News and press releases

Building on a training course conducted in March, the State Election Commission together with the OSCE Mission to Montenegro organized a training session for municipal electoral commissions on how to train polling station staff ahead of 11 June parliamentary elections.

VIENNA, 11 May 2023- The current setbacks in media freedom in the OSCE region are not isolated incidents, but are closely linked to the larger political and social contexts in which they occur stated Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) Teresa Ribeiro today during the presentation of her bi-annual report to the OSCE Permanent Council.

BANJUL/GENEVA/VIENNA/WASHINGTON D.C./NEW YORK CITY, 2 May 2023 — Commemorating the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day and the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, freedom of expression mandate holders* from the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the African Commission of Human Rights (ACHPR), and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) issued a Joint Declaration on Media Freedom and Democracy.

SOFIA, 3 April 2023 – Bulgaria’s 2 April early parliamentary elections were competitive and well-managed but, while the legal framework is adequate for holding democratic elections, frequent changes erode trust, undercut efficiency and create challenges to making timely preparations, international observers said in a statement today. In particular, controversial amendments that reduced the use of voting machines reignited concerns about the secrecy and integrity of the ballot and undue influence on voters in socially vulnerable communities, the statement says.

VIENNA, 13 March 2023 – Freedom of expression as well as the freedom for media to operate independently are key pillars of a genuine democracy, OSCE leaders said during a two-day Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting in Vienna.

VIENNA/BELGRADE, 10 March 2023 – The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro, and the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Jan Braathu, expressed their concerns today over the recent targeting of several journalists in Serbia, urging the authorities to thoroughly investigate all incidents and swiftly bring all those responsible to justice, as proscribed by Serbian law.

VIENNA, 8 March 2023 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Teresa Ribeiro, today condemned the Belarusian authorities’ decision to designate the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) as an “extremist formation”.