Moldovan media NGOs express their concern with the Moldovan central authorities restricting the access to information to foreign journalists by not accrediting them or by groundless delaying the accreditation procedure. Such a statement was published Tuesday after being signed by 7 media NGOs, Info-Prim Neo reports. The signatories refer to the case of restricting the access to information of the journalist employed by the Romanian news agency “NewsIn”, Lina Grau, to the press conference held by Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin on July 23, on reason the journalist did not have an accreditation. “NewsIn” asked the External Affairs and European Integration Ministry back on April 14 to accredit the journalist Lina Grau, who has a double citizenship of Moldova and Romania. Although the Ministry's regulation envisages that the accreditation procedure takes no more than 30 days, up to now the journalist has not got her accreditation, being thus deprived of the right to participate in the media events organized by the republic's top leadership. The fact that the dossier submitted by the journalist was accepted by the Foreign Ministry, that she was not contacted to be asked some additional documents and that up to now the Ministry has not provided any answer as to delaying the procedure, questions the way in which the legislation on accrediting foreign journalists is observed by Moldova, the declaration reads. The NGOs signal out other recent cases of the Foreign Ministry's declining to accredit foreign journalists. Thus, the media have recently written about refusing to accredit two Russian journalists and some Romanian journalists, without being told the reasons for such decisions. All these cases may be qualified as the Government's attempting to restrict the free access to information, the signatory NGOs believe. According to the regulation on accrediting foreign journalists to Moldova, approved by the Government in 1995, the accreditation may be declined only if a journalist is established guilty by a court, and he/she is told immediately the reasons of the refusal. The media NGOs urge the central authorities, especially the Foreign Ministry, to show good faith, to observe the principles of impartiality and the accreditation regulation and not to hinder the access to information to Moldovan citizens. The declaration has been signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Independent Press Association, the APEL Electronic Press Association, the Young Journalist Center, the Journalists Union, the Investigative Journalism Center and the Acces-Info Center.