On 19 April 2013, Cosmo City Secondary School in Johannesburg hosted UNIC Pretoria for a briefing on the UN. This event was lead by the UNIC Librarian.

The 8 Goals for Africa video was screened to grade 12 students followed by the UN4U video. The Librarian gave an overview of the work of the UN and the Millennium Development Goals.  The students were engaged in the discussion session which provoked interesting questions on poverty in general and what the UN was doing specifically towards the eradication of poverty in South Africa. Students also wanted to know how they could get involved in the work of the UN while still in school.  The UNIC Librarian conducted a quiz and rewarded students with the UNICEF publication Miles Ahead and pencil cases.

The UN team handed out information packs on various UN topics to the students, and the UNIC Librarian encouraged the students to visit the UN websites and UNIC Pretoria facebook and twitter pages for additional information and communication purposes as well as a visit to the UNIC Library in Pretoria.

The principal, Mr. Mokate and the life orientation teacher Mr. Makobe thanked the UNIC team for visiting the school and extended an invitation to visit the school again to engage on other topics of interest to students.

The event concluded with a student volunteering to read an excerpt of the UN Secretary-General’s speech addressed to the youth at the 2010 Young Atlanticist Summit in Lisbon, Portugal: "You have to work and think about how we can make this world a better place for all. This is what I'd really like to ask our young leaders. We will try as leaders of today to minimize the problems which we will hand over to you. But it is up to you. You have to take ownership and be the leadership of tomorrow. For that to be possible, you have to strengthen your capacity and widen your vision as a global citizen.”

 A number of eminent journalists, media experts and representatives from community radio stations came together at a day-long seminar organized by the UN Information Centre, UNESCO and the Institute of Rural Research and Development (IRRAD) to mark World Press Freedom Day in New Delhi on 3 May.
 
The theme of the seminar was ‘Rural Voices: Upholding Freedom of Expression through Mainstream and Alternative Media’. The objective of the conference was to promote voices of communities having limited space in the mainstream media, highlight the importance of media freedom to development and rural empowerment, and reflect on the ways in which the media could help transform lives in the country’s rural and less accessible areas.
 
Sukumar Muralidharan, Programme Manager, International Federation of Journalists, presented the UNESCO-supported Press Freedom Report for South Asia 2012-13. This annual report monitors and reviews developments in the South Asian region that have a bearing on press freedom and quality journalism.
 
The inaugural session saw presentations by UNIC Director Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman, UNESCO Director and Representative for India Shigeru Aoyagi and IRRAD Chief Executive Officer Jane E. Schukoske.
 
“These are exciting times for the media in India,” remarked Ms. Mehra-Kerpelman. “But this is perhaps an opportune time to stop and ask:  is the media is contributing to the strengthening of democratic institutions? What is the range of public views and sentiment that it manages to capture? And to what extent is it able to empower the poorest and the marginalized?”
 
“The most critical role of a free media is to protect the public interest and uphold democracy,” added Mr. Aoyagi. “The media’s function as watchdog is fundamental, as is the belief that it is the only institution that can fulfil such a function. The media are not just the anointed representative of the public, their practices must be intrinsically bound up with the fostering of public trust and accountability.”
 
Ms. Schukoske referred to the media’s lack of engagement with the lives of people in rural and poor urban areas. “We hope that mainstream media will step up to the need for greater attention to the realities of rural India, and that the alternative media will grow in its important role of creating spaces for rural voices,” she added.
 
Senior journalist Bharat Bhushan, in his keynote address, provided a comprehensive survey of the challenges facing the Indian media. This was followed by an equally meticulous, critical survey of the trends in Indian media and an assessment of the road ahead by the Chief Guest, Jawhar Sircar, Chief executive Officer of Prasar Bharati, India’s largest public broadcaster.
 
The first panel discussion saw eminent journalists and commentators discuss the media’s social responsibilities in the light of its role as an agent of social change and a watchdog of democracy. The panelists included A.S. Panneerselvan, Executive Director, Panos South Asia; B.V. Rao, Chief Editor, Governance Now magazine; and Ravi M. Khanna, freelance journalist and media consultant, formerly with the Voice of America. During the discussion and the Q&A that followed, the panelists provided a stark yet constructive appraisal of the state of the Indian media, particularly emphasizing the phenomenon of ‘paid news’, the media’s tendency to focus on ‘soft’ stories that reflect the growing consumer aspirations of India’s middle class, the perception of news as a ‘product’ and the role of the ‘CEO Editor’ in defining the nature and functioning of the media.
 
The second panel focused on alternative media, particularly community radio, video and grassroots newspapers. Chaired by Prof. Vinod Pavarala, Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Community Media, the panel discussed the capacity of alternative media to empower rural and marginalized communities along with examples of effective and innovative use of community media. The panelists included Aaditeshwar Seth, co-founder and CEO, Gram Vaani Community Media; Jitender Sharma, Station Head, Kisan Vani Community Radio; Osama Manzar, founder and Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation; and Shalini Joshi, Director of Nirantar, an organization working on education and empowerment of girls and women from marginalized communities and founder of a newspaper produced by rural women.
 
The seminar concluded with an ‘Open House’ chaired by T.K. Arun, Editor, Opinion, The Economic Times.
 
Iskra Panevska, Adviser for Communication and Information for South Asia, UNESCO New Delhi, presented concluding remarks, while Pooja Murada, Director of Communications, IRRAD, presented the vote of thanks.

The 99th showing of the Disability Film Festival, We Care, was held in Jaipur at the Step-by-Step School, co-organized by the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) New Delhi and the Prabha Khaitan Foundation, in collaboration with the NGO Brotherhood. We Care is a travelling festival of films on disability rights issues.
 
Margaret Alva, Governor of Rajasthan, graciously inaugurated the Festival. She said that this issue of integrating persons with disabilities into mainstream society was very close to her heart because she herself was patron of many disability initiatives. She spoke of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and said that India was a signatory and had ratified it, but better enforcement and implementation was necessary. “The We Care Film Festival is an important vehicle that is leading to a change in mindset and of hearts,” she said, adding it was a wonderful platform which needed to be taken to an even higher level.
 
The films had the undivided attention of 400 students, testifying to its significance as an awareness raising exercise. “People with disabilities are invisible because we keep them that way”, said UNIC Director Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman. “They are kept away from public places, either because we consider them an unnecessary burden or we do not know how to address their needs, or even if we do, we just do not have the facilities and infrastructure in place”, she noted. “And what initiatives like We Care do is to bring these people, these issues, out in the open, starkly, yet creatively”.
 
Ms. Mehra-Kerpelman thanked Step-By-Step School Principal Jayshree Periwal and her team for hosting the event and the students for putting their creativity to work by preparing paintings and disability issues. Differently-abled students from two organizations, Disha and Umang, also presented dance and music performances.
 
Sandeep Bhutoria of the Prabha Khaitan Foundation also pledged his support to future activities with UNIC on these issues. Festival director Satish Kapoor gave a passionate presentation of the results being achieved through these showings and reaffirmed his personal commitment to the cause.
 
The We Care festival – of which UNIC is a founding partner – reached another milestone soon after, with the 100th showing being organized in New Delhi in collaboration with the city’s municipal authorities. Nearly 800 students from Delhi’s Municipal Corporation schools viewed the films and cheered the spirit behind the films. Organized on 25 April, the screening was attended by Archana Arora, Chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), and UNIC National Information Officer Rajiv Chandran, among others.
 
The next presentation of films – the awards ceremony at the conclusion of the 10th edition and the launch of the 11th edition – took place on 8 May at the state-of-the-art Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), New Delhi. It was hosted by ISIC founder and chairperson Maj. Gen. H.P.S. Ahluwalia. This former soldier has been a role model and inspiration for the We Care festival. A mountaineer, Maj. Gen. Ahluwalia climbed Mt. Everest on 29 May 1965 with his friends Rawat, Phu Dorji and Sir Edmund Hillary. Four months later in the 1965 India-Pakistan war, he was shot in the spine, as a result of which he is now confined to a wheelchair.
 
Also showing their support for the initiative were Stuti Kacker, Secretary in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Department of Disability Affairs; A.K. Lal, Joint Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities from the same Ministry; and Poonam Natarajan from the National Trust, all of whom pledged their support to take the festival forward.
 
“As we approach the deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, it is clear that the Goal of reducing poverty and hunger cannot be achieved without the participation of persons with disabilities,” said UNIC Director Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman. “This film festival is an unprecedented effort to bring the rights of persons with disabilities to the forefront”, she added.

Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, advisor to Mayor of Tehran, in his speech at the newly inaugurated Nowruz Park in Tehran, said that the park would be a haven for all countries that celebrate Nowruz as their national new-year festival.

Addressing mayors of different districts of Tehran, representatives from environment NGOs and journalists, Heydarzadeh, who is also the Head of Environment and Sustainable Development Office of Tehran Municipality, proposed that it would be a good idea if a “Nowruz Club” was also established in the park. “All countries that celebrate Nowruz could be members of the club and have a place in the park to display their Nowruz traditions,” he added.

Speaking at the ceremony which was held on the occasion of International Day of Nowruz and the third anniversary of the adoption of the UN General Assembly Resolution on the International Day of Nowruz (10 May 2010), Director-General of Abbas Abad Development Company, Dr. Hojjatollah Mulla-Salehi, mentioned that the park covers 67 hectares of land and it has the capacity for some 500,000 trees.

Speaking last, UNIC Tehran's Officer-in-Charge delivered the UN Secretary-General’s message the Day. The ceremony ended by planting a cedarwood sapling in the park.