VIENNA, 21 November 2019 – Not only the physical safety but also the legal safety of journalists needs to be protected, said OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir as he presented his biannual report to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna today.
“One year ago the 57 participating States adopted a Ministerial Council decision on the safety of journalists. But it is clear that we still have a lot to do to ensure the full implementation of this landmark decision. The truth is that many journalists and media workers are still being harassed and assaulted just for doing their work, for reporting on issues of public interest, publishing their free opinion, and fulfilling their function as an institution of democracy,” said Désir.
Désir noted that in the past five months of this reporting period (5 July-21 November 2019) he intervened on situations related to the physical safety of 69 journalists and made 51 interventions on cases related to the legal safety of journalists, including 23 cases of new detentions of journalists and media workers, and 13 new court proceedings.
He welcomed the release, or the acquittal, of several journalists on behalf of whom he had intervened in the past, including in Turkey: Kadri Gürsel, Musa Kart, the whole team of Cumhuriyet, Erol Önderoğlu and Fatih Polat; in Ukraine: Kirill Vyshinsky; and in the Russian Federation: Oleg Sentsov and Roman Sushchenko.
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“But these advances have been shown to be fragile when the reforms of the legal framework to protect media freedom are not completed. I am deeply concerned by the re-arrest of Ahmet Altan in Turkey last week, as well as the continued detentions of Afgan Mukhtarli in Azerbaijan and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s contributor Stanislav Aseev in the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”; and the prosecution of Radio Ekho Moskvy’s Svetlana Prokopyeva in Russia,” said Désir.
“I will continue to call for their release and the dropping of charges against them and all imprisoned journalists in the OSCE region.”
The Representative called on participating States to improve their national legislation to protect journalists.
“Most of the situations on which I intervened show that legislative and judicial reforms are needed, and must be completed, to ensure the real protection of journalists’ rights and full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. I call on all participating States to reinforce our co-operation in this regard.”
The Representative’s full report is available here: https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/439613
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. He provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org/fom, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM and on www.facebook.com/osce.rfom.
For PDF attachments or links to sources of further information, please visit: https://www.osce.org/representative-on-freedom-of-media/439811
Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media