News and press releases

STRUGA, 11 May 2018 – Over the past two days more than 160 participants, including media actors, governments and civil society organizations from across the South-Eastern European region gathered in Struga to discuss the most pressing media freedom challenges and provide recommendations for the improvement of press freedom and the media environment in the region.

VIENNA, 11 May 2018- “The Italian OSCE Chairmanship welcomes the recent positive developments in the Transdniestrian Settlement Process and commends the Sides, as well as all involved partners, for this progress. We will be pleased to host the next round of the 5+2 meetings on 29 and 30 May in Rome, and are hopeful that we will see further positive steps that will bring more benefits to the lives of people on both banks of the Nistru/Dniester River,” Ambassador Alessandro Azzoni, Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council, announced during a session of the Council on 10 May.

Building capacity of the grantees of the first Regional Youth Co-operation Office’s (RYCO) Call for Proposals, “A better region starts with youth”, was the focus of a three-day training course organized in Podgorica from 7 to 11 May with the support of the OSCE Mission to Montenegro.

The SMM recorded a sharp increase in ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer ceasefire violations in Luhansk region, compared with the previous reporting period. The Mission observed damage as a result of shelling in Loskutivka. The SMM continued monitoring the disengagement areas near Stanytsia Luhanska, Zolote and Petrivske and recorded ceasefire violations near the Zolote and inside the Petrivske disengagement areas. Its access remained restricted in all three areas and elsewhere, including in Dovhe and near Izvaryne in Luhansk region, at the border with the Russian Federation.*

From 26 to 29 April 2018, the OSCE Programme Office in Bishkek organized a training seminar for young journalists and students studying journalism. The workshop aimed to improve their knowledge and skills in covering security issues related to violent extremism and radicalization leading to terrorism (VERLT), and reporting on inter-communal relations.

ROME, 10 May 2018 – Parliaments and international fora such as the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly have a vital role to play in shaping innovative legislation and policies to reduce threats posed by returning foreign terrorist fighters, or FTFs, said Chair of the OSCE PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on Countering Terrorism Makis Voridis at a conference in Rome today.

ROME, 10 May 2018 – Enhanced information-sharing and border security and human rights-compliant rehabilitation and reintegration programmes are among the key measures states need to take in order to address the challenge of returning foreign terrorist fighters, said speakers at the opening of the 2018 OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Conference in Rome...