Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We would like to welcome Mr. Duve back to the Permanent Council today and we would also like to join him in extending our condolences to the family and colleagues of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who was murdered by his captors while pursuing the truth. On February 27, my government announced a $5 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of those responsible for his kidnapping and murder.

Mr. Chairman, we, too, regret the budgetary limitations that hampers the work not just of our Media Freedom Representative, but of so many institutions and Missions of the OSCE. Nonetheless we will continue to assist Mr. Duve's office on projects and encourage others to do so, as well. We take positive note of his office's work with the Azeri authorities to design projects of mutual interest.

Mr. Duve mentions the case of Mr. Sharipov in Uzbekistan, the president of the Uzbek Union of Independent Journalists, who has been attacked recently on more than one occasion. To this, we would add as well the March 7 arrest of Mr. Sharipov's deputy, Oleg Sarapulov, at his home and we call on the Uzbek authorities to account for these events at the soonest possible date.

Mr. Duve also raises the sentencing of the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine NIN, Mr. Stevan Niksic, to a suspended five-year sentence for libel in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. We are equally concerned by the alleged attempt by President Djukanovic in Montenegro to suppress the printing of the entire March 9 edition of the daily newspaper in Podgorica called Publika. Neither the use of criminal libel laws nor the seizure of newspaper editions are appropriate reactions in an OSCE state to unflattering publicity.

We note that Mr. Duve reports similar problems in both Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, where publications have had difficulty in finding print facilities. We would echo these concerns and at the same time we would like to welcome the decision by the President of Kazakhstan to restore the broadcast license for TAN-TV.

Our Media Representative further notes that the successive ownership changes of NTV, TV-6 and the radio station called Moscow are troubling because they signal a decline in independent reporting available in the press to the average Russian citizen. We have consistently stated our concerns about the appearance of political motivation in the legal proceedings against NTV and TV-6. We believe that a thriving independent media, one that enjoys the fullest protection possible of the freedom of the press, is essential to Russia's future political and economic development.

On Belarus, we share Mr. Duve's assessment of the situation as "unending" and "problematic." Court cases opened against Mr. Seredich, Mr. Markevich and Mr. Mazheika are only the most recent evidence of this trend. The fact that their coverage of September's presidential election has been used as the justification for opening libel cases against these journalists raises additional questions as to the confidence we and others can place in the results of those elections.

Mr. Chairman, Freedom of Expression is a very important component of OSCE commitments and provides the foundation for both democratic growth and economic success.  We appreciate Mr. Duve's attention to the broad extent of his mandate's responsibilities and, again, call on him to keep us fully informed on the work and concerns of his office.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, let me say that the problems his office identifies are challenges to us all and we should, therefore, all stand ready to support his efforts to address them.