Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament points to uneven legal practice

The Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament (CICP) identified an uneven legal practice in protecting the right to freedom of expression of the press and civil society before the parliamentary elections despite the similar character of the cases. It refers to the cases in which the Initiative was sued by five representatives of election runners in the campaign ”Know Your Candidate!”, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference, Petru Macovei, executive director of the Association of Independent Press that is a member of the CICP, said that the Initiative that includes a number of nongovernmental organizations was sued by five representatives of election runners for damaging the honor, dignity and professional reputation in two of the three editions of the ”Know Your Candidate!” brochure published before the legislative elections of April 5, 2009 and November 28, 2010. Cristina Cojocaru, lawyer for the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption, said that the CICP won the cases started against it by the Social-Democratic Party’s candidate Ion Prisacaru, the candidate of the “Moldova Noastra” Alliance Alexandru Oleinic, the Liberal Party’s candidate Stefan Uratu, and the Communist Party’s election runner in the Centru Court of Chisinau, but lost the case to the Democratic Party. Last January, the Chisinau Court of Appeals annulled the ban imposed by the first court on the dissemination of the information about Alexandru Oleinic that was included in the “Know Your Candidate!” brochure. But this April it ruled that the honor and dignity of Oleinic were damaged. However, it did not award him damages. “It is strange that no damages were awarded to a candidate whose honor and dignity were damaged. I think the courts realize that their decision is to the limit,” said Cristina Cojocaru. “These court decisions give signals that we should not speak or should not write. In fact, they try to reduce the press to silence and self-censorship because, knowing that they can lose such trials, the journalists will not write and this is a problem for our society as justice obeys the politicians,” said Cornelia Cozonac, the head of the Journalistic Investigations Center. The members of the Initiative said they will appeal the decision of the first court in the case started by the Democratic Party and the decision of the Court of Appeals in the case of Alexandru Oleinic. The campaign ”Know Your Candidate!” was initiated in 2008. Before the elections, the Initiative makes public a list of candidates who do not meet the integrity criteria. For example, they have undeclared property and incomes, use administrative resources for personal or party purposes, use the job in personal or family interests. The Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament consists of the following NGOs: the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Association of Independent Press, the Independent Journalism Center, the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption, the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, and Soros Foundation Moldova.