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| - The OSCE's mandate as media defender is threatened with paralysis with some member countries refusing to extend the current holder's term, officials told AFP this week, at a time when the coronavirus crisis has already put increasing pressure on press freedom. Harlem Desir was appointed in 2017 as freedom-of-the-media representative, one of the security body's four top roles, after an unprecedented leadership crisis with months of squabbling between member states. His three-year mandate at the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expires on July 18 and was expected to be renewed for a second term as has been the case since the post was created in 1997. But Azerbaijan and Tajikistan have expressed their opposition, using their veto powers in June, said a diplomat who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity. "Some states do not accept our role and forget that they themselves gave the representative for media freedom the mandate to intervene in the event of a violation," Desir told AFP on Friday without naming the states. "Several countries believe that it is by pressure on the institution and not by reforming their own policies that they can escape their responsibilities." The anonymous diplomat, who is from an OSCE member state, said following the Azerbaijan and Tajikistan opposition, Russia and Turkey may now want to seek candidacies from areas under their influence. But Western countries would reject this -- after mass incarcerations of journalists following a failed coup in 2016 in Turkey and accusations against Moscow of spreading false news -- leading to a deadlock, the diplomat said. For Desir, his post is "unique within international organisations, no other institution having a mandate as strong as ours". "What is at stake is the fact that in this organisation, states cooperate on security issues but also on human rights and freedom of the media," the 60-year-old former French senior government official said. The post consists of helping persecuted journalists and ensuring that the OSCE's 57 member countries in Europe, Central Asia and North America respect their democratic commitments. In a report released late Thursday, Desir said his team had carried out 1,150 interventions in 40 states in three years, making 80 trips, speaking out for the rights of journalists and providing other help. "Threats to media freedom and the work of journalists are on the rise," Desir said in a statement accompanying the report. It added the new coronavirus pandemic had "aggravated" the danger faced by the media including economic losses, with many journalists finding themselves jobless, calling it a "democratic emergency". bg/jza/pvh
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