Freedom of speech and of media regressing: civil society

The right to information, to free speech and free media are regressing compared with 2006, shows a report compiled by NGOs and publicized on Monday in the office of the Soros Foundation, Info-Prim Neo reports. The report has been developed by 19 NGOs from Moldova with the support of the Soros Foundation. “There are discrepancies felt between the authorities' statements and facts concerning the right to information and the freedom of speech. On the one hand, they adopt Law on the transparency in the decision-making process, while, on the other hand, they tacitly adopt the Law on the state secret, neglecting the recommendations of the OSCE, of Article XIX,” said Vasile Spinei, the director of Acces-Info and a co-author of the report. According to him, the new law restricts the access to a number of types information of major interest and is more restrictive than the former law. “The exaggerated actions of the police, prosecutors, of judges concerning some journalists protesting or filming in public places do not match the law, the spirit of free speech and restricts the guaranteed human rights,” the report reads. The study underlines the conclusions of media organizations, according to which “the present Broadcasting Code has been edited in such a manner as to insure the control of the Communists Party over most of the BCC members and over the public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova. In terms of insuring a democratic political climate, the authors of the research find serious deficiencies in observing the autonomy of local administrations, especially through discriminating financing, on political criteria. Thus, most of the beneficiaries of investments are the Communist mayors. They receive investments 2.2 times higher than the mayors of other political affiliation. Some 98% of the total amount granted to mayor offices for renovations have allocated to the localities with Communist mayors, the report points out. Its authors consider that the aggregated effect of a number of decisions adopted a year before the parliamentary elections create non-democratic conditions in Moldova. Among the most urgent recommendations, the authors point out a dialogue between the European Commission and the Moldovan civil society about the human rights, the political and democratic climate. The 50-page study of the those 19 NGOs contains criticism and recommendations concerning the sectors mentioned in the Report of April 3, 2008, by the European Commission and addressed to Moldova. They analyze the Transnistrian conflict, the reform of the judiciary sector, the cooperation with the EU in foreign policies and regional cooperation, economic and social reforms, etc. According to the authors, the report is not meant exclusively for the European Commission, but as a useful tool for the Moldovan Government.