A number of public associations condemn the actions of the organizers of the protest staged in front of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) on October 26. In a statement, these note that the actions went beyond the law and were taken with the bad intention of blocking the public institution, IPN reports.

The statement disseminated by Promo-LEX Association says that during the protest, a group of persons tried to pitch tents on the stairs in front of the entrance doors of the PGO. The group behaved aggressively and didn’t react to the police’s call not to block the building. The actions taken by the organizers seemed like encouragement of the behavior of the aggressive persons and they didn’t take measures to maintain public order and to cooperate with the law.

The signatories noted that there was sufficient space in front of the PGO for holding the demonstration in a peaceful way. The actions taken by the group of aggressive persons seemed to encourage the degeneration of the peaceful rally. “After the protest, it became known that a number of journalists were threatened with physical harassment if they broadcasted images from the protest. Under the law on assembly, the access of the press and any other person who records the event cannot be limited. Moreover, we will mention the special protection enjoyed by journalists when they broadcast information from the venue of public rallies and the penal sanctions for the intimidation and limitation of the work of these,” reads the statement.

The signatories said the local public authorities are obliged to help the organizers and to decide to stop the protest or disperse the crowd when necessary. If a representative of the public authorities does not attend such rallies, this shows the local public authorities do not have ill and the police should intervene to maintain public order in such a case

The signatories call on the organizers of demonstrations, representatives of the local public authorities and the police to cooperate so that the rallies are peaceful and civilized. They also call on the police and the prosecution bodies to investigate the allegations about the mistreatment of journalists.

The statement was signed by Amnesty International Moldova, the Center for Policies and Reforms, Promo-LEX Association and the Human Rights Embassy.