Did Czech President Petr Pavel speak to an empty meeting hall during the United Nations General Assembly? No, that's not true: The photo of the empty UN meeting hall does not show Pavel. The picture comes from an article featured on the website parkovanir7.cz, which lists places to see in the United States. A live recording of Pavel's speech at the UNGA shows the room is not empty.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on September 22, 2023, by @mujnazor. It begins (translated by Lead Stories staff from Czech as):
What you seen in the media
What's the reality
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue September 26 18:15:45 2023 UTC)
The video refers to the recent United Nations General Assembly, specifically the General Debate where Pavel spoke in New York on September 19, 2023. Here is his full speech.
The general debate is the annual meeting of Heads of State and Government at the beginning of the General Assembly session. It is usually the first debate of the session and -- with the exception of the high-level meetings -- the only one in which Heads of State and Government regularly participate.
