Threats to media freedom: OSCE Representative reports to the Permanent Council

The events in Ukraine pose a great threat to media freedom and free expression across the OSCE region, Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media told participating States at her semi-annual presentation to the Permanent Council on 19 June 2014.

.@OSCE_RFoM presents her regular report to the #OSCE PC: I have intervened on media freedom matters about 120 times the past 6 months

— Dunja Mijatovic (@OSCE_RFoM) June 19, 2014

“There’s no more effective way to restrict free media, free expression and the free flow of information than resorting to physical and emotional violence and threats of violence against members of the media. And since the beginning of the Maidan demonstrations [in Ukraine] there figuratively has been a tide of violence perpetrated against members of the media,” Mijatović told representatives of the OSCE’s 57 participating States at the Permanent Council, the OSCE’s key political decision-making body.

“Too many nations around the world know that, like democracy, free media and free speech do not come naturally and cannot be taken for granted. They must be constantly justified, reaffirmed and strengthened. That is the reason why the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) was created and what the Organization must consider in order to make sure it functions properly and professionally in carrying out the mission,” she said.

Established by the OSCE participating States in 1997, the RFoM performs a unique watchdog and early-warning role as the only regional intergovernmental body tasked to monitor media freedom developments in all 57 participating States, seeking to shed light on free speech violations.

Twice a year the RFoM presents reports to the OSCE Permanent Council on the media freedom developments. These reports are compilations of the work of the office the past six months and include all of the interventions that the Office has done.

“Backsliding of journalists’ rights”

LISTEN: Presentation by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović to the OSCE Permanent Council, 19 June 2014.

During her presentation on 19 June 2014, Mijatović said that four journalists had been killed since the conflict in Ukraine began and that countless others had been assaulted physically and emotionally. She said she had intervened about 120 times throughout the OSCE region to defend the rights to free expression and free media since the Representative’s last regular report in November, often connected to the backsliding of journalists’ rights in some participating States.

“The work of my Office will not slow down. It is my mandate to bring information to you on media violations in all countries. The issues at stake in Ukraine are central to the issues of free media and free expression across the entire OSCE region and they have my full attention.”

Dunja Mijatović, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media

Read the report in full here.

'Chronicles of Threats'

The scale of attacks on and harassment of members of the media continues to grow throughout the OSCE region, with journalists threatened every day for they say or write, the RFoM has said.

Mijatović has called for journalists’ safety to be guaranteed at all times.

In June 2014, the OSCE 'Chronicles of Threats' campaign prepared for the RFoM and the Commission for the Investigation of Murders of Journalists in Serbia was awarded the Cannes Bronze Lion in the category Use of Media at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the world’s biggest annual awards festival for creative communications.

WATCH: The video prepared for the campaign is based on a series of real threats that journalists in the OSCE region have received.

The award shows how important the campaign to raise awareness of the murders of journalists is as a step in achieving our goal of ending impunity for those who attack them.