During 15 months, starting with October, media institutions in Moldova will be monitored daily by national and international experts. The monitoring is aimed at evaluating their involvement in combating corruption, as well as in promoting democratic governance, economic transparency and Government’s responsibility in combating corruption. The project was launched on Wednesday, September 26, and will be carried out by the Independent Journalism Centre (CIJ). CIJ director Corina Cepoi said that the monitoring will be carried out as part of the project “Reflecting Corruption in Mass-Media”, included in the series of activities of Moldova’s Threshold Program component Strengthening the Monitoring Capacity of Civil Society. The goal of this project is to improve the quality of investigative journalism and to make efficient the efforts for combating corruption in governmental or non-governmental structures. Within the monitoring process, the experts will analyze the way mass-media covers corruption and the activities for combating this phenomenon. The journalists will be encouraged to respect quality journalism standards. The list suggested for monitoring includes the TV stations Moldova 1 and NIT, radio stations Antena C and Vocea Basarabiei, newspapers “Timpul de dimineata”, “Jurnal de Chisinau”, “Ziarul de Garda”, “Moldova Suverana”, “Nezavisimaia Moldova” and others. The operators which will monitor the press will be trained by an expert team, says Corina Cepoi. One of the experts, Rastislav Kuzel, president of the Civil Association MEMO-98 from Slovakia, stated that thanks to journalists, some major corruption cases in Slovakia have been revealed. He hopes that Moldovan journalists will prove to be concerned about the corruption cases and will get involved in curbing the phenomenon. Strengthening the Monitoring Capacity of Civil Society in Moldova project is financed by the US Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation and is administered by the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The program is implemented by the Academy for Education Development (AED) with the technical support of the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX). The project budget administered by CIJ totals 75 thousand USD.