Moldova faces a problem in ensuring the protection of its information area. The misinformation is not accidental, but is strategically planned by less benevolent players. Such opinions were stated in discussions staged by the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” and Radio Free Europe, IPN reports.
The head of the Administrative Board of “Viitorul” Igor Munteanu said the mission and provocation reside in the erecting of legal and deontological barriers on the path of the national and foreign broadcasters that transmit propagandistic programs. “It is important that the state should protect its people from propaganda and should radically review the conditions in which important media outlets can be owned by anonymous owners that are residents of offshore areas,” he stated.
Director of the Moldova Service of Radio Free Europe Oana Serafim said it is the duty of the journalists to always tell the truth. The big challenge for journalists is to verify news from three independent sources, but it happens that news based on rumors, taken from social networking sites, are published without checking their accuracy, either out of lack of time or of lack of will. “The Russian propaganda is very active, while Russia is an authoritarian regime that does not look in its own court, but in the court of the neighbors. On the other hand, we must understand that democracy is not perfect, while the European integration will not bring happiness overnight. But the people should be told these things,” she stated.
Martha Bayles, U.S. writer, arts critic for the Wall Street Journal and a regular contributor to Weekly Standard, said the truth is relative and the propaganda creates confusion. The people not always distinguish between truth and untruth. The new social-media technologies, even if they are very important, often become instruments of manipulation.
Alina Radu, director of the newspaper “Ziarul de Garda”, considers Moldova’s problem resides in the broadcasting of Russian TV channels. “We have a big dilemma – to ban or not to ban the Russia channels and media products? Practically all the EaP member states stopped broadcasting Russian products, but we continue to do this,” she stated.
Victoria Bucataru, programs coordinator at the Foreign Policy Association, underlined the danger of a too great concentration of the press in the Russian language, saying this fact affects the national integrity and linguistic project. These abundant media pressure and influence means represent a form of public manipulation. The national media space is full of Russian programs that do not speak at all about the country in which the consumers of these programs are (Moldova), creating thus a meta-reality that is often associated with an anti-western geopolitical project.
