instead of fostering genuine dialogue. 

To address this plague, the UN has adopted the Global Principles for Information Integrity, envisioning an information ecosystem that delivers choice, freedom, privacy, and safety for all, where people everywhere can express themselves freely and make informed, independent decisions.

Your role in this effort is paramount. For 75 years, ACANU members have worked tirelessly to share facts in the public interest and to keep the critical issues the UN addresses high on the global agenda, benefitting people across the world. 

You’ve been key supporters of the issues that matter to us, and your criticism has helped us improve and go forward.  Thank you very much for your dedicated work to ensure that balanced information reaches out from Geneva to the world, and for being such invaluable partners to the UN, especially the UN family in Geneva. 

Best wishes for the 75th anniversary of your organization!