Round Table on Corruption and Journalists to be held in Prague, 4 December 2000

VIENNA, 4 December 2000 - Experienced professional journalists from Eastern and Western Europe and experts are meeting on 4 December 2000 in Prague for a one-day round table organized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

Harassment, threats and libel charges on the one hand, offerings of bribes or subsidies on the other, as well as censorship by killing as a dramatic method of silencing investigative journalists, are some of the dangers and challenges journalists face when combating corruption. This issue needs to be urgently debated.

The round table is dedicated to the memory of Veronika Guerin, journalist with Irish Independent, murdered in 1996 for her investigations into the dealings of the Dublin Mafia and to Larisa Yudina, Russian journalist killed for her investigative work in the Kalmikiya province, Russia.

Among the contributors to the round table are Larissa Kislinskaja, Russian investigative journalist writing for the monthly newspaper Soversenno Sekretno, who reports on corruption in the field of privatization of state property, Liam Collins, deputy news editor of Irish Independent, whose texts evoked parliamentary corruption investigations in the Irish banking sector, and Hans Leyendecker, journalist from Germany, famous for his reporting on corruption in the political scene.

For information, contact the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Kärntner Ring 5-7, Top 14, 2.DG, A - 1010 Vienna, telephone: +43-1-512 21 45-0; fax: +43-1-512 21 45-9; e-mail: [email protected]