News and press releases

COPENHAGEN, 9 May 2016 – Members of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on Migration will be in Calais, France, this week to see the conditions for refugees and migrants seeking shelter in encampments there. The visit will serve as a fact-finding mission to enable the parliamentarians to gain a first-hand impression of conditions and to develop policy recommendations to improve the collective response to the refugee and migrant crisis...

In Donetsk region, the SMM noted a lower number of ceasefire violations compared with the previous day, with over 120 explosions recorded. In Luhansk region it noted a low level of violence with five explosions recorded. The Mission observed the presence of weapons in violation of the respective withdrawal lines. It continued to observe civilians travelling across the contact line. The SMM’s freedom of movement was restricted on 12 occasions, including five denials of access, all but one in areas not controlled by the Government...

The SMM noted a high level of violence in Donetsk region, with more than 230 explosions recorded; while it noted a low level of violence in Luhansk region, with four explosions recorded. It observed the presence of weapons in violation of the respective withdrawal lines. The Mission continued to observe civilians travelling across the contact line in both directions. On both sides of the contact line, the SMM’s freedom of movement was restricted on several occasions...

BERLIN, 6 May 2016- Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the spokesperson of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany expressed today concern about the situation at the Line of Contact.

The challenges and prospects for the freedoms of expression and of the media were the focus of a World Press Freedom Day conference organized by the Tajik Media Council and other media associations, and supported by the OSCE Office in Tajikistan and international media donors on 3 May 2016 in Dushanbe...

BISHKEK, 6 May 2016 – The role of radio in the digital age was the focus of an OSCE-supported International Media Forum held today in Bishkek, with the aim of exchanging experiences between representatives of local and foreign radio stations and introducing participants to new technologies for developing radio broadcasting in Kyrgyzstan...

ASHGABAT, 6 May 2016 – Some 60 students at Turkmenistan’s International University of Oil and Gas attended an OSCE-organized seminar on energy security and the role of international organizations in energy-related issues that took place in Ashgabat today...