Russia intends to put forward a draft decision on ensuring free access for citizens to information at December's OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Bratislava, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th November, 2019) Russia intends to put forward a draft decision on ensuring free access for citizens to information at December's OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Bratislava, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.
Lavrov recalled that at the previous OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in Milan, the participants managed to adopt a document at the Russia's initiative on the safety of journalists, which became the first document on media issues adopted over the past 25 years.
"The next OSCE Ministerial Council meeting will be held in Bratislava in a month... We plan to put forward a draft decision on ensuring free access for citizens to information. We will urge the OSCE member states to reaffirm the existing commitments, which were actively and jointly accepted at the initiative of Western partners at OSCE events in the 1990s," Lavrov said at an international conference in Moscow that was organized by the OSCE's Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media with support of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
According to the minister, Russia considers it important to start a dialogue with the aim to reach a consensus on how to "distinguish quality journalism from propaganda."
Lavrov added that a round table with the participation of the professional communities of the OSCE member states could become the first step in this initiative, and Russia expects to receive a constructive reaction.
