Civic Coalition for Free and Fair Elections condemns the move against media and democratic freedoms

The Coalition 2007 is expressing its disagreement with the detention by police bodies of the PRO-TV crew, and the seizure of the DTV film crew’s tape, actions undertaken by the police forces on 27 March 2007 when a group of citizens were detained while walking towards the place of commemoration of historic personalities. According to a statement released by the Coalition, it is extremely alarming that the repressive actions of the interior forces continued the following day, when the print-run of the „SP” newspaper in Balti was arrested. This series of events leaves no room to doubts over regrettable accidents; on contrary, it suggests that these actions were not random. The authors of the statement are qualifying all these actions as inadequate to a democratic society, as attempts to intimidate citizens who share different views to the official ones, and as an attempt to curtail freedom of expression. The NGOs part of the Coalition analyse the respective actions in the context of electoral climate in the Republic of Moldova, marked by a series of events of a negative nature that can cause severe damages to the integrity of the electoral process, by undermining the democratic process and affecting the image of the country within and outside its borders. “Tacking into account the upcoming electoral campaign, we are expressing our concern over such occurrence of such events that could endanger the good running of local general elections of 2007, and the democratic, free and fair character of the campaign”, the statement reads. The coalition is calling on the authorities and police forces to refrain in the future from actions incompatible with democratic standards. The initiative for the creation of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections “Coalition 2007” has been launched at the beginning of March by seven nongovernmental organisations. According to them, the Coalition’s activities will be strictly non-partisan and will include short-term and long-term observation of the election campaign; monitoring media coverage of the elections; and civic education for voters and the public servants who conduct elections.