The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is co-organising a conference in Moscow on media freedom, the safety of journalists, disinformation and fake news together with the Russian Foreign Ministry.
OSCE’s Harlem Désir said the conference will allow “representatives of diverse Russian media” to “openly discuss media freedom," among other topics.
However, Yevhen Fedchenko, the co-founder of Stopfake.org, an internationally-acclaimed fact-checking organisation in Ukraine, tweeted that the event is a “sad story” and a “parody”.
“Do not forget to lay flowers [on Anna] Politkovskaya’s grave,” he tweeted, recalling the Russian journalist who was assassinated in Moscow in 2006.
A sad story of how @OSCE and @OSCE_RFoM become parody of int org organizing a media conference in #Russia with #Lavrov as keynote speaker on safety of journalists, how to tackle fake news and standards and ethics. Do not forget to lay flowers to Politkovskaya grave, Harlem Desir pic.twitter.com/t63ignosKL
— Yevhen Fedchenko (@yevhenfedchenko) October 22, 2019
OSCE Representative Harlem Désir, the former French Minister for European Affairs and the head of the French Socialist Party, will also host Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for a panel discussion with journalists.
OSCE is headquarted in Vienna, Austria, and was established in 1973 to work on crisis management, conflict resolution, and other issues including human rights and media freedom. Lithuania is a participating member-state.
