Civil society protests against new intimidations of journalists

Media non-governmental organizations media protests against the abusive conduct of paramilitary structures of the state as to journalists on duty. The position is worded in a statements signed by the Independent Press Association, the Independent Journalism Center, the Journalistic Investigative Center, the Electronic Press Association, the Young Journalist Center from Moldova, the Acces-info Center, the Journalists Union from Moldova, the Press Freedom Committtee. According to the statement, on October 10, a reporter with the investigative newspaper Ziarul de Garda, Veronica Russu, was indimidated by the guardians accompanying a suspect to the room of the Military Court of Chisinau. Not being entitled, the guards asked for her ID card, and then forbid her to make photos, although the journalist was permitted by the judge to take pictures. On Saturday, October 11, a cameraman with Jurnal TV, Vasile Costiuc, was hampered by the bodyguards of the Moldovan President to film in Chisinau’s Great National Assembly Square as Vladimir Voronin was paying visits to improvised pubs on the National Wine day. Moreover, the cameraman says he was arrested by people dressed in civil clothes who took him for a car ride lasting less than an hour, as they were watching his footage. Later they suggested him to go home. The media NGOs ask for the immediate cessation of intimidating journalists by employees of law-enforcing and paramilitary bodies. They also ask the State Protection Service, the Escort Direction of the Penitentiaries Department, other state paramilitary structures to instruct their employees as to their rights and duties in relation to journalists on duty.