Internet cafés and libraries, etc. Close co-operation betw een international organizations, NGO s and the respective countries is necessary. The first tw o could m ainly provide hardw are and training program m es to achieve technical com petence. O n the other hand, education, as an integrative and cohesive social factor, largely rem ains a task of states and governm ents. But a concerted effort is needed in order to w ork against the digital divide and for freedom of expression and m edia. In a Joint Declaration on Challenges to Freedom of Expression in the New Century issued in London on 20 Novem ber 2001 by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of O pinion and Expression, the O AS Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and by m yself w e stated that: • The right to freedom of expression applies to the Internet, just as it does to other com m unication m edia; • The international com m unity, as w ell as national governm ents, should actively prom ote universal access to the Internet, including through supporting the establishm ent of inform ation com m unication technology (ICT) centres; • States should not adopt separate rules lim iting Internet content. My O ffice w ill organize a w orkshop on the Internet in Vienna this autum n and a larger conference in 2003, and w ill form ulate som e practical guidelines. An O SCE handbook for the Internet w ill be published and an Internet Café Project w ill be planned for som e countries. First, one general concern: m any of the cases of m edia harassm ent that I report to you happen in the capitals of our participating States, except for a few cases that m y O ffice has dealt w ith, such as the fate of O lga Kitova in Belgorod, Russia, and that of Irina Khrol, an editor in Crim ea, Ukraine. That is w hy I plan to try to take a closer look at the situation in the provinces in Eastern Europe and the form er Soviet Union, focusing on m edia and corruption, political and financial pressure on the m edia, and also on a tendency of fostering ethnic intolerance in som e of the regions. Here I can m ention, for exam ple, Zadar in Croatia, w here cases of intolerance against m inorities are reported in the local m edia, especially against returning refugees. Again on Belarus: the crim inal trial of tw o journalists from the independent new spaper Pagonya resum ed on 4 June in Grodno in w estern Belarus after several postponem ents. I have m entioned this pivotal case previously in several Reports to the Perm anent Council. 182
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