USINFO.STATE.GOV
23 September 2005
Government Treatment of Media Deteriorating in Some OSCE States
At Warsaw conference, U.S. official says urgent corrective action needed
By Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington — Government treatment of media has deteriorated markedly in
several countries that belong to the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a member of the U.S. delegation told an OSCE
conference on human rights in Warsaw, Poland, September 21.
“The main responsibility for ensuring that media can work freely and
independently lies with governments of participating States, which must not
violate the right to freedom of expression, even in times of heightened
security concerns,” Dorothy Douglas Taft told the 2005 OSCE Human Dimension
Implementation Meeting (HDIM), which continues through September 30.
“Government officials and their allies in the business community have used
lawsuits, administrative regulations, and the charge of libel, as well as
harassment to stifle independent journalism,” said Taft, who serves as
deputy chief of staff to the United States Helsinki Commission, an
independent U.S. government agency that monitors human rights issues.
“In other cases, authorities have looked the other way when shady
businessmen or organized crime groups harass and even murder journalists
whose reporting threatens their abilities to continue committing crime and
corruption,” she said. “We need urgent corrective action to stop this
progressive strangulation of the media.”
Taft offered specific criticisms of the media environments in Russia,
Belarus, Turkey, Serbia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
“In addition to attacks on and politically motivated prosecution of
journalists, we are deeply concerned by the shrinking independence and
diversity of Russian media outlets and content,” she said.
President Bush recently conveyed U.S. concerns about media freedom directly
to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying after their meeting at the White
House September 16 that Russia “will be an even stronger partner as the
reforms that President Putin has talked about are implemented — rule of law
and the ability for people to express themselves in an open way in Russia.”
(See related article.)
Taft said the United States strongly supports the OSCE’s call for the repeal
of Russia’s criminal defamation laws and wants the OSCE representative on
freedom of the media, Miklos Haraszti, to visit Russia soon to investigate
the abuses of journalists and restrictions on media freedom.
Turning to Belarus, Taft said government attempts to stifle independent
media have intensified. She expressed regret that Belarus has ignored the
recommendations of the OSCE representative on freedom of the media.
With respect to Turkey, Taft welcomed government efforts to enact a new
Penal Code that more clearly defines the elements of the crime of
“incitement to hatred” and a new press code that makes it more difficult to
close publications and improves protection for private sources. But she
noted with regret that journalist Hakan Albayrak served six months in prison
for insulting the memory of Mustafa Kemal, and journalist Sabri Ejder Ozic
was convicted for insulting parliament.
On Serbia, Taft said that it “enjoys relatively free and open media
consistent with the rest of the Balkan region, [but] there are still
insufficient professional standards, and the government lacks the
institutional means and the political will to ensure against abuse and
manipulation of the media.” She cited as an example of abuse a government
death threat directed at a journalist who asked an unwelcome question.
In Central Asia, Taft said, “freedom of the media remains a distant dream.”
As examples of the poor media climate, she cited a total lack of independent
media outlets in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, concerted efforts by Uzbek
authorities against Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondents, the
closure of Respublika newspaper in Kazakhstan and the closure or suspension
of independent media outlets in Tajikistan.
In Azerbaijan, the founder and editor of an opposition weekly news magazine
was murdered in his apartment building earlier this year, and
state-controlled media have “recently been a forum for political mudslinging
by the party in power,” while in Armenia “media critical of the government
continue to experience considerable pressure,” Taft said.
“It is time that we recommit ourselves to the core OSCE commitments in the
field of media freedom,” she concluded, urging all the states represented at
the conference to foster, rather than hinder, a free media.
Taft’s statement on media freedom is available at the U.S. Mission to the
OSCE Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information
Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: )