The government no longer has the right to invoke different political or other types of crises for delaying the adoption of legal acts and their implementation with the aim of reforming the mass media. The reformation of the public broadcasting sector started in 2010 must be finished, while such institutions as the Broadcasting Coordination Council and the Supervisory Board must be depoliticized. The Association of Independent Press (API) and the Independent Journalism Center made public a memorandum with such demands in a news conference at IPN, on the occasion of the Press Freedom Days in Moldova.
Independent Journalism Center executive director Nadine Gogu said that a number of cases of verbal aggression against Moldovan journalists have been reported during a year – between May 3, 2013 and May 3, 2014. Some of the journalists were even threatened with death. There were also cases when the journalists were physically abused or their access to public events was hampered.
According to Nadine Gogu, both the administration of Parliament and the leaders of factions promised they will find solutions to allow the press to return to the assembly hall of Parliament, but these promises haven’t been fulfilled. Furthermore, a bill providing that the Government’s meetings will no longer be broadcast live was passed in the first reading. If it is adopted in the final reading, it will affect decisional transparency. In the period, there were adopted no laws to improve the situation in the field and no agreement was reached to improve media ownership transparency.
API executive director Petru Macovei said that for real press freedom to be ensured in accordance with the principles of an open and democratic society and the international norms, the Moldovan authorities must make effort to achieve the objectives set in the government program.
The government is also asked to react and punish those to blame for the cases of aggression against journalists and to improve the legal framework on the mass media. In this connection, the media NGOs ask immediately adopting the bill with amendments to the Broadcasting Code so as to ensure media ownership transparency and then passing the new Broadcasting Code.
Petru Macovei added that measures should be taken to combat the monopolization of the mass media as this endangers media pluralism and to make sure that the Broadcasting Coordination Council is depoliticized for good. National programs and policies should be implemented to support the development of independent media and the national production in the Romanian language.
