OSCE media freedom representative opens annual media conference in Tbilisi, calls for Internet to remain free in South Caucasus

TBILISI, 20 October 2011 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, today opened the eighth annual South Caucasus Media Conference, focusing this year on media pluralism and Internet governance.
Deputy Chairman of the Georgian Parliament Giorgi Tsereteli and Deputy Foreign Minister Tornike Gordadze joined the Representative in welcoming more than 70 journalists, government officials and academics from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
“The emergence of new media has completely changed the way people communicate and share and receive information,” Mijatović said in her keynote address. “These new challenges underline the need to discuss how new technologies necessitate new approaches to safeguarding OSCE commitments regarding media freedom.”
“Fortunately, the Internet largely remains free in the three countries of the South Caucasus, but attempts to control the Internet are growing everywhere. Governments do have a legitimate role to play when it comes to Internet content and to protecting their societies against cyber crimes. The question is not whether governments should or should not regulate the Internet. The question is how, and to what extent content should be regulated and if there are alternative free speech-friendly methods that would be more efficient.”
The conference will conclude with the adoption of a declaration on pluralism and Internet governance, to be available in English and Russian at www.osce.org/fom.
The eighth South Caucasus Media Conference is held with the financial support of Austria, Germany, France, Norway and Switzerland.
On 19 October Mijatović gave a lecture on OSCE media freedom commitments and the work of her Office to students of the School of Journalism at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs.
Following the conference, on 22 October, Andrey Rikhter, the Director of the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, will open a training course on the safety of journalists during public demonstrations organized by the NGO Resource Centre in Tbilisi.