News and press releases

VIENNA, 30 October 2014 – In the run-up to the International Day to End Impunity, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today called on OSCE participating States to take real steps to track down and prosecute those who commit crimes against journalists.

LONDON, 29 October 2014 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today met with the Foreign Office Minister for Human Rights and International Organisations, Baroness Anelay and other senior UK officials to discuss media freedom issues in the OSCE region...

The OSCE Senior Adviser on Gender Issues, Ambassador Miroslava Beham, attended the UN Security Council debate on Women, Peace and Security on 28 October where she presented an outline of the OSCE activities on UNSCR 1325 ranging from supporting OSCE participating States in their implementation of National Action Plans, through to gender-enhanced mediation support...

BERN, 27 October 2014- Didier Burkhalter, Swiss Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, congratulated Ukrainians for taking part in the early elections of the parliamentary assembly. Taking good note of the preliminary findings of the International Election Observation Mission that these elections marked an important step in Ukraine’s aspirations to consolidate democratic elections in line with its international commitments, he thanked the election observation mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) and the observation delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly as well as other international institutions for their engagement...

The SMM continued focusing on the implementation of the provisions of the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum. The situation remained volatile in Donetsk and Luhansk. In Kharkiv local authorities reported to the SMM that the number of registered IDPs had doubled since August. The SMM continued to receive reports of false bomb threats in Lviv...

Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Russian Federation – The Observer Mission (OM) is operating at full capacity. Cross-border traffic flows remained relatively steady at both Border Crossing Points (BCPs) but the total number of border-crossings has again decreased. More people left than entered the Russian Federation (RF) at the two observed BCPs although this return movement has continued to slow down. The OM observed again a considerable number of persons in military-style clothing crossing the border in both directions, few of them apparently belonging to Cossack units. Truck convoys continued to transport coal from the Luhansk region to the RF...

VIENNA, 22 October 2014 – Following recent death threats against two reporters in Bosnia and Herzegovina, OSCE media freedom representative Dunja Mijatović today called on authorities to thoroughly and swiftly investigate all threats against media representatives...