OSCE Media Freedom Representative meets with UK Minister of State

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), Teresa Ribeiro, met with the Minister for South Asia and Commonwealth of the British Government, H.E. Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, on 25 March 2021, to discuss media freedom developments in the United Kingdom and the OSCE region.

Ribeiro and Ahmad spoke about the safety of journalists, and in particular, the UK’s first ever, recently launched, National Action Plan to protect journalists (NAP). They agreed to work together to ensure its effective implementation, and to explore possible ways to promote the NAP as good practice.

Ahmad emphasized the UK’s commitment to media freedom, including through its Global Campaign for Media Freedom, which includes the Global Media Defence Fund, helping journalists in need worldwide. He offered the support of the UK government to work with the Representative in solidarity on issues pertaining to the RFoM mandate. In this regard, Ribeiro and Ahmad exchanged views on priority areas for the RFoM’s work, including the safety of journalists, ensuring a proper legal environment for media freedom, challenges around tackling disinformation, and the governance of large social media platforms.

Ahmad welcomed the RFoM’s activities on the Safety of Female Journalists Online (SOFJO), stressing the particular risks women journalists’ face with perpetrators trying to send a double-edged message – targeting them for being journalists and for being women. Ribeiro informed Ahmad about the Resource Guide on the Safety of Female Journalists Online, recently launched by her Office, and of her plans to work together with various stakeholders to implement its recommendations.

On disinformation, Ribeiro announced that her Office would host a series of webinars with high-level experts throughout the year to discuss this issue.

Ribeiro and Ahmad agreed that isolated incidents often do not show the whole picture of the many challenges to media freedom. Ribeiro stated that there is a need to identify trends and recognize the whole dynamic creating a dangerous climate for the media. Ahmad agreed that there is a concerted attempt to limit freedoms and that a co-ordinated effort can help improve the situation.