The Kazakh Chair-in-Office has censored the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's statement on their visit to imprisoned human rights advocate Evgeny Zhovtis, the OSCE PA reported in their bulletin today.
"Unfortunately, the Kazakh Chairmanship instructed the OSCE press office in Vienna not to publish the OSCE PA press release about Mr. Mecacci’s visit on the OSCE website," says today's issue of News From Copenhagen, the newsletter of OSCE PA, in a description of a the MPs' trip to Ust-Kamenogorsk -- which is as far away as it sounds.
Of course, nothing is censored on the Internet for long really; here it is: Download News from Copenhagen 346.
No, it's more about "mindshare".
Likely more people visit the web pages of osce.org than they visit the subset of OSCE PA pages or get the parliamentary bulletin via email.
Actually, when you *do* visit oscepa.org you start to see more of the problem here. Yes, there's a story about the OSCE PA visiting Zhovtis with a dateline of May 13. But there's nothing on the osce.pa website telling us in turn that the Kazakh chair tried to block their story from the OSCE website. And of course, there should be, if OSCE PA is to have any credibility -- and if this story is to get in Google, where it can't get if it is trapped in a PDF emailed bulletin.
Instead, OSCE PA sends around a newsletter to its distribution list, in which they note the "unfortunate" instruction from the Kazakh Chair-in-Office.
The visit of the OSCE PA to the top human rights activist in the country of the Chair-in-Office, is, of course big news, and normal news judgement would put it in the main feed of stories about all things OSCE at the OSCE Press Centre. Obviously the Kazakh chair wanted to keep it out of that more visible news feed.
Of course, relations between OSCE PA and central command can be testy -- news from OSCE PA isn't always news at the Centre, or comes with a fat disclaimer, like this one calling for a "constructive political process" in Kyrgyzstan.
"The following is a press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The views expressed in this press release do not necessarily reflect those of the OSCE Chairmanship, nor of all OSCE participating States.
So, given that practice of fronting releases from OSCE PA with disclaimers at the OSCE Press Centre, why not let the Zhovtis piece run?
One could ask questions about this forever in the halls of power at OSCE, dispersed as they are, but there's a bigger question to be asked here:
Hey, if the Kazakh chair could block a story like the one about Zhovtis, what other stories is he blocking? Anyone?
Indeed, it seems peculiar that the May 17 OSCE PA release on Kyrgyzstan following a visit to Bishkek had to be run with a disclaimer, when all it said was innocuous stuff like this:
"The quick action by the provisional government to remedy errors of the past through creating a new constitution is important. Now it is up to all of the people of Kyrgyzstan to maintain a constructive dialogue among political forces and civil society as this process moves forward. While maintaining Kyrgyzstan's respect for political pluralism, I hope that all forces can unite and move forward in restoring stability and democracy," said OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Joao Soares, who leads the delegation."
My problem with this statement is that it isn't clear if OSCE PA means to include Bakiyev as one of the forces one must "reconcile" with -- a notion that could easily creep in, given that OSCE PA contains bad actors like fake Belarusian parliamentarians and not-really-freely-elected Russian MPs. Even so, a statement as mild as one calling for "constructive dialogue," an OSCE staple, shouldn't have to get a disclaimer like that.
Text of OSCE PA Newsletter:
OSCE PA’s Mecacci meets imprisoned human rights activist Yevgeny Zhovtis Matteo Mecacci, Rapporteur of the OSCE PA’s General Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, met last week with Kazakh human rights advocate Yevgeny Zhovtis, serving a four-year sentence in a prison colony in
Ust-Kamenogorsk.
Mr. Zhovtis, director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, was sentenced to four years in prison following a fatal traffi c accident last year. Domestic legal experts and international observers at the trial reported numerous procedural violations, and questioned
whether he was given adequate ability to mount a defence.
“Mr. Zhovtis was in good condition but disappointed in the Supreme Court’s refusal to recognize the lack of fairness in the legal proceedings. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that institutions can fail to deliver a fair and proportionate judgment in a situation that to independent observers does not
entail criminal responsibility,” said Mr. Mecacci.
Unfortunately, the Kazakh Chairmanship instructed the OSCE press office in Vienna not to publish the OSCE PA press release about Mr. Mecacci’s visit on the OSCE website
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