[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 12, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S5367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     FREE MEDIA IN THE OSCE REGION

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, earlier this month we marked World Press 
Freedom Day, a timely opportunity to draw attention to the plight of 
journalists and others involved in the press and media in the OSCE--
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe--region. While all 
56 OSCE countries have accepted specific commitments on media and 
working conditions for journalists, the difficulty remains translating 
words on paper into deeds in practice. Today, many courageous 
journalists are working under tremendously difficult conditions, often 
at great personal risk, with some paying the ultimate price for their 
journalistic pursuits.
  According to the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, 
nearly a dozen journalists and their colleagues have been killed in the 
OSCE region since last year's observance. Among those slain in Russia 
were Anastasiya Baburova, of Novaya Gazeta; Shafig Amrakhov, of RIA 51; 
Telman Alishaya, of TV-Chirkei; and Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the 
popular Web site Ingushetiya, who was killed while in police custody. 
Scores of journalists have been murdered in Russia alone since the 
early 1990s.
  Others slain over the past 12 months included Ivo Pukanic and Niko 
Franjic, both of Nacional, in Croatia; and freelance journalists 
Alexander Klimchuk and Grigol Chikhladze, with Caucasus Images, as well 
as Dutch RLT TV veteran cameraman Stan Storimans, killed in the 
conflict zone during the war in Georgia last August. Besides war 
correspondents, victims often include investigative journalists 
covering politics, corruption, and human rights.
  We are approaching the fifth anniversary of the slaying of American 
journalist Paul Klebnikov in Moscow. I call upon the Russian 
authorities to bring to justice all of those responsible in any way for 
his murder.
  As chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I note the vital work 
undertaken by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos 
Haraszti, a tireless advocate for freedom of expression and the 
courageous journalists who pursue their profession, sometimes at great 
personal risk. The reports of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the 
Media are available at: http://www.osce.org/fom/. Freedom of 
expression, free media, and information has been selected as a special 
focus topic for the OSCE's annual Human Dimension Implementation 
Meeting, scheduled to be held in Warsaw, Poland, this fall.

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