Thank you, Chair.
And thank you for your report to the Permanent Council, Representative Braathu. And thank you for the dedicated work of you and your team.
Our predecessors at the OSCE recognised that media freedom is a cornerstone of regional security and democratic societies. Regrettably, as your report makes clear, there are a range of severe and growing challenges to media freedom in the OSCE region.
Every participating State has the responsibility to work to fulfil our shared OSCE commitments. Within the UK the government continues to work with civil society and police forces to strengthen the criminal justice response to crimes against journalists. Every police force in England and Wales now has a designated Journalist Safety Officer, building on earlier work by Police Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland. A National Committee working group on Legal Threats against Journalists is further developing our non-legislative response to abusive legal threats against journalists. And the Government is currently working with stakeholders on the next version of our National Action Plan on Safety of Journalists.
Recognising the pace of technological change and the growing influence of AI, UK government departments and the Electoral Commission updated official candidate guidance on AI and online disinformation threats in April 2025. This builds upon the UK’s national Defending Democracy guidance.
Internationally, the UK continues to support the work of the Media Freedom Coalition – and I thank Germany, Estonia and Finland for their stewardship of the Coalition this year.
Within the OSCE region, we condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, where its drones kill and injure journalists covering its illegal war. And Moscow Mechanism reporting also shows how Russia has used arbitrary detention and threats against journalists in the temporarily occupied territories to intimidate the civilian population. We also call on Belarus to release all political prisoners, including journalists, immediately and unconditionally.
Like you, we are concerned about the designation in Kyrgyzstan of two independent media outlets, and their founders, as ‘extremists’.
We also thank you for your engagement on media freedom in Georgia, and for your recent work in Serbia on media regulation.
The UK remains a firm supporter of your mandate to monitor media freedom as well as to provide early warning and rapid response. We look forward to continuing to work with you and your team in 2026.
Thank you.
