Human rights compatible with security, OSCE media freedom representatives tells Tunis meeting participants

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović, told participants on at an Internet freedom conference in Tunis on 17 June 2013 that cyber security and human rights can go hand-in-glove and not be considered as competing values.

Mijatović was speaking at the third Freedom Online conference in Tunis on a panel on cyber security and human rights.

“By pitting human rights concerns and security issues against each other we run the risk that both will be conquered,” she said. “We might find ourselves with no security and no rights, including no freedom of expression and no freedom of the media. Consequently all measures to increase security must be accompanied by meaningful counterweights that protect free speech and free media. We must have effective and transparent mechanisms for civilian oversight of new security measures.”

Mijatović noted the unique role of the OSCE and its multidimensional approach to security, which includes human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“We must remember that human rights, in particular freedom of expression and freedom of the media, though they may be temporarily suppressed, will always rebound and that there is no security without the free flow of information,” she said.