Media freedom and democracy are integral to security, says latest report from OSCE Media Freedom Representative

VIENNA, 18 July 2024 – Media freedom and democracy improve human security and enhance international and domestic peace. This is the clear empirical conclusion of a new report by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), Teresa Ribeiro, authored by the research team at the Varieties of Democracies Institute.

“Media freedom is an essential part of human security. Without it, our lives and our societies are less safe,” said Ribeiro during the launch-event, emphasizing the OSCE’s commitment to independent media as an integral part of the organization’s comprehensive agenda for peace and security.

A key finding of the report is that free media reduce the risk of international armed conflict both by putting security concerns on the public and political agendas, and by providing the public with accurate and timely information about the risks, realities and horrors of armed conflict.

The report was released at an event for delegations from the OSCE’s participating States and prominent civil society experts, who discussed the report’s findings and further explored the interconnections and interdependence of media freedom, democracy, and security.

“Media freedom as we understand it foresees accountability of the media, but today we went from a public information ecosystem where you can hold the gatekeepers accountable to one where the flow of information is polluted by lies and disinformation,” said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa during the event.

Tacan Ildem, the Chair of the Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies added that “disinformation challenges our democracies and our security and we need to build societal resilience against disinformation. The need to enact and implement regulatory frameworks to limit disinformation cannot lead government to limit media freedom.”

The Executive Director of Article 19, Quinn McKew, underscored that "One of the defining challenges we face is the battle for narrative control. Big tech has put in place mechanisms that allow information to flourish or die. Is the quality of the information space directly related to the quality of democracy and security?"

"In almost every piece of legislation that we analyze, there is this purported dichotomy between media freedom and national security. We have been challenging the existence of this phenomena and explaining how these two concepts really feed each other," noted Can Yeginsu, Deputy Chair of the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom at Media Freedom Coalition.  

Director Harvard Hegre of the Violence & Impacts Early Warning System at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo emphasized that "We need transparency to hold political leaders accountable. A popular belief is that war is due to miscalculation and misunderstanding and erroneous assumptions about the opponent. Media freedom is important to give good information to all players."

The report, commissioned by the OSCE RFoM, is part of a project dedicated to strategic dialogues on the interdependency of media freedom, democracy and security and builds on the OSCE RFoM’s 25th anniversary report “Can there be security without media freedom?”.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media observes media developments in all 57 OSCE participating States. She provides early warning on violations of freedom of expression and media freedom and promotes full compliance with OSCE media freedom commitments. Learn more at www.osce.org/fom, Twitter: @OSCE_RFoM and on www.facebook.com/osce.rfom