OSCE Should Be More Active In Protecting Rights Of Journalists - Lavrov

OSCE Should Be More Active in Protecting Rights of Journalists - Lavrov

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should be more active in protecting the rights of journalists and ensuring media freedom, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2018) The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) should be more active in protecting the rights of journalists and ensuring media freedom, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday.

"We reaffirmed the need for greater attention by the OSCE and its relevant institutions toward ensuring the freedom of the media and, of course, protecting the rights of journalists," Lavrov told a press conference after talks with OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger.

Greminger, in turn, said that all OSCE member states should comply with international standards and avoid interfering in the media's work.

The situation with Russian media in the West has become increasingly difficult in recent years. In November 2016, the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution to counter alleged Russian anti-EU propaganda. According to the document, media such as the Sputnik news agency and RT broadcaster allegedly pose a danger to European unity and therefore justify extra European Commission funding for counter-propaganda projects.

A number of Western politicians, including members of the US Congress and French President Emmanuel Macron, accused Sputnik and RT of interfering in the elections in the United States and France, albeit without providing any evidence. Russian officials have repeatedly refuted such claims as unfounded.

In May, head of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news website Kirill Vyshinsky was detained in Kiev on suspicion of treason and supporting the breakaway republics in Donbas. He was then transferred to the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, where he was taken into custody by court order. On November 1, a Kherson court extended the arrest until December 28.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Vyshinsky's arrest was politically motivated, adding that the incident demonstrated an unprecedented and unacceptable policy of Ukrainian authorities targeting journalists who were just doing their jobs. The Russian Foreign Ministry has lodged protests to Kiev, calling on the government to stop its crackdown on media.

Harlem Desir, the OSCE representative on freedom of the media, has also expressed his concern over Ukraine's actions toward Vyshinsky, stressing that, under the Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE states "have committed to facilitating the conditions under which journalists from one participating State exercise their profession in another participating State."