OSCE: EU Response on the Report by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media

Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union
Permanent Council No. 630

25 October 2006

The European Union welcomes the Representative on Freedom of the Media, Mr. Haraszti to the Permanent Council and thanks him for the presentation of his regular report. We have also taken careful note of the special report on challenges to journalists’ accreditation and the update on the Access to Information questionnaire.

The EU attaches great importance to the work of the Representative and his office. We consider free and independent media to be a cornerstone of democracy and essential to the maintenance and development of human rights. We also welcome the fact that the Representative exercises his functions impartially throughout the whole OSCE region. Those EU Member States which are the subject of comment in the Representative’s report have taken careful note of his concerns and will continue to maintain contact with his office about the issues raised.

We commend the Representative and his staff for a number of important activities such as the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting, the Central Asia and South Caucasus Media Conferences, the Self Regulation Project, Press Officer Training and the Media Twinning Event of the Chairmanship. We fully support the programme of activities outlined by the Representative for the remainder of 2006 and are pleased that cooperation with other organisations continues to be fruitful.

However, we must note with regret that in a number of participating States the situation has either deteriorated or failed to improve. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan continue to give rise to particular concern. We are concerned that most of the contacts between the Representative and participating States have involved negative developments in the area of media freedom. We would hope that the visit to Azerbaijan by Mr. Haraszti and the high level meeting which he had, will lead to a definite improvement in the situation of journalists and the media in that country. We would also hope that the letter on possible cooperation sent by the Representative to the Foreign Minister of Belarus on 3 October will draw a positive response. We have noted the cases raised by the Representative in Canada and the United States and will follow developments. We welcome the cooperation between the Representative and Kazakhstan on questions relating to Internet regulation and would like to see this cooperation continued.

Mr. Chairman, the EU addressed some of the issues raised by the murder of Anna Politkovskaya at the last meeting of the Permanent Council. Ms. Politskovskaya's murder continues to be a cause for deep grief and great concern about the climate of media freedom in the Russian Federation. The EU calls on the Russian authorities to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice.  We support the Representative's call for the circle of inconclusive investigations into recent murders of journalists in Russia to be broken in order to counter the climate of impunity.  We are also following the case of Mr. Korolev and the difficult and often dangerous situations faced by journalists generally in Russia.

Finally, the European Union would like to thank Mr. Haraszti once again and to wish him and his staff continued success in their important work.

The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia, as well as the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area align themselves with this statement.

* Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process