News and press releases

ASTANA, 17 April 2014 – An OSCE-supported training seminar on countering cybercrime in Kazakhstan with a focus on detecting, preventing and disclosing cybercrime, countering fraud in electronic banking and computer forensics, started today in Astana...

The situation in Western and Central Ukraine (Kyiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi) remained calm and stable with a routine police presence. Teams judged the situation in Kharkiv, Odessa and Kherson to be calmer, but the situation remained tense in the Dnepropetrovsk region, where roadblocks were being built to protect the region from groups opposed to the Kyiv government. In Luhansk and Donetsk the situation was cause for serious concern due to the ongoing occupation of some administrative buildings and capture of other strategic locations by armed individuals.

ODESA, 16 April 2014- Ending her three-day visit to Ukraine, OSCE media freedom representative Dunja Mijatović today said that the media freedom situation in Ukraine has reached a very dangerous stage, and she alerted OSCE participating States that unless this trend is reversed it could contribute to the deterioration of the security situation.

BRUSSELS, 16 April 2014- OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier is seeking EU support for scaling up the Organization’s Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine to ensure objective fact-finding as the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate...

COPENHAGEN, 16 April 2014 – OSCE parliamentarians will observe the upcoming parliamentary elections in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and provide leadership for the OSCE's short-term observer mission.

SEMEY, Kazakhstan, 16 April 2014 – Promoting the role of political parties in parliamentary activities in Kazakhstan is the main topic of a two-day seminar supported by the OSCE Centre in Astana. The event, which brought together 25 representatives of national political parties and civil society, began today in Semey, eastern region of Kazakhstan...

As the current crisis in and around Ukraine demonstrates, propaganda and deterioration of media freedom often go together to fuel a conflict, and once it starts they contribute to its escalation. The need to stop propaganda is frequently being used as a reason for blocking and jamming television and radio signals or imposing other restrictions to freedom of expression and freedom of the media. Taking into consideration the broadness and vagueness of the term propaganda, and its direct link to political speech, its blank prohibition would violate international standards for the protection of free expression and free media.