Occupation forces using fake news to de-legitimize freedom struggles, including in Kashmir, Palestine: Pakistan
United Nations: Pakistan has told the key United Nations Committee that States were resorting to fake news and disinformation in situations of foreign occupation either in Kashmir or Palestine, to subdue the voices of people being denied their fundamental freedoms, including the right to self-determination.
“We are witnessing this today in the Gaza war and have witnessed this consistently in the case of occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Munir Akram revealed while addressing the UN Committee on Information on Monday, Kashmir Media Service reported.
The committee oversees the work of the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) and provides the department with guidance on its policies, programs and activities.
The Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, is presiding over the current session of the committee, its 46th. At the outset of his remarks, Ambassador Akram greeted his colleague, saying, “Your chairing the 46th session of the Committee on Information symbolizes Pakistan’s commitment to multilateralism and the UN’s information agenda.”
“As a democratic and pluralistic nation-state,” he said, “Pakistan reaffirms its commitment to the principles of the UN Charter and international human rights law, including freedom of expression and access to information; to combating disinformation in all its manifestations; and to upholding the principles of independence and diversity of the media.”
In this regard, Ambassador Akram voiced regret that the use of digital media is turbo charging the spread of fake information and disinformation to promote Islamophobia to justify foreign occupation and aggression to turn victims of aggression into the culprits.
This led Pakistan to initiate the resolution on disinformation, unanimously adopted last year, the Pakistani envoy said, adding that consultations would soon take place to advance its objectives.
Pakistan, he said, would welcome the development of an inter-governmentally formulated code of conduct for information integrity on digital platforms; it must address the increasing use of AI tools for spreading false information and conducting digital surveillance.
“At the core of information manipulation, internet blackouts, censorship and the use of special media laws by the occupation authorities is a sinister design to de-legitimize freedom struggles and perpetuate a climate of fear, intimidation and violence,” Ambassador Akram told the delegates.
