Thank you Mr. Vice President

The Kingdom of the Netherlands aligns itself with the EU statement.

We congratulate the Special Rapporteur for her work championing the fundamental rights to freedom of expression during her six year tenure. Thank you for continuously drawing much needed attention to freedom of expression. Thank you for addressing new and emerging ways in which the rights to expression and access to information are threatened.

The rapid rise in adoption of artificial intelligence vastly reshapes the information environment and the ways in which individuals can express themselves and access trustworthy information. This harms their individual human rights and the promotion of democratic values.

Furthermore, independent journalism is under increasing pressure. Not only are business models for media organizations becoming unsustainable, journalists are actively targeted for their work. Especially in conflict situations, such as Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza, we have seen unprecedented numbers of journalists killed while doing their work.

Madam Special Rapporteur,
Which pathways are underexplored by the international community to close the impunity gap for crimes against journalists, as well as to fully protect the right to freedom of expression, and to guarantee the access to factual, unbiased information.