Thank you very much Mr Chair,
I am delivering this statement on behalf of the following participating states, members of the Informal Group of Friends on the Safety of Journalists Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and my own country Germany.
We welcome the Representative on Freedom of the Media Mr. Jan Braathu back to the Permanent Council and thank him for his second report since taking office almost one year ago.
Ambassador Braathu, we thank you for your dedicated work and your tireless efforts in a field central to our organization. You continue to remind us that there is no security without freedom of the media. Yet we note with great concern that media freedom and the safety of journalists are under threat in the OSCE area. We do agree with your assessment that journalists face an increasingly hostile environment across the whole OSCE region.
All participating States have to take the necessary steps to implement the OSCE commitments on media freedom and the safety of journalists. Nobody questions the legitimacy of national security concerns, but they must under no circumstances be misused as an instrument to suppress independent media and to persecute journalists and other media workers. Journalism has turned into a high-risk profession, and we must not allow this situation to deteriorate any further. On the contrary, all participating states have to honour their obligations towards the safety of media professionals.
Among the serious consequences of the Russian Federation’s illegal and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine is the deterioration of the situation of the media. Since the beginning of the war, a significant number of journalists have been killed or subjected to arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearance by the Russian aggressor while exercising their profession. Credible reports indicate that media infrastructure and media workers have become direct targets. Intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as indiscriminate attacks, may amount to gross violations of international humanitarian law and amount to war crimes. We call on the Russian Federation to immediately and unconditionally release all media professionals imprisoned because of their professional activities, including in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
In Russia itself and in Belarus, the situation is also alarming. Media actors face a repressive environment, where media freedom no longer exists. Numerous journalists have been harassed, attacked and imprisoned for their professional activities on politically motivated charges. Russian and Belarussian authorities have expanded and misused “anti-extremism” and “anti-terrorism” laws to punish the legitimate exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. State disinformation, information manipulation and censorship and the systematic and continuous repression of independent media in Russia and Belarus have severely repressed all form of independent journalism.
We remain deeply concerned by the erosion of media freedom in other parts of the OSCE region. We observe increasing violence and hostility towards the media in the public space, a lack of adequate response by security officials, an unwillingness of police forces to protect journalists and media actors. In some instances, it seems that media professionals were even attacked by law enforcement officials, with reports of deliberate physical attacks, harassment, seizure and destruction of professional equipment, and even arbitrary detention.
Journalists have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted in a number of countries, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan. In Turkmenistan the room for independent journalism is very limited. In Georgia, the authorities turned towards further undermining independent journalism through harassment, intimidation, legislation and judicial actions, as well as arbitrary detentions of media actors.
In November 2018, all 57 OSCE participating States, in Ministerial Council Decision 3/18 on the Safety of Journalists, committed themselves to improving the safety of journalists and “to end impunity for crimes committed against journalists, by ensuring accountability as a key element in preventing future attacks.” However, we do observe, with deep regret, a grave distortion of the participating States’ commitment to end impunity. Rather than investigating and prosecuting those who assault, threaten, or kill journalists, we are witnessing an increasing number of cases in various participating countries where the judicial and penal systems are turned against journalists themselves, while attacks on them remain unpunished.
Further challenges have emerged for independent journalism, which jeopardize the participation of the media in the democratic process of our pluralistic societies. New technologies are used to repress independent media. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, commonly known as SLAPPs, are employed to silence critical journalists. Participating States are called upon to pay particular attention to the use of artificial intelligence, for example in disinformation campaigns.
Yesterday, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Safety of Female Journalists Online (SOFJO) project. We welcome this project as an important activity of your office. By addressing the threat of gender-specific online violence faced by women in media, it has contributed to a safer and more inclusive online environment for women journalists through the SOFJO Resource Guide, through the Guidelines for Monitoring Online Violence Against Female Journalists, and through specific capacity-building program tailored to address the needs of the different stakeholders.
Ambassador Braathu, your team and you yourself played an active role in the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference last month by organizing and participating in the plenary as well as in side events. We use this opportunity to highlight the side event on “Journalists in Exile Defending Press Freedom Beyond Borders”, co-organized by your office and our group. We looked at the threats of violence, harassment, and intimidation, including cyberattacks, surveillance, and disinformation campaigns directed against journalists in exile, especially against those who continue to cover political developments in their home countries. It is important for us to continue to denounce and act against tactics used by repressive states to discredit the work of exiled journalists, coerce them into silence, or punish them for their work.
In the spirit of this successful cooperation, we look forward to our further cooperation with you and your office. We will continue to support you in exercising your mandate, and denounce, together with you, all efforts to stifle the freedom of the media. We wish you all the best in our endeavours, and please do convey our appreciation also to your dedicated staff for their commitment and excellent work.
Thank you.