News and press releases

VIENNA, 18 July 2024 – Media freedom and democracy improve human security and enhance international and domestic peace. This is the clear empirical conclusion of a new report by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), Teresa Ribeiro, authored by the research team at the Varieties of Democracies Institute.

In a significant step towards equality of women and men and the elimination of violence against women, Presidents of Women’s Fora and representatives of political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have reached a consensus on the Principles for Political Engagement for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

WARSAW/VIENNA, 9 July 2024 – In a new legal analysis of Uzbekistan's draft information code, Matteo Mecacci, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Teresa Ribeiro, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), noted that while the code contains positive elements, it also includes provisions that need improvement to meet international standards and OSCE commitments on freedom of expression and media freedom.

WARSAW, 3 July 2024 – This week’s verdicts by a Minsk court sentencing 20 Belarusian experts and analysts in absentia to over a decade in prison for peaceful activities in support of the political opposition are a clear violation of free speech and the right to a fair trial, and should be revoked, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said today.

The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan facilitated the participation of four journalists and scholars from Uzbekistan in the Regional Central Asia Safety of Journalists event in Almaty, Kazakhstan, organized on 26-27 June by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM).

DUSHANBE, 26 June 2024 — Today, OSCE Chair-in-Office, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade of Malta Ian Borg, concluded his visit to Tajikistan, reaffirming the OSCE’s long-standing co-operative relationship with the country.

On 18 June, the OSCE Secretariat hosted a group of international students in Vienna, Austria, for a summer school visit on organized crime. The visit provided participants with hands-on experience of the Organization's programmatic activities, offering them a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the OSCE's comprehensive whole-of-society approach to the prevention of organized crime.