OSCE media watchdog: Trump’s comments harm the media’s role

VIENNA – The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says its media freedom representative has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about the media in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The OSCE says Harlem Desir’s letter cites Trump at an Aug. 22 rally in Phoenix, Arizona as calling the media “truly dishonest,” ”fake,” ”bad” and “crooked.”

It quotes Desir on Monday as urging the U.S. administration “to refrain from delivering such attacks on the media.” He says Trump’s comments “degrade the essential role the media plays in every democratic society, holding governments to account.”

Desir acts as a media watchdog in the OSCE region, which counts the United States among its 57 member states and encompasses Europe, Russia and much of Central Asia.