Every second respondent of the first national public opinion survey on integrity in the justice sector – Justice4Moldova – assesses corruption as being present in the judiciary (48%), the prosecution system (47%) and the police (46%), and 38% consider corruption is widespread among lawyers. The study was presented by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), in cooperation with Magenta Consulting, in a press conference hosted by IPN.
Magenta Consulting director general Dumitru Slonovschi said the survey data also shows that most of the respondents have heard about the justice and anticorruption sector reforms in Moldova (70%) and the strategy for ensuring the independence and integrity of the justice sector in Moldova (62%), but know to a lesser extent about them.
40% of respondents consider themselves informed about the justice and anticorruption sector reform in Moldova, and the majority (59%) said they are little/not informed about this topic. Respondents chose the top three sources of information about justice reform and anticorruption, which are TV (57%), social networks (48%) and news sites (35%).
Regarding the level of trust in the results of vetting judges and prosecutors, citizens’ opinions are divided. On the one hand, 40% say they are confident in the results of the evaluation, where 13% have a lot and 27% rather a lot of trust. On the other hand, 42% say they have little confidence, and 15% of respondents say they do not trust its results at all.
According to Dumitru Slonovschi, the majority (75%) believe that the establishment of an Anticorruption Court and a new system of anticorruption courts are important for Moldova.
Also, most of the respondents support Moldova’s accession to the European Union (68%), and most of them (95%) believe that the justice reform is crucial for Moldova’s European integration.
Iulian Groza, IPRE executive director, said that through the survey’s questions, they sought to better capture the citizens’ perception both from the perspective of general information, but especially from the perspective of interaction, and to see how this perspective changes. He voiced hope that the survey will be a basis, which will be later analyzed by decision-makers.
The data presented in the study was collected between November 24 and December 22, 2023. The survey covered a sample of 1,143 respondents from the general population, women and men aged 18+. Its margin of error is +-2.9%
Note: IPN News Agency offers the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements made by the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.
