The period of 15 workdays during which the public institutions can provide the representatives of the mass media with information, which is stipulated in the law on access to information, is exaggerated, consider media professionals. The reduction of this period to five days should be the immediate priority of the authorities. The practice of transmitting responses through letters should be eliminated so that this is done online, through email, for example. The subject was discussed in a roundtable meeting staged by the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau, IPN reports.
According to Eugeniu Rybka, chairman of the Association of Independent Press (API), co-author of the Code of Audiovisual Media Services, the 15-day period for providing information of public interest that is requested by journalists is exaggerated, especially because the whole information is now available in computers and it is easier to prepare responses. Priority should be given to the creation of a very clear mechanism that would oblige public institutions to post the largest part of the information on websites so that the journalists experience only the problem of finding the information they need inside the large volume of available information.
According to Eugeniu Rybka, the right of access to information is not properly protected. The Council of Europe’s Convention provides for direct access and efficient protection. This is stipulated in the national legislation too, but the mechanism does not work. The journalists whose right of access to information is limited can go to court, but these do not have time to lose it in court and these provisions should be reviewed.
The API chairman suggested amending the law on access to information so that this clearly stipulates information providers as most of the state-run enterprises founded on public funds ignore the legislation in the field and interpret the provisions as they want. Also, efficient regulations should be designed to delimit the information of public interest in the field of personal data. Efficient out-of-court challenging procedures, efficient legislation implementation monitoring mechanisms and efficient penalties are needed.
According to William Massolin, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau, the freedom of the press and the media is realized together with the access to information and the freedom of expression. In Moldova, national and international organizations identified particular restrictions related to the access to information, this being one of the problems faced by journalists. The culture of access to official documents enables the citizens to form an opinion about society in which they live and about the authorities that govern them. The access to information that is also stipulated by the Council of Europe’s Convention is an important element for democracy and for transparency in public administration.
Nadine Gogu, director of the Independent Journalism Center, noted the communication with state institutions is inappropriate and journalists and civil society report related problems. Also, the legislation is outdated and is not appropriately applied. This prevents the journalists from transmitting accurate information swiftly. The functionaries should be made to realize that if they do not obey the law, they will be penalized. Civil society worked out relevant bills that will contribute to improving things if they are adopted. But regular monitoring of the implementation is needed.
According to Alina Radu, director of the weekly investigation journal “Ziarul de Gardă”, the authorities do not realize the needs of journalists. They should realize that the information belongs to the citizens and the authorities only facilitate the people’s access to information. Any reporter should have access to the registers that contain personal information that is useful to investigative journalists and not only. There are groups of journalists who do public interest work with complete responsibility and there are criteria for assessing media outlets and transparency criteria and there is a code of ethics. Therefore, there is no reason for not ensuring the journalists’ access to data.
