The experts plead for adopting a new Law on the organisation of meetings, by means of which the citizens could protest wherever they want and the authorities could not prohibit it. Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights Stefan Secareanu told the roundtable “Freedom of Assembly” on June 18 that peaceful meetings which comply with all the international requirements could be organised without the approval of the authorities. “The citizens should not ask for the consent of the local authorities to organise the protest actions, but only to inform about this intention. At the same time, the authorities should not prohibit the organisation of protests in the requested places, including in front of the Presidency, Government or Parliament. According to Secareanu, there are certain obstacles in front of the freedom of speech in the national legislation which are at variance with the international documents Moldova has signed and with the declared aspiration to join the values of the European democracy, among which the most important are the fundamental rights and freedoms. Moldova is not fully respecting the rights of the citizens to assembly, so that it should undertake urgent actions in this respect. Otherwise it could fail to get closer Europe, the cited source said. Ombudsman Iurie Perevoznic said that the situation concerning the freedom of assembly in Moldova is not good. According to him, supplementary efforts are necessary to proclaim the liberty of speech, because the Constitution stipulates these rights, but effort is necessary to implement the provisions, as well as to understand them and develop a proper legislative framework and fully respect it. The ombudsman appreciated as a positive trend the fact that there are more beforehand statements on the organisation of assemblies from citizens, public organisations, parties etc, a fact which proves that more and more members of the community understand the importance of assemblies as a form of free expression, as an indispensable element of an authentic democracy, which supposes active civic involvement. Besides passing the new Law on assemblies, the experts asked the authorities to regulate the behaviour of police officers during mettings. At the same time, they pleaded for developing the practice of organising public debates on the issues addressed during meetings in order to offer the involved parties the possibility to motivate their actions.