The OSCE participating States have made clear that their increased efforts to combat terrorism will not affect their commitments on religious freedom. The Bucharest Ministerial
Declaration (2001), for example, stated that “the struggle against terrorism is not a war
against religions”, while the Bucharest Ministerial Decision on Combating Terrorism reiterated that efforts to combat terrorism must fully respect human rights. The participating
States firmly rejected “identification of terrorism with any nationality or religion”.42
Alleged violations of freedom of religion or belief are frequently raised at OSCE Human
Dimension Meetings. Individual complaints of violations of the right to freedom of conscience, religion, or belief are a legitimate issue to be followed up by OSCE field missions.
In addition to the measures set out in Part III, OSCE field operations receiving complaints
of religious-freedom violations can consider requesting that the ODIHR provide assistance
through its Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Such assistance
could include advice, provision of an expert to discuss religious-freedom issues with the
host government, or the development of projects to improve respect for religious freedom.43
5.8
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, MEDIA, AND INFORMATION
OSCE participating States have adopted the commitment that “everyone will have the right
to freedom of expression including the right to communication. This right will include
freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers”.44 In this field, OSCE participating
States have also committed themselves:
To respect freedom of the press and media, including the right of the media to collect,
report, and disseminate information, news, and opinions;
Not to discriminate against independent media with respect to access to information,
material, and facilities;
To take no measures aimed at barring journalists from the legitimate exercise of their
profession;
Not to impose limitations on access to, and use of, means of reproducing documents
of any kind.
42 For more on OSCE commitments in connection with terrorism, see Porto Ministerial 2002, Decision No. 1, Imple-
menting the OSCE Commitments and Activities on Combating Terrorism and the OSCE Charter on Preventing and
Combating Terrorism, both available on the OSCE website at http://www.osce.org.
43 More information can be found on the ODIHR website at http://www.osce.org/odihr.
44 Copenhagen Document, Paragraph 9.1.
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