Human Rights That Are Applicable to All pa rt II (32) (…) Persons belonging to national minorities have the right freely to express, preserve and develop their ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity and to maintain and develop their culture in all its aspects, free of any attempts at assimilation against their will. Budapest 1994 (Decisions: VIII. The Human Dimension) 36. The participating States reaffirm that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and a basic component of a democratic society. Istanbul 1999 (Charter for European Security: III. Our Common Response) 26. We reaffirm the importance of (…) the free flow of information as well as the public’s access to information. We commit ourselves to take all necessary steps to ensure the basic conditions for (…) unimpeded transborder and intra-State flow of information (…) B. Media Freedom and Working Conditions for Journalists See also: á Part I. 2.3.4 C: The Representative on Freedom of the Media Helsinki 1975 (Co-operation in Humanitarian and Other Fields) (…) Recognizing the importance of the dissemination of information from the other participating States and of a better acquaintance with such information, Emphasizing therefore the essential and influential role of the press, radio, television, cinema and news agencies and of the journalists working in these fields, Make it their aim to facilitate the freer and wider dissemination of information of all kinds, to encourage co-operation in the field of information and the exchange of information with other countries, and. to improve the conditions under which journalists from one participating State exercise their profession in another participating State, and Express their intention in particular: (a) Improvement of the Circulation of, Access to, and Exchange of Information (…) (ii) Printed Information - To facilitate the improvement of the dissemination, on their territory, of newspapers and printed publications, periodical and non-periodical, from the other participating States. (…) 114 OSCE Human Dimension Commitments