OSCE countries voice concern about regional media situation

VIENNA - On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, May 3, the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) Representative on freedom of the media, Freimut Duve, issued a statement expressing his deep concern about the media situation in the OSCE region.

"We all must reaffirm the principles of free, independent and pluralistic press and speak out against their violations. The right of journalists and others in the media means that they are free to practice their profession without coercion or hindrance. We all have to remember those who paid with their lives for reporting the news and to mobilize the international community in support of press freedom everywhere," he stated.

He noted his deep concern about the media situation in the OSCE region: "Eleven journalists were killed during 2000, many were assaulted, harassed and even imprisoned. Media outlets were put under pressure."

"Therefore, I have issued on several occasions a call for OSCE participating States to do more to put an end to pressure on media, to investigate promptly all pending cases of censorship by killing and bring to justice those involved in these crimes," Mr. Duve continued. "I reiterate that the murder of journalists in the OSCE region, an organization of declared democracies, must become a matter of the past. It would be cynical to believe we should not all be concerned. To kill journalists is a very serious attack against the freedom in our democracies."

Throughout his work, the Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media has identified a whole set of new forms of indirect pressure on media freedom, so-called structural censorship: for example, governments' monopoly on newsprint, arbitrary tax inspections, or withdraw of licences. Structural censorship may not be as dramatic as violence or heavy-handed government repression, but can be just as effective in killing journalistic freedom.

Another serious problem is government officials who avail themselves of libel laws, the OSCE office has noted. Often their handling of public criticism as personal insults means nothing more than to destroy the corrective function of the media through the personal misuse of libel laws, both civil and criminal.

Mr. Duve reminds the Governments of their commitments undertaken in 1999 at the OSCE Istanbul Summit "to ensuring the freedom of the media as a basic condition for pluralistic and democratic societies."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 20, 2001, No. 20, Vol. LXIX

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