The cover is a drawing entitled Des Schreibers Hand (The Writer’s Hand) by the German author and Nobel prize laureate (1999) Günter Grass. He has kindly let our Office use this as a label for publications of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. The drawing was created in the context of Grass’s novel Das Treffen in Telgte, dealing with literary authors at the time of the Thirty Years War. © 2005 Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media Kärntner Ring 5-7, Top 14, 2. DG, A-1010 Vienna Telephone: +43-1 512 21 450 Telefax: +43-1 512 21 459 E-mail: [email protected] www.osce.org/fom The views expressed in this publication represent those of the authors and contributors and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Design: WerkstattKrystianBieniek, Vienna Printed in Austria REPRESENTATIVE ON FREEDOM OF THE MEDIA Freedom and Responsibility Yearbook 2004 Vienna 2005 Contents Solomon Passy Preface 9 Miklós Haraszti Introduction 11 I. Freedom of Information Peter Noorlander Freedom of Information and the Media 17 Laszlo Majtenyi Freedom of Information – Experiences from Eastern Europe 29 II. Freedom of the Media on the Internet Arnaud Amouroux and Christian Möller 2004 – The Internet Year for the RFOM 45 Morris Lipson In the Name of Protecting Freedom of Expression: Rejecting the Wrong Rule for Liability for Internet Content 53 Cathy Wing An Introduction to Internet Literacy 63 Gus Hosein Open Society and the Internet: Future Prospects and Aspirations 77 III. Libel and Defamation Laws Miklós Haraszti and Ilia Dohel Libel and Insult Laws: Where We Stand and What We Would Like to Achieve 101 Toby Mendel The Case against Criminal Defamation Laws 105 Ronald Koven How Dangerous Archaic Insult Laws Can Be 113 IV. Views and Commentaries Dardan Gashi The Media Situation in Kosovo 119 Media Voices Speak Out about Libel and Freedom of Information in Central Asia 125 Extracts from the First South Caucasus Media Conference 133 Miklós Haraszti “Berlin Speech” at the Conference on Anti-Semitism 141 V. Overview – What We Have Done Mandate of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media 147 Reports and Statements to the OSCE Permanent Council and other OSCE fora by Freimut Duve • Statement on Russia, Ireland and Azerbaijan at the Permanent Council of 23 October 2003 (Under Current Issues) 151 • Regular Report to the Permanent Council of 11 December 2003 by Freimut Duve 153 • Speaking notes for Jutta Wolke, the Acting Head of Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, for the Meeting of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Vienna on 19-20 February 2004 160 by Miklós Haraszti • Inaugural Statement at the Meeting of the Permanent Council of 11 March 2004 by Miklós Haraszti 163 • Statement on Armenia at the Permanent Council of 1 April 2004 (Under Current Issues) 165 • Statement on the March 2004 Kosovo Events at the Permanent Council of 22 April 2004 (Under Current Issues) 166 • Report on the Role of the Media in the March 2004 Events in Kosovo 168 • Non-paper on Anti-Semitism in the Media for the Berlin Conference on Anti-Semitism, 29 April 2004 188 • Regular Report to the Permanent Council of 8 June 2004 193 • Assessment Visit to Ukraine: Observations and Recommendations 200 • Statement on Belarus at the Permanent Council of 9 September 2004 (Under Current Issues) 213 • Regular Report to the Permanent Council of 16 September 2004 215 • Report on Russian Media Coverage of the Beslan Tragedy: Access to Information and Journalists’ Working Conditions 223 • Media Freedom Violations in Belarus in 2004 238 • Annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) Speaking Points, Warsaw 6 October 2004 249 • Regular Report to the Permanent Council of 16 December 2004 254 • Assessment Visit to Moldova: Observations and Recommendations 266 Joint Declaration by OSCE, UN and OAS International Mechanisms for Promoting Freedom of Expression, 6 December 2004 279 Projects 2004 • Guaranteeing Media Freedom on the Internet Expert Seminar, 30 June 2004, Vienna 283 “The Recipes”, Recommendations of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media from the Amsterdam Internet Conference, 27–28 August 2004 284 • Sixth Central Asian Media Conference 23-24 September, Dushanbe Dushanbe Declaration on Libel and Freedom of Information 294 • First South Caucasus Media Conference 25-26 October, Tbilisi The Tbilisi Declaration on Libel and Freedom of Information 296 • Legal Assistance in 2004 300 • Libel and Insult Laws: A Matrix on Where We Stand and What We Would Like to Achieve June 2004 – March 2005 301 Visits and Interventions in 2004 303 Publications 315 Media NGOs in the OSCE Region 318 The Authors 321 Solomon Passy Preface There was never any doubt that media are an inseparable part of our daily routine. By raising public awareness, questioning beliefs and comprehensions, casting light on uncertainties, serving as a multicultural forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions, media have proven themselves to be an influential constituent and focal tool of democracy – the very essence of the contemporary connotation of knowledge and freedom. It takes years, decades, sometimes even centuries for a society to live up to the liberties and responsibilities of democ- racy. It comes as no surprise that such processes are some- times left incomplete, due to the fact that, from both a politi- cal and social point of view, patience and unwavering deter- mination are often not enough. Success is seldom the result when people are deprived of their basic human right, namely the freedom of expression. The revolutionary means of information exchange have influ- enced and therefore moulded our world to a great extent. The very nature of contemporary communications provides unlimited possibilities in terms of communicating ideas and opinions to continents, regions, countries, societies, but most importantly – to the individual. With great power comes great responsibility. The sky is the limit, people often say, but how do we handle that? On the one hand freedom of expres- sion and the media must not be limited. We have to be care- ful not to over-regulate the free exchange of ideas and infor- mation. And yet, we must not allow abuse by those who wish to spread hatred and intolerance. The responsibilities, evoked by the freedom of media, must be shouldered by all of SOLOMON PASSY 9 us – by governments, industry, NGOs, societies – at both a national and an international level. The contemporary stan- dards in the media must be flexible in order to respect different approaches, but also stern enough to effectively oppose attempts of abuse and misconduct. To a certain extent the best approach is self-regulation through developing codes of conduct. However, I am not sug- gesting that there is no need for clear moral guidelines about how media should serve society and, most of all, perform their paramount duties of promoting, supporting and protecting democracy in all its forms. In that respect, we share a deep commitment to the core OSCE principles, but we also have to acknowledge that freedom does not suggest an unobstructed right to spread hatred, lies and abuse, which could harm peo- ple and even destabilize our societies. The OSCE has always paid great attention to the media and has launched a number of programmes aiming to estab- lish and develop free and independent media outlets. Educa- tion with the focus on human rights stood high on the agenda of the Bulgarian Chairmanship in 2004 and we have to bear in mind that media have a very significant role in this respect. With power and freedom comes great responsibility and the media must also assume their fair share by performing their duties in favour of human rights, fundamental freedoms, and long-term democratic society interests. I avail myself of this opportunity to wish the OSCE Repre- sentative on Freedom of the Media Miklós Haraszti the best of fortune and success in his essential endeavour to preserve and further develop what the OSCE has achieved in terms of free- dom of expression, and its corollary, freedom of the media. Dr. Solomon Passy is Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria and was Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE in 2004. 10 PREFACE Miklós Haraszti Introduction In March 2004, I was appointed OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media by the 55 participating States. I replaced the founder of this Office, Mr. Freimut Duve of Ger- many, who fought censorship for many years. I inherited an institution that is dedicated to promoting freedom of expression and which has developed a unique sys- tem of monitoring press freedom violations. While I took on board this early warning system, I was eager to use the infor- mation we obtained to advise our participating States on how to better comply with the free speech standards to which they have all committed themselves, uniquely among the regional security organizations of the world. During my first year of tenure, I issued assessment reports, mostly after personally visiting several countries. We prepared our reports not in order to point a finger at the States concerned, but to offer practical, clear and future-oriented rec- ommendations on how to improve the situation and the laws. We did not consider any of the participating States to be exempt from deficiencies. In fact, we tried to provide the governments of the coun- tries where we intervened or visited with tips on how to make their life easier. Let’s face it: restricting press freedom does not make the political situation more secure; on the contrary, it leads to instability and sometimes conflict.