Particular improvement tendencies as regards the access to information of public interest were witnessed during the short rule of the PSRM – ACUM Bloc coalition government. Later, after the current Government was appointed, the progress of the independent press stopped and the access to information of public interest has worsened, while amid the COVID-19 pandemic things even degenerated, said Petru Macovei, executive director of the Association of Independent Press (API).
Contacted by IPN for a comment on the occasion of the Press Freedom Days, Petru Macovei said all the media outlets in Moldova are vulnerable and face challenges in their development path. “Given that the advertising market in our country is very small and is controlled by political interest groups, the media cannot develop now as the income earned from advertising is very small and the flows of advertising revenue are directed according to political criteria,” he stated.
According to the API director, the Audiovisual Council did absolutely nothing for the broadcasting sector of Moldova to develop and served the interests of media holding owners. “The Audiovisual Council is not a real guarantor of the public interest in broadcasting. The local press in the Republic of Moldova continues to be in a very difficult situation, which is due both to the low adverting revenue and to the attempts made by the district authorities at the local level to subdue particular media outlets. In general, the press faces two big problems – political interference and economic underdevelopment,” stated Petru Macovei.
He noted that to improve the situation of the press in Moldova, there should be adopted public policies to support the development of independent media outlets or support programs for media outlets and for journalists who, given the pandemic, are also in the frontline as they have to correctly inform the people.
“They didn’t do this in our country and I would be surprised if they do this yet. They will again invoke the fact that we are a small and poor country. At the same time, I’m absolutely convinced that if there is less corruption, there will be more money for medicine and other areas and also for support programs intended for the independent and objective media outlets,” stated Petru Macovei.
The book “White Book of the Mass Media” is launched this year on the occasion of the Press Freedom Days. Nadine Gogu, director of the Independent Journalism Center, said this book embraces a series of media outlets that in time managed to remain politically unbiased. “They tried and managed to correctly cover the events and we wrote stories about them. We related where they started from and what they managed to do,” stated Nadine Gogu.
“We, as a nongovernmental organization that monitors and has its eye on the government and also on the mass media, play the role of supporting the independent press, the independent journalists. The public should know about these media outlets that, despite the financial difficulties and existing problems, anyway make effort and manage to remain independent from the political factor,” stated the director of the Independent Journalism Center.
This year, the events organized by the Independent Journalism Center on the occasion of the Press Freedom Days are held under the slogan “Public interest goes above state of emergency”.
