News and press releases

VIENNA, 2 October 2017 – The decision of the Irish government to call a referendum on whether blasphemy should remain an offence in the Irish Constitution was welcomed by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) Harlem Désir in a letter to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar today.

The OSCE Mission in Kosovo launched a media literacy initiative with a two-day training for 14 teachers of seven schools in Prishtinë/Priština, Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, Prizren, Pejë/Peć, Ferizaj/Uroševac, Gjilan/Gnjilane and Gjakovë/Đakovica. The training held with the support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) concluded on 1 October 2017 in Prishtinë/Priština...

VIENNA, 29 September 2017 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir today condemned the fire bombing of the Moscow offices and threats against the Russian news website Lenta.ru.

An OSCE-supported two-day regional conference on major trends and developments in the media in Central Asia, entitled #MediaCA, concluded on 28 September 2017 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

PODGORICA, 28 September 2017 – The presentation of the comparative study “Political advertising and media campaign during the pre-election period” was the focus of an event organized today in Podgorica by the OSCE Mission to Montenegro, in co-operation with the Agency for Electronic Media (AEM)...

VIENNA, 27 September 2017 – “Combating online threats against female journalists will remain at the top of my agenda as it is an integral part of the safety of journalists. There can be no freedom of the media without safety,” said the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir, opening the first of a series of workshops on the online safety of female journalists, which concluded in Vienna today...

VIENNA, 26 September 2017 – “I welcome last night's release of Kadri Gürsel after almost a year in prison. The charges against him must also be dropped as a matter of urgency,” OSCE media freedom representative Harlem Désir said today.