International Federation of Journalists asks Moldovan Government to observe fundamental standards of press freedom The International Federation of Journalists asks the Moldovan Government to respect the fundamental freedoms of media, after policemen attacked media quarters. According to the IFJ secretary general, Aidan White, the fundamental standards of the freedom of the media and the rule of law are breeched when the police raids media quarters without search warrants. “We ask for a pertinent explanation for the facts having taken place. Moldova does not have so many proofs of exerting the freedom of the press, and this but confirms there is little hope for the situation to better. It's even more alarming that it happens in the middle of an electoral campaign,” Aidan White states. The IFJ is informed that in the morning of February 25, 2009, a team of Chisinau policemen searched the quarters of Albasat TV from Nisporeni, a member of Euronova Media Group. The only explanation produced by the police was “with the purpose to make a control.” The TV station's director Efim Bardan was threatened after he asked the policemen to present a warrant and give explanations. In response, the policemen warned him they were going to call for the assault squad if he did not allow them in, and the director was made to open the door. In the quarters, the police asked the personnel to present documents. Accountant Mihai Pintilie and editor Natalia Pintilie were arrested for several hours. The policemen searched the offices, lifted computers and left the quarters several hours later without giving any explanations. An official of the Interior Minister later supported the policemen's action considering perfectly legal. She also said the police's intervention came after a request from a local. The IFJ fully supports the protests of its affiliated member, the Journalists Union from Moldova, and requests a thorough investigation into the incident, to fund out who is responsible for this “gross violation of the media's freedom.”