UNGA80 Fourth Committee General debate on “Questions relating to information”
Statement delivered by Ms Kaisa Hanna Parel, Third Secretary, Permanent Mission of Estonia
3 November 2025, New York
Madam Chair,
Estonia aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European Union and would like to add a few remarks in national capacity.
First of all, as Chair of the Committee on Information for 2025-26, Estonia thanks all member states for your constructive cooperation and will continue to engage in the same spirit in the work to come.
Excellencies,
The global information space has become increasingly polarised. Mis- and dis-information continue to breed division and distrust. Even the UN itself has come under attack, threatening the integrity and security of the organisation’s vital work. Therefore the work of the Department of Global Communications is especially important to make sure that the UN continues to serve as a credible and authoritative source of information that reaches and inspires global audiences. The Department’s work on information integrity is also crucial in order to create an information ecosystem resilient to manipulation and false narratives. Estonia will continue to support these efforts.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Estonia is no stranger to foreign information manipulation attempts as we continue to face Russia’s massive disinformation efforts, which seek to distort facts, rewrite history and divide societies, including through the instrumentalization of the Russian diaspora and the Orthodox Church. The same machinery of lies is desperately trying to justify Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, deny war crimes and shift the blame. We hear many of these outrageous and false narratives on a daily basis at the UN. But let me be clear: it is Russia and Russia alone that bears the full responsibility for unleashing an illegal war of aggression against sovereign Ukraine in blatant violation of the UN Charter.
Dear colleagues,
We have found that an independent and pluralistic media landscape, complimented by high media and information literacy among the population, is the best defence against information manipulation. Estonia has made media and information literacy an integral part of education, empowering citizens to navigate the information space critically and responsibly. We have a diverse and independent media landscape, consistently ranking among the top countries in the global press freedom indexes. However, it is deeply concerning that media freedom is increasingly endangered worldwide through censorship, coercion and even violence against journalists. We call for redoubling efforts to protect journalists and safeguard media freedom. Estonia has contributed to these global efforts through our recent co-chairship of the Media Freedom Coalition and our ongoing Freedom Online Coalition chairship, as well as through different development cooperation projects. Advancing media freedom is also one of the main priorities of Estonia’s membership in the Human Rights Council for 2026-28.
Distinguished delegates,
Since information does not stop at borders, we must come together to address these pressing issues. As chair of the Committee on Information Estonia remains committed to work constructively towards collective solutions.
I thank you!