Our mandate on media freedom and development

During the Cold War, the countries of the Northern Hemisphere recognized the crucial importance of the free flow of information in reducing tensions and maintaining peace and stability. In 1975, they resolved, in the Helsinki Final Act, to act in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, in particular, to co-operate in the field of information and improve access to information and the working conditions of journalists.

Since the Helsinki Final Act, many OSCE decisions, declarations and documents have included provisions that explicitly addressed or touched upon media freedom and freedom of expression issues, from the Charter of Paris for a New Europe (1990) to a ministerial decision on enhancing OSCE efforts to ensure Roma and Sinti sustainable integration (Athens, 2009), or a ministerial declaration on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization that lead to Terrorism (Belgrade, 2015). A compilation, stretching over more than 40 years of OSCE history, gives an overview of the Organization’s commitments on the issue of freedom of the media and expression.

In 1990, the participating States reaffirmed in the Copenhagen Meeting Document that “everyone will have the right to freedom of expression including the right to communication. This right will include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.”

In the same year, the States explicitly affirmed in the foundational Charter of Paris that “without discrimination, every individual has the right to […] freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, […] freedom of expression, [and] freedom of association and peaceful assembly”.

Another milestone was reached in 1994 when the Heads of State or Government reaffirmed in the Budapest Document, Towards a Genuine Partnership in a New Era, “that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and a basic component of a democratic society. In this respect, independent and pluralistic media are essential to a free and open society and accountable systems of government.”

Over twenty years after the Helsinki Final, the participating States established the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media to ensure the implementation of the Organization’s media freedom principles and commitments.

In the Istanbul Summit Declaration in 1999, the States returned to the issue of freedom of the media and of expression, committing themselves to “ensuring the freedom of the media as a basic condition for pluralistic and democratic societies”. Concerned about the exploitation of media in areas of conflict to foment hatred and ethnic tension and the use of legal restrictions and harassment to deprive citizens of free media, they underlined “the need to secure freedom of expression, which is an essential element of political discourse in any democracy.”