United Nations General Assembly Resolution 13 (Annex I)

by the UN General Assembly

13 (Annex I). Recommendations of the Technical Advisory Committee on Information Concerning the Policies, Functions, and Organization of the Department of Public Information

The United Nations cannot achieve the purposes for which it has been created unless the peoples of the world are fully informed of its aims and activities.

Therefore the Technical Advisory Committee on Information makes the following recommendations:

1. A Department of Public Information should be established under an Assistant Secretary-General.

2. The activities of the Department of Public Information should be so organized and directed as to promote to the greatest possible extent an informed understanding of the work and purposes of the United Nations among the peoples of the world. To this end the Department should primarily assist and rely upon the cooperation of the established governmental and non-governmental agencies of information to provide the public with information about the United Nations. The Department of Public Information should not engage in "propaganda." It should on its own initiative engage in positive informational activities that will supplement the services of existing agencies of information to the extent that these are insufficient to realize the purpose set forth above.

3. The United Nations should establish as a general policy that the press and other existing agencies of information be given the fullest possible direct access to the activities and official documentation of the Organization. The rules of procedure of the various organs of the United Nations should be applied with this end in view.

4. Subject to the general authority of the principal organs of the United Nations, responsibility for the formulation and execution of information policy should be vested in the Secretary-General and under him in the Assistant Secretary-General in charge of the Department of Public Information.

5. When negotiating an agreement with a specialized agency the Economic and Social Council should be requested to take into consideration the matter of coordinated information services and of a common information policy, and to consult with the Secretary-General concerning each individual agreement.

6. In order to ensure that peoples in all parts of the world receive as full information as possible about the United Nations, the Department of Public Information should consider the establishment of branch offices at the earliest possible date.

7. The functions of the Department of Public Information appear to fall naturally into the following categories: press, publications, radio, films, graphics and exhibitions, public liaison and reference.

8. The Department should provide all the services for the daily, weekly and periodical press, both at the headquarters of the United Nations and through its branch offices, that may be required to ensure that the press is supplied with full information about the activities of the United Nations.

9. The Department should prepare and publish pamphlets and other publications on the aims and activities of the United Nations, within the limits of the criteria set forth in recommendation 2.

10. The Department should actively assist and encourage the use of radio broadcasting for the dissemination of information about the United Nations. To this end it should, in the first instance, work in close cooperation with radio broadcasting organizations of the Members. The United Nations should also have its own radio broadcasting station or stations with the necessary wavelengths, both for communication with Members and with branch offices, and for the origination of United Nations programmes. The station might also be used as a center for national broadcasting systems which desire to cooperate in the international field. The scope of the radio broadcasting activities of the United Nations should be determined after consultation with national radio broadcasting organizations.

11. In addition to assisting the newsreel and photographic press agencies, the Department of Public Information should also promote and where necessary participate in the production and non-commercial distribution of documentary films, film strips, posters and other graphic exhibits on the work of the United Nations.

12. The Department and its branch offices should actively assist and encourage national information services, educational institutions and other governmental and non-governmental organizations of all kinds interested in spreading information about the United Nations. For this and other purposes it should operate a fully equipped reference service, brief or supply lecturers, and make available its publications, documentary films, film strips, posters and other exhibits for use by these agencies and organizations.

13. The Department and its branch offices should also be equipped to analyze trends of opinion throughout the world about the activities of the United Nations and the extent to which an informed understanding of the work of the United Nations is being secured.

14. Consideration should be given to the setting up of an Advisory Committee to meet periodically at the seat of the United Nations to discuss and forward to the Secretary-General observations regarding the information policy and programme of the United Nations. This Advisory Committee would be composed of experts appointed on the basis of broad geographical representation, personal qualifications and experience. They would be representative of the various media of information of the Members, and would be in a position to reflect to the Secretary-General the needs and desires of the general public of the Members in the matter of public information about the aims and activities of the United Nations.

15. In order that the Advisory Committee may be as widely representative as possible and receive the maximum support from the information organizations of all Members, the Secretary-General might, in consultation with the governments of the Members, communicate with the representative officers of the leading organizations of the press, radio, film and other media and government information services of the Members on the establishment of such an Advisory Committee.

16. If it is found possible to set up an Advisory Committee, then at a later stage consideration should be given to establishing similarly composed national or regional advisory committees working in touch with the branches of the Department of Public Information.