Media NGOs have expressed their concern and indignation at the April 27 decision of the Chisinau Municipal Council to deny Radio Chisinau an extension of the use of the toponym in its name. They issued a statement to ask the Council to reconsider.

A subsidiary of Radio Romania, Radio Chisinau asked for the extension in December 2021, after receiving the right to use the toponym at its inauguration in 2011.

Despite a formal endorsement from the Council’s committee for local heritage, a majority of councilors attending the April 27 meeting voted otherwise. Shor Party councilor Valeri Klimenko said that the station should pay special fees for using the name of the city.

In its response, Radio Chisinau underlined that SC Pajura Albă SRL, the company operating the station’s frequencies, has paid “absolutely all local and national taxes and fees in time and in full”.

The media NGOs consider that the Council’s decision “illegally restricts the rights and freedoms of journalists and seriously affects the right to free information of citizens”.

The signatory organizations plead before the Chisinau Municipal Council to reconsider its decision of April 27 regarding the use of the toponym “Chisinau” in the name of Radio Chisinau and request the immediate intervention of the respective territorial office of the State Chancellery to annul the decision.

The signatories of the declaration include the Electronic Press Association, the Independent Press Association, the Center for Journalistic Investigations, the Center for Independent Journalism, the Media-Guard Association, RISE Moldova, the Association of Environmental and Ecological Tourism Journalists, the Press Freedom Committee and the Access-Info Center.

Launched in December 2011, Radio Chisinau is considered to be successor to Romania’s first ever regional radio station, called Radio Basarabia and opened in 1939 in Chisinau.