Section: OSCE (EU)
OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to hold news briefing in Kyiv today
KYIV, 9 April 2015 – The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) will hold its regular news briefing today in Kyiv. Michael Bociurkiw, the SMM spokesperson, will talk about the recent Mission’s activities and the general security situation throughout Ukraine. Journalists are invited to attend the news briefing today, 9 April, at...
OSCE affirms political process as way forward in solving crisis in Ukraine
BELGRADE, 8 April 2015 – OSCE’s Chairperson-in-Office and Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić, Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan, and OSCE Envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini, met today in Belgrade to plan...
Monitors from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine focus on human trafficking during Kyiv training
KYIV, 8 April 2015 – The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Ambassador Madina Jarbussynova, stressed the importance of raising awareness about human trafficking among monitors from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) at the end of a two-day training designed to improve their...
OSCE Special Monitoring Mission’s Deputy Chief Monitor to visit southeast Ukraine
KYIV, 8 April 2015 – The Deputy Chief Monitor of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, Alexander Hug, will visit southeast Ukraine over the next two days to encourage parties to further disengage in Shyrokyne and to work towards normalization and demilitarization in the town and surrounding areas. Hug and a team of SMM experts...
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 18:00 (Kyiv time), 7 April 2015
This report is for the media and general public. The SMM monitored the implementation of the “Package of measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements” which was restricted by third parties and by security considerations*. The SMM observed an increase in the number of ceasefire violations in the Donetsk region, especially around Donetsk...
OSCE media freedom representative calls for decriminalization of defamation in Greece after journalist sentenced to 26 months on libel charges
VIENNA, 8 April 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today condemned the recent libel conviction and sentence imposed on journalist Kostas Vaxevanis for stories written about banking practices in Greece. “This ruling has a chilling effect on media freedom because it restricts reporting on matters of public interest,”...
OSCE PA President demands end to intimidation of monitors in eastern Ukraine
COPENHAGEN, 8 April 2015 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ilkka Kanerva (MP, Finland) today called for an immediate end to the intimidation of OSCE monitors in Ukraine and reiterated the need for the monitors to have unfettered access throughout the country. “The illegal separatists have threatened OSCE staff on the ground in Ukraine and I...
Spot report by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine: “DPR” member opened fire towards an SMM patrol on the outskirts of Shyrokyne, 7 April 2015
This report is for media and the general public. On 7 April, while traveling east on road E58 toward a “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”) checkpoint in Shyrokyne (20km east of Mariupol, 99km south of Donetsk), the SMM was halted by an improvised “DPR” roadblock, located on the northern edge of Shyrokyne (“DPR”-controlled). As the SMM...
BiH government should do utmost to ensure sustainability of public broadcasting system and urgently address digital switchover, says OSCE Representative
VIENNA, 7 April 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović is calling on the new government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to deal with pressing issues that could further undermine the fragile media freedom situation in the country, including the sustainability of public broadcasting and implementation of the digital...
OSCE Representative welcomes new legislation to foster media freedom in Ukraine
VIENNA, 7 April 2015 – OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović today welcomed new legislation to foster the development of public broadcasting in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko today signed a bill amending the public broadcasting law, which includes the legal status of and the basis for the creation of public...
