OSCE media freedom representative presents anniversary publication
VIENNA, 15 September 2008 - The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklós Haraszti, today presented his Office's latest publication, Ten Years for Media Freedom - An OSCE Anniversary.
The publication features a wide array of contributors who outline the challenges that journalists and free thinkers face every day across the whole OSCE region: threats, physical attacks and even murder, censorship, criminal proceedings in response to "critical" comments or the denial of their right to discuss questions of public interest.
"Instead of dwelling on the past, the authors have addressed present and future challenges to media freedom and free expression. This forward-looking focus is an appropriate one to commemorate our first decade of work," Miklos Haraszti commented.
The publication also displays a number of drawings by two world-renowned editorial cartoonists, Plantu and Chappatte, who work respectively for Le Monde and the International Herald Tribune.
The publication gathers the main findings of a roundtable, "Present and future challenges to media freedom and free expression in the OSCE region", which was held in Vienna on 29 February 2008.
Ten Years for Media Freedom - An OSCE Anniversary is available in English and will also be translated into Russian by the end of 2008. Both the roundtable and the publication were made possible by contributions from the governments of Finland, Germany and the Netherlands.
The 176-page publication can be downloaded at: www.osce.org/fom/item_11_32993.html or ordered from the Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media.