France delivered a joint statement on media freedom to the 2025 OSCE Ministerial Council on behalf of the Informal Group of Friends on the Safety of Journalists, comprising Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and France. The UK Government has published an English translation of the French-language address.
The text situates media freedom within the OSCE’s comprehensive concept of security. It links a free, independent and pluralistic media environment to democratic governance, transparency and accountability, as well as conflict prevention, social resilience and the full enjoyment of human rights.
The statement recalls commitments repeatedly affirmed by participating States, including the Helsinki Final Act, the Copenhagen Document and Ministerial Council Decision 3/18 on the Safety of Journalists. In practical terms, the signatories underline duties to secure the legal and operational conditions for freedom of expression, support media pluralism, improve journalists’ safety, end impunity for crimes against journalists and avoid misuse of legislation or the courts to curb independent reporting.
Concern is recorded over a growing gap between formal commitments and practice. Rather than prosecuting perpetrators, authorities in some States are deploying criminal justice systems against journalists while assaults go unpunished. The statement cautions that national security powers must not be used to suppress independent media or to persecute media actors.
On Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the signatories cite credible reports of journalists killed, arbitrarily detained, tortured or forcibly disappeared, alongside evidence that media infrastructure and workers have been directly targeted. The text reiterates that under international humanitarian law journalists are civilians and must be protected, and calls on the Russian Federation to release immediately and unconditionally all media professionals imprisoned for their work, including in temporarily occupied territories.
In Russia and Belarus, the statement describes an alarming environment in which media freedom has been dismantled. Journalists have been harassed, attacked and imprisoned on politically motivated charges, and authorities have expanded and misapplied so‑called anti‑extremism and anti‑terrorism laws to penalise expression, assembly and association. State-sponsored disinformation, censorship and foreign information manipulation are identified as further constraints.
The document also references arrests, prosecutions and convictions of journalists in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan, while noting that space for independent journalism in Turkmenistan remains severely limited.
Georgia, once a regional leader on media freedom, is cited for an observable turn towards undermining independent journalism through harassment, intimidation, legislative and judicial actions, and the arbitrary detention of media actors.
Beyond country examples, the signatories flag wider erosion across parts of the OSCE region. They report increasing hostility towards media in public spaces, insufficient protective responses by security officials and cases in which law enforcement officers themselves have carried out physical attacks, harassment, equipment seizure or destruction, and arbitrary detention.
The Representative on Freedom of the Media is presented as a key mechanism within the OSCE architecture, with an early warning function, rapid response to serious non‑compliance and assistance to States seeking to improve media law and practice. Participating States are urged to support the office and to treat its recommendations as operational guidance.
Marking the tenth anniversary of the Safety of Female Journalists Online project, the statement welcomes the office’s work to address gender‑specific online violence. It highlights the SOFJO Resource Guide, the Guidelines for Monitoring Online Violence Against Female Journalists and targeted capacity‑building for different stakeholder groups.
Policy Wire analysis: For ministries, regulators and law enforcement leadership, the joint message translates into an implementation agenda. Priority actions include auditing security and public order legislation for compliance with OSCE standards, setting out clear investigative protocols for crimes against journalists, training police on media facilitation at assemblies, and using RFoM and SOFJO materials to mitigate risks faced by women journalists. Public reporting on case outcomes, timelines and resource allocation would help demonstrate progress and address the impunity gap identified in the statement.