Australia, Chile, France, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Senegal and South Africa as the co-authors have the honor to transmit the following statement.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and declaration of the pandemic, the UN Secretary-General and other senior leaders of the UN and its institutions have increasingly drawn attention to the challenge of the “infodemic” [1] or misinformation and disinformation pandemic. Quoting the UN Secretary General, “as COVID-19 spreads, a tsunami of misinformation, hate, scapegoating and scare-mongering has been unleashed”.
In times of the COVID-19 health crisis, the spread of the “infodemic” can be as dangerous to human health and security as the pandemic itself. Among other negative consequences, COVID-19 has created conditions that enable the spread of disinformation, fake news and doctored videos to foment violence and divide communities. It is critical states counter misinformation as a toxic driver of secondary impacts of the pandemic that can heighten the risk of conflict, violence, human rights violations and mass atrocities.
For these reasons we call on everybody to immediately cease spreading misinformation and to observe UN recommendations to tackle this issue, including the United Nations Guidance Note on Addressing and Countering COVID-19 related Hate Speech (11 May 2020).
The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated the crucial need for access to free, reliable, trustworthy, factual, multilingual, targeted, accurate, clear and science-based information, as well as for ensuring dialogue and participation of all stakeholders and affected communities during the preparedness, readiness and response. It also has confirmed the key role of free, independent, responsible and pluralistic media to enhance transparency, accountability and trust, which is essential to achieving adequate support for and compliance by the general public with collective efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Better international cooperation, based on solidarity and goodwill among countries, can contribute to achieving this goal.
States, regional organizations, the UN system and other stakeholders such as media workers, social media platforms and NGOs have a clear role and responsibility in helping people to deal with the “infodemic’. In this regard, we strongly support the United Nations Communications Response initiative and the “Verified” [2] campaign announced by the UN Secretary General on April 14, 2020 [3].
Many countries, including ours, and international institutions, such as the WHO and UNESCO [4], have worked towards increasing societal resilience against disinformation, which has improved overall preparedness to deal with and better comprehend both the “infodemic” and the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are also concerned about the damage caused by the deliberate creation and circulation of false or manipulated information relating to the pandemic. We call on countries to take steps to counter the spread of such disinformation, in an objective manner and with due respect for citizens’ freedom of expression, as well as public order and safety. We reaffirm the importance of ensuring that people are accurately informed from trustworthy sources and are not misled by disinformation about COVID-19.
These efforts are based, inter alia, on freedom of expression, freedom of the press and promotion of highest ethics and standards of the press, the protection of journalists and other media workers, as well as promoting information and media literacy, public trust in science, facts, independent media, state and international institutions. Different initiatives have been launched to provide independent expertise and recommendations for States and private actors to strengthen these efforts.
We call for action by all Member States and all stakeholders to fight the “infodemic” to build, to quote the Secretary General, a “healthier, more equitable, just and resilient world”.
We remain committed to creating a healthy information environment at the national, regional and global levels, in which the “infodemic” is countered by scientific, evidenced-based information and facts. By doing this, we will be better prepared for dealing with the next “infodemic”.
The following Member States, Non-Member Observer States and Observers endorse this statement:
1. ALBANIA
2. ALGERIA
3. ANDORRA
4. ANGOLA
5. ARGENTINA
6. ARMENIA
7. AUSTRALIA
8. AUSTRIA
9. AZERBAIJAN
10. BANGLADESH
11. BARBADOS
12. BELARUS
13. BELGIUM
14. BHUTAN
15. BOLIVIA
16. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
17. BULGARIA
18. BURKINA FASO
19. CANADA
20. CHILE
21. COLOMBIA
22. COSTA RICA
23. CÔTE D’IVOIRE
24. CROATIA
25. CYPRUS
26. CZECH REPUBLIC
27. DENMARK
28. DJIBOUTI
29. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
30. ECUADOR
31. EGYPT
32. EL SALVADOR
33. EQUATORIAL GUINEA
34. ERITREA
35. ESTONIA
36. ETHIOPIA
37. FIJI
38. FINLAND
39. FRANCE
40. GAMBIA
41. GEORGIA
42. GERMANY
43. GREECE
44. GUATEMALA
45. GUINEA
46. HONDURAS
47. HUNGARY
48. ICELAND
49. INDIA
50. INDONESIA
51. IRAQ
52. IRELAND
53. ISRAEL
54. ITALY
55. JAPAN
56. JORDAN
57. KENYA
58. LATVIA
59. LEBANON
60. LESOTHO
61. LIECHTENSTEIN
62. LITHUANIA
63. LUXEMBOURG
64. MADAGASCAR
65. MALAYSIA
66. MALDIVES
67. MALTA
68. MARSHALL ISLANDS
69. MAURITIUS
70. MEXICO
71. MOLDOVA
72. MONACO
73. MONGOLIA
74. MONTENEGRO
75. MOROCCO
76. MOZAMBIQUE
77. MYANMAR
78. NAMIBIA
79. NEPAL
80. NETHERLANDS
81. NEW ZEALAND
82. NIGERIA
83. NORTH MACEDONIA
84. NORWAY
85. PAKISTAN
86. PALAU
87. PANAMA
88. PAPUA NEW GUINEA
89. PARAGUAY
90. PERU
91. POLAND
92. PORTUGAL
93. QATAR
94. REPUBLIC OF KOREA
95. ROMANIA
96. RWANDA
97. SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS
98. SAINT LUCIA
99. SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
100. SAN MARINO
101. SAUDI ARABIA
102. SENEGAL
103. SERBIA
104. SEYCHELLES
105. SIERRA LEONE
106. SLOVAKIA
107. SLOVENIA
108. SOUTH AFRICA
109. SOUTH SUDAN
110. SPAIN
111. SRI LANKA
112. SURINAME
113. SWEDEN
114. SWITZERLAND
115. THAILAND
116. TIMOR LESTE
117. TOGO
118. TONGA
119. TUNISIA
120. TURKEY
121. TURKMENISTAN
122. TUVALU
123. UGANDA
124. UKRAINE
125. UNITED KINGDOM
126. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
127. URUGUAY
128. UZBEKISTAN
129. VENEZUELA (BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA)
130. YEMEN
131. STATE OF PALESTINE
132. EUROPEAN UNION
[1] The term used by the Secretary General of the United Nations
[3] http://www.unodc.org/unodc/press/releases/2020/April/message-on-covid-19-and-misinformation.html
[4] https://en.unesco.org/covid19/communicationinformationresponse