OSCE urges "end to information war and manipulation"

OSCE urges "end to information war and manipulation"

VIENNA -- OSCE representative on freedom of the media has called on all participating states to "stop the information war and the manipulation with media."

In a statement issued on Thursday, Dunja Mijatović noted that recently politicians, lawmakers and regulators in Ukraine expressed concern about the influence of Russian television on information security or other national interests, and "often followed by actions that effectively suspend or ban all or some programs produced in Russia."

"In a similar development, de facto authorities in Crimea several weeks ago abruptly and brutally switched off almost all Ukrainian television channels and replaced them with channels originating from the Russian Federation," she said.

Summarizing her position "on the issue as a whole," the OSCE official noted that the organization's participating states, via the Helsinki Act, "agreed to be bound by and fulfill their obligations as set forth in the international declarations and agreements in the area of free expression, including international agreements on human rights."

The statement quoted Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that “everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression," which includes "freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.”

Mijatović noted another provision of the ICCPR - "that this right carries special duties and responsibilities. It, therefore, may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be ones that are clearly spelled...