6 Moldovan non-governmental organizations dealing with media signal out the law-enforcing bodies violate the law in their relation with the press, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a declaration of the NGOs. According to the document, the media NGOs worriedly find that the Moldovan law-enforcing organs do not only ignore the notifications related to the more and more numerous cases of violating the freedom of the press and of speech, of hindering the access to information, but start actions liable to the laws defending these rights. Thus, many participants in the interactive program “Forum”, broadcasted by the radio station “Vocea Basarabiei”, recently have been paid visits by employees of the Penal Inquest General Direction of the Interior Ministry, asking them to testify as to the opinions uttered within that broadcast. Summoning the radio listeners was done, according to the police, as part of the penal probe filed against “Vocea Basarabiei” by the General Prosecutor’s Office (20 December 2007,) under the allegation that it would have broadcasted „messages liable to be qualified as public appeals to overthrow and to violently replace the constitutional regime or to violate the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.” Inviting radio listeners to the police arouses confusion, since the station has the recordings of those programs and could put them at the investigators’ disposal. Weird is the fact that, despite the legal provisions, the General Prosecutor’s Office did not inform Vocea Basarabiei’s management about starting the penal probe, did not present any written motivation and did not ask it to testify, reads the declaration. According to the signatories, the actions of officers from the Economic Crimes and Corruption Combating Center (ECCCC) arouse doubts as well, as they raided the premises under the pretext that… financial frauds would have allegedly been committed at “Vocea Basarabiei” and it was necessary to check up how the grants from Romania were spent. Yet, upon the management’s request to produce a legal document justifying the control, the ECCC officials, only later presented an authorization issued by the General Prosecutor’s Office on starting the penal of 20 December, 2007. Worth of mention that the ECCC officers failed to discover any financial fraud at “Vocea Basarabiei”. Implying the ECCCC in actions not related to corruption, but to the freedom of expression, is all the more worrying, as the ECCCC has the reputation of an instrument of the authorities against the opposition. Either the questions posed to the participants in „Forum” – Why, since when, how often do they listen to the station “Vocea Basarabiei”? Why do they speak on this station? – rather imply intentions to intimidate both the listeners and the editorial board of “Vocea Basarabiei”, than the intention to establish the truth. On this occasion the signatories of the declaration find also the hostile attitude of the law-enforcing bodies towards the media offering access to the opposition and disseminating critical opinions concerning the government. The statement points out another case of discriminating media on non-democratic criteria which was recorded one of these days, during the celebrations of Maslenitsa – a holiday organized by the Slav minorities. The bodyguards of the Parliament’s speaker hindered the PRO TV crew to film Marian Lupu in an informal atmosphere, while the crews of other televisions, considered loyal to the government, were not applied the same interdiction. According to the declaration, the worsening situation of Moldovan media has become even more obvious after President Voronin had ordered the employees of the Information and Security Service to check up the funding sources of parties and of the independent press, in the context of the unofficial start of the race for the 2009 parliamentary elections. The media NGOs demand the authorities to stop the practice of harassing and intimidating media, of hindering the access of journalists to events of public interest, on ideological and political criteria. They also appeal to the Moldovan civil society to get in solidarity with the journalists and to support the independent press from the attacks, more and more intense, on behalf of the Communist government. The declaration has been signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Independent Press Association, the Acces-Info Center, the Moldovan Journalists Union, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the APEL Association of Electronic Press and remains open to be co-signed.