OSCE promotes media self-regulation with training seminar for Moldovan journalists and editors

CHISINAU, 21 May 2009 - Raising awareness about the importance of media self-regulation as a credible and viable mechanism to guarantee editorial independence and uphold journalistic ethics is the aim of a two-day training seminar that started in the Moldovan capital today.

The event, jointly organized by the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and the OSCE Mission to Moldova, brought together around 30 participants from Chisinau and around the country. International and local experts conducted sessions on journalists' responsibilities and presented different models of self-regulation.

"A free media is a necessary precondition of any truly democratic society," said Ambassador Philip Remler, the Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova. "A free media needs to determine its own standards of accuracy, thoroughness and responsibility."

Alexander Boldyrev, the Senior Adviser of the OSCE media freedom representative, added:

"This seminar encourages journalists to assume responsibility, which leads to increased public support for media freedom. Media self-regulation instruments boost media professionalism and substitute state interference with the work of the media."

The training course is part of a broader campaign by the OSCE Representative to promote mechanisms of media self-regulation in the OSCE participating States. It follows the publication in 2008 of the Media Self-Regulation Guidebook, available from the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and on the OSCE website: //www.osce.org/item/30697.html