CEC contributes to disguise PCRM's donors, investigative reporter

Cornelia Cozonac, the manager of the Investigative Journalism Center (CIN), says that, after the April 5 elections, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has become more reluctant in offering information asked by journalists. She made the statement at a meeting held on July 16 by the Acces-info Center, at which they found that the access to the official information had worsened in trimester 2 of this year, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Investigative Journalism Center wants to learn who are the donors of the Communists Party (PCRM) in this electoral race, since, says Cornelia Cozonac, “in its financial reports submitted to the CEC, the party refers only to payment orders, without giving names.” “It was very had to obtain a piece of information, which is not full, shows but surnames, no locality, no date when the donation was made. They are erased or whitened,” Cozonac has said. The financial reports of political parties in the electoral campaign shall be public, is the opinion of the electoral advisor of an NGO monitoring the elections, Ion Creanga. “In trimester 2 and the first two weeks of July, 2009, numerous breaches of the legislation on the access to official information were recorded in Moldova,” director of the Acces-info Center Vasile Spinei has said at the meeting. He explains the situation by the peculiarity of the post-electoral period and by the start of the early parliamentary poll. On a scale from 0 to 5, the expert group – formed by Acces-info from media and NGO representatives, which compiles the 3-month reports – assesses the level of the access to information from April through June with 2 points. In trimester I of 2009, the score was 2.2 points, in trimester 4, 2008 – 2.4 points, in trimester 3, 2008 – 2.36 points.” Cornelia Cozonac has criticized that the State Registration Chamber has lately started to ask for money from journalists for the information it used to offer free. A possible intention of a reporter to learn data about some company costs from 540 to 1,512 lei. In the opinion of the Experts Group, most of the public authorities and institutions are late in replying to the requests of citizens, journalists and NGOs, especially when it's a matter of public procurements, corruption, measures to remove the drawbacks tracked by control bodies.