- Foreign Minister Milososki to address Permanent Council

VIENNA, 9 June 2010 - The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Antonio Milososki, will address the OSCE Permanent Council tomorrow.

The Permanent Council is a main decision-making body of the 56-country OSCE. It meets weekly in Vienna to discuss developments in the OSCE area and to make appropriate decisions.

Journalists are invited to the speech, set to start at 10.00 on Thursday, 10 June, in the Hofburg Congress Centre’s Neuer Saal. Milososki will be available for questions following the address.

For admittance to the Hofburg Congress Centre, please bring your OSCE press badge or a valid press card to the security desk (main entrance from the Heldenplatz). Parking is available for the press during the event in the OSCE-reserved parking area on Heldenplatz. Temporary parking permits must be collected from the security desk.

Direct link to the press release

- OSCE Annual Security Review Conference to open in Vienna on 14 June

VIENNA, 9 June 2010 - The OSCE Annual Security Review Conference, which aims to enhance the dialogue on security among the Organization’s 56 participating States, will open in Vienna on Monday, 14 June.

The three-day meeting provides a framework for reviewing security work undertaken by the OSCE and its 56 participating States.

The working sessions will focus on transnational threats and challenges; the role of the OSCE in early warning, conflict prevention and resolution, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation; the role and perspectives of arms control and confidence- and security-building regimes in building trust in the evolving security environment; threats and challenges stemming from the territory of Afghanistan and the OSCE’s contribution to stability in the region; and a review of OSCE police-related activities.

Konstantin Zhigalov, Kazakhstan’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, will give the opening address.

Journalists are invited to attend the opening session starting at 10.00, on Monday, 14 June, in the Hofburg Congress Centre’s Neuer Saal.

The closing session at 17.30, on Wednesday, 16 June, will also be open to the press.

Direct link to the press release

- OSCE media freedom representative, in speech at U.S. Helsinki Commission, condemns murders and imprisonment of journalists

WASHINGTON, 9 June 2010 - Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, called on governments to denounce violence against journalists, to release imprisoned journalists and to better protect media freedom on the Internet in a speech delivered today at the U.S. Helsinki Commission.

"Violence against journalists and imprisonment for defamation and other journalistic mistakes have a threatening effect on journalism," Mijatovic said.

"There is no true press freedom as long as journalists have to fear for their lives while performing their work. OSCE commitments oblige all participating States to provide safety for their journalists. I ask the OSCE governments to strongly denounce and punish violent attacks against journalists, to refrain from using imprisonment as a punishment for written or spoken words and to bring their legislation in line with international standards on free expression."

Mijatovic condemned murders of journalists in Azerbaijan, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. She also criticized the imprisonment of journalists in several OSCE participating States, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

She also called on participating States to safeguard and enhance media pluralism and the free flow of information on the Internet, saying that numerous participating States suppress Internet freedom and restrict access to information. She also called on countries to use the opportunities presented by the switchover from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.

With regards to the United States, she called for the adoption of a federal shield law that would allow journalists to protect confidential sources, saying that imprisoning journalists who refuse to reveal the identity of their sources hindered investigative journalism.

"This reform would send a very strong message to protect media freedom beyond the borders of the United States. We need such a signal," Mijatovic said.

Direct link to the press release