2001 press releases

U.S. Commends Work of OSCE in Promoting Freedom of the Media (April 5, 2001)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Like others, I thank Mr. Duve for his report outlining his activities for the past period and I join my EU colleagues in calling for a renewal of his presence among us.

We commend him especially for his work on the Gongadze case in Ukraine, and reiterate our call for a thorough and transparent investigation of his disappearance.

We also support Mr. Duve's intention to organize a meeting on the transformation of public media in Central and Eastern Europe later this year.

We strongly support the privatization of state-owned or state-controlled media. However, even when media are public and state-funded, they ought to be editorially independent. We believe that free media play a fundamental role in the development and sustenance of a democratic and prosperous state. There is no substitute for the corrective role of the free media, nor is there such thing as partially free media or media which are free for part of the time or only on some issues.

We are thus especially concerned by the dispute over NTV, the sole independent, national television network in Russia. It would be an enormous blow to the democratization efforts there should NTV's independent voice become just another outlet for government views.

With respect to Azerbaijan, we join Mr. Duve in asking that broadcast licensing procedures there be improved and made more transparent and note with concern the beatings of journalists that have recently taken place.

We also share Mr. Duve's concern about the violations of media freedom in Belarus and commend him for his bulletins on media freedom there.

Belarusian use of censorship, administrative and tax harassment, and physical force against independent media and journalists is a serious and disturbing matter, especially in light of planned presidential elections this year. The continued lack of serious investigation into the fate of disappeared television cameraman Zavadsky is also troubling.

For these forthcoming elections to be recognized as free and fair, Belarusian media must be allowed to operate freely and without hindrance.

We note that Mr. Duve has hosted two conferences to date for the media in Central Asia. We believe, however, that even more can be done to promote free, independent media and assist States in bringing their legislation into compliance with their OSCE commitments.

With this aim in mind, we encourage Mr. Duve's office to develop projects that will be sustained over time in this region. Based on discussions at the recent Supplementary Human Dimension meeting, we believe the OSCE can play an even more helpful role in this field and we look forward to contributing to that sustained effort.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.