We, the undersigned organisations, are deeply concerned by the decision of the representatives of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan to block the renewal of the mandate of Harlem Désir, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM). We respect the need for a consensus vote of all member states of the OSCE on the mandate renewal as an important commitment of all OSCE participating States to abide by their commitments to freedom of expression and free media. We understand the move by Azerbaijan and Tajikistan is an attempt to weaken the essential watchdog function of the mandate. Our organisations have worked closely…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) was invited today to introduce the working session on freedom of the media at the OSCE 2nd Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting (SHDM). The EFJ called on the OSCE Participating States to fully implement the 2018 Ministerial Council Decision for the safety of journalists. “Hundreds of media outlets are under threat, starting with local media, which are simply in danger of disappearing for lack of financial support. Tens of thousands of journalists have been put on temporary unemployment. And tens of thousands of independent journalists have been deprived of any income for the past three…

Event: Conference on Missing and Murdered Journalists in Kosovo Location: Restaurant Etno Kuča, Gračanica/Graçanicë Date/Time: 4 December 2019, 09:00 09:00 – 09:30 Coffee & Registration of Participants 09:30 – 10:15 Opening Remarks • Ambassador Jan Braathu, Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo • Budimir Ničić, Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Serbia registered in Kosovo • Gentiana Begolli-Pustina, Chairperson of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo 10:15 – 11.30 I panel: Accounts of Families and Colleagues For two decades, families and friends of murdered and missing journalists in Kosovo have been trying to find out the truth: who…

The OSCE is organising the conference “Freedom of the Media and Safety of Journalists in the Russian Federation and in the OSCE region: Challenges and Opportunities in the Digital Age”, on 6 November 2019 in Moscow. The conference will expectedly bring together more than 150 Russian journalists, experts from the media community and academia, policy makers, and representatives of government institutions.

The annual OSCE South East Europe Media Conference will take place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 18-19 June. The annual conference will provide a platform for the sharing of best practices and to discuss current media freedom developments across the South East Europe region, with a particular focus this year on media development and sustainability, safety of journalists, legal environment for media freedom and examining sustainable solutions for public service broadcasters. The event will also host a number of side events. The EFJ GS Ricardo Gutiérrez will participate as an expert speaker on the “Safety of journalists” panel.

In a letter sent on 5 March to the European institutions, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and the protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, raised concerns about three aspects of the draft directive on the protection of whistleblowers. This letter is published as the negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council of the EU and the European Commission are in the final stretch. The last trilogue meeting will be on Monday 11 March. The tiered reporting system This is the main…

On 10th of July in Nicosia, the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM) in cooperation with the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN), and several local journalists, including members of EFJ affiliates Basin-Sen and Union of Cyprus Journalists,  has published “Words That Matter“, a trilingual glossary in English, Greek, and Turkish, to list phrases and words, used by the journalists in communities, which may be taken sensitively. The glossary resulted from a common effort between the organisations to minimise hate speech in journalism, as well as trying to overcome the long-lasting tensions between Greek Cypriot and Turkish…

The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) called on the Ukrainian government to launch a national action plan for the protection of journalists, in cooperation with Ukrainian journalists’ unions. Ricardo Gutiérrez, General Secretary of the EFJ, attended the OSCE expert conference, organised in Kiev, on 26 June, by the OSCE Representative on Media Freedom, Harlem Désir. Pointing out the deterioration of media freedom in the country, since 2015, Gutiérrez called on Ukrainian authorities to launch an action plan for the safety of journalists, together with all the relevant stakeholders, including the EFJ affiliates in the country, the National Union of Journalists…