One of the best journalists of the Republic of Moldova, Tudor Yashchenko, succumbed to COVID-19. On June 9, Tudor Yashchenko would have turned 73, IPN reports.

In a post on Facebook, journalist Corneilia Cozonac said Tudor Yashchenko lost the battle with the novel coronavirus in only several weeks. “He was a great man, an upright, courageous, correct and honest journalist. He was always thinking about his readers, the problems of the city, the people. He spared no effort as he didn’t have time for rest. Condolences to the family.”

Journalist Vladimir Afanasiev, former colleague of Tudor Yashchenko, on the same social networking site wrote that the press lost an untired journalist and author of documentary literature.

In a press release, the Association of Independent Press says Tudor Yashchenko was a journalist by vocation, who was devoted to the values of the profession. He was an ardent fighter for justice, an anticorruption activist and one of the best investigation journalists of Moldova. His investigations were appreciated by hundreds of thousands of readers in the country and abroad, while the professional mass media associations offered him the most prestigious journalistic awards - over 50 prizes at national professional creation contests.

Tudor Yashchenko graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Journalism Department of the State University of Moldova. In 1995, together with other mates, he founded one of the first independent papers of Moldova - the Rezina regional weekly “Cuvântul”. In 1997, he and another seven colleagues from regional and national press founded the Association of Independent Press. He served as the president of the Association for a long period of time. He was a member of the Administration Board of the Journalistic Investigations Center of Moldova and of the Union of Professional Journalists of Romania, Chisinau branch.