Civil society pleads for unification of democratic parties

National and democratic-oriented parties from Moldova should run on a single ballot line in the 2009 parliamentary elections in order to win them, Nicolae Dabija, president of the Democratic Forum of Romanians of Moldova, stated as part of the Space for Public Debates event, held on January 27 in the National Opera Square in Chisinau. The platform of the unified political group should plead for Moldova’s integration into the EU and NATO; renunciation of CIS membership; condemnation of the Communist Party as a criminal one, claiming damages from the Russian Federation for Bessarabia’s fifty-year occupation; recognition of Transnistria as part of the Republic of Moldova occupied by the Russian Federation. Dabija called for the unity of the civil society, saying that if PCRM wins again, this would mean a catastrophe “for Moldova’s independence, democracy and European future”. The Chairman of the Union of Journalists of Moldova, Valeriu Saharneanu, stated that, since the beginning of this year, the space for public debates has seen no changes for the better. Teleradio-Moldova Company (TRM) remains isolated and those who criticise it are taken to court. What is more, the space for communist propaganda continues to grow, for instance, a couple of days ago the Broadcasting Coordination Council provided three new channels to the pro-government TV station NIT. At the same time, nothing has been done in order to resume the broadcasting of TVR1 on the state network no.2. Veaceslav Ionita, a member of the TRM Supervisory Board (SB) who has been sued by the Company’s administration for co-authoring a report critical of TRM’s activity, said he hoped that the lawsuit would help him change TRM into what it’s supposed to be – an independent institution, with well-paid employees and a large audience. At the same time, he said, there are only two votes against six in the SB who want this change. What happens now at the TRM, is partly the blame of the two so-called democrat members of the SB, he added. The open-air Space for Public Debates in the form of civic meetings was set up in protest against the policy of the Communist government, which imposed a monopoly on the public and private media contrary to the stipulations of the Constitution and of the international legislation.