Interviews

Media which serves the public interest, not only provides vital information communities need to take informed action, it also dispels misinformation, strengthens democratic accountability and boosts sustainable development.

That’s the view of Sheetal Vyas, Founding Executive Director of International Fund for Public Interest Media, who says that amidst COVID-19, accurate and timely information is also a lifesaving public good.

A shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea that claimed the lives of 130 migrants last week, has reignited the debate about why more can’t be done to protect these vulnerable people who’ve risked everything.

Latest research from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) shows that climate change has not slowed down during the pandemic – and that action to reverse increasing greenhouse gas emissions, is more urgent than ever.

There will be “no damage whatsoever” to the environment from the discharge of seawater used to cool the broken reactors at Fukushima nuclear plant, the head of the UN atomic energy agency, Rafael Grossi, has insisted. 

Although people’s concerns are totally justified, it is also worth bearing in mind that the filtering process used to strip the water of radioactive elements is used at nuclear power stations all around the world – as Mr. Grossi tells UN News’s Daniel Johnson. 

Fighting is ongoing in Ethiopia’s Tigray, where the level of cruelty against women and children is “incomprehensible” and likely vastly under-reported.

The Saami people have lived in northern Europe long before borders divided the region up into the Member States we know today.
In Finland, generations of Saami children have attended State-run boarding schools, including this year’s now two-time chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Anne Nuorgam, whose experiences as a young girl not only left an indelible mark but also informed her life’s choices.

The more peace becomes enduring, the less protection civilians need: that’s been one of the key measures by which the UN mission chief in South Sudan – who left the UN’s top job in the country last Thursday - David Shearer, has judged his four-plus years in charge of the 20,000-strong peacekeeping force, UNMISS.

 An intimate encounter with the “kissing bug” might sound cute, but Chagas disease – to give it its official name - is a nightmare for the millions who are infected every year, says UNITAID. 

By 2030, two billion people are expected to rely on so-called “assistive” technology aids in their daily lives to eat, see, hear and even get dressed, according to UN patent experts at WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.