France delivered a joint statement at the OSCE Ministerial Council 2025 on behalf of the Informal Group of Friends on the Safety of Journalists. According to the text released by the UK Government, it represented 15 participating States: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and France, and was delivered in French.
The statement situates media freedom within the OSCE’s comprehensive concept of security. It argues that free, independent and pluralistic media support democratic governance, enable transparency and accountability, and help prevent conflict while reinforcing societal resilience and the enjoyment of human rights. It stresses that journalists must be able to work without interference, censorship, intimidation or violence, consistent with participating States’ commitments.
The text anchors these points in existing OSCE instruments: the Helsinki Final Act, the Copenhagen Document and Ministerial Council Decision No. 3/18 on the Safety of Journalists. On that basis, States are reminded to secure legal and practical conditions for freedom of expression and media pluralism, to improve the safety of journalists, to end impunity for crimes against them, and to avoid misusing legislation or the courts to silence independent reporting or dissenting voices.
The group notes a widening gap between formal commitments and practice in parts of the region. It cites instances where judicial and penal systems have been directed against journalists while assaults on them go unpunished. The statement cautions that national security concerns do not justify using legal instruments to suppress independent media and warns against normalising heightened risk to media workers.
On Ukraine, the statement links Russia’s war of aggression to a severe deterioration in media conditions. It records journalists being killed, arbitrarily detained, tortured or forcibly disappeared, and points to credible reports of media infrastructure and workers being directly targeted. It recalls that intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as indiscriminate attacks, may constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes. It calls on the Russian Federation to release, immediately and unconditionally, all media professionals imprisoned for their work, including in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Within Russia and Belarus, the text describes a repressive environment in which media freedom has effectively been dismantled. It refers to harassment, attacks and imprisonment of journalists on politically motivated charges, and to the expansion and misuse of so‑called anti‑extremism and anti‑terrorism laws to penalise legitimate expression, assembly and association. It also highlights the role of state‑sponsored disinformation, censorship and foreign information manipulation and interference.
Beyond those two countries, the statement records arrests, prosecutions and convictions of journalists in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Türkiye and Uzbekistan, with very limited space for independent journalism in Turkmenistan. It also flags Georgia’s deterioration from earlier regional good practice, citing harassment, intimidation, legislative and judicial action, and arbitrary detentions of media actors.
Across the wider OSCE area, the group notes rising hostility towards the media in public spaces and inconsistent protection by security services. In some instances, law‑enforcement officials are themselves reported to have carried out physical attacks, harassment, seizure and destruction of equipment, and arbitrary detentions. In this context, the mandate of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM) is described as crucial for early warning, rapid response and technical assistance on media laws and practices.
The statement commends the RFoM’s work on the safety of women journalists, including a decade of the Safety of Female Journalists Online (SOFJO) project. It references the SOFJO Resource Guide, the Guidelines for Monitoring Online Violence Against Female Journalists and capacity‑building programmes tailored to stakeholders, noting their contribution to a safer and more inclusive online environment.
The concluding message urges participating States to fully implement their OSCE commitments, strengthen institutional safeguards for independent journalism and support the RFoM. For governments, that means aligning national law and practice with the Helsinki, Copenhagen and MC Decision 3/18 standards, resourcing effective investigations and prosecutions for crimes against journalists, ensuring careful and proportionate use of national security laws and engaging with OSCE support for reforms and training.