The Under-Secretary-General (USG) for Global Communications and head of the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC), Melissa Fleming, will visit Japan from Monday, 5 to Wednesday, 7 December, to strengthen the UN-Japan partnership in the area of communications.

During her visit, Ms. Fleming will meet Japanese senior government officials as well as media entities, including the SDG Media Compact members, private sector partners, civil society organizations, youth, and UN entities based in Japan. In these meetings, she will discuss DGC’s long-standing collaboration with these partners, especially in the areas of SDGs, climate change, nuclear disarmament, mis- and disinformation, and explore opportunities to further strengthen the UN’s cooperation with Japanese actors. She will also participate in a public event organized by the United Nations University titled: “Cutting Through the Noise: How the UN is Building Trust in an Age of Disinformation”.

This is her first visit to Japan in her current position.

 

Biography of Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming

Melissa Fleming is Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications at the United Nations.

Ms. Fleming oversees the UN’s strategic communications operations, including its multilingual news and digital media services, public outreach programmes, and global campaigns on climate action, overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, promoting the Sustainable Development Goals and the addressing harmful mis/disinformation and hate speech. She also oversees advocacy on the safety of journalists, freedom of expression, and other human rights issues.

Previously, Ms. Fleming served at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as its Head of Global Communications. Before that, she worked in senior communications roles for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Ms. Fleming is a TED speaker, the author of the book, A Hope More Powerful than the Sea, and the host of the award-winning UN podcast, Awake at Night.

 

For media queries, please contact Momoko Sato, Associate Public Information Officer of UNIC Tokyo at momoko.sato@un.org.

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