IJC president in Gagauzia says he is persecuted by Communists

The president of the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) in Gagauzia Stepan Piron, who is a member of the Gagauz District Electoral Council, has said that the Party of Communists (PCRM) started to persecute and intimidate him after he submitted a number of applications to the Council, accusing the party of illegally placing election posters, Info-Prim Neo reports. ”The members of the Council promised to take measures to remove the irregularities. But, in two days, I started to be threatened and intimidated. Also, there were carried out inspections at two companies that I head – the joint company “Media”, which provides cable TV services, and the television studio TV-2 Comrat,” Stepan Piron said at a news conference on Monday. ”I suppose these searches are connected with the applications filed to the District Electoral Council in Gagauzia, which say that the PCRM violates the Electoral Code by placing electoral ads in forbidden places,” Piron said, adding that the authorities started to attack the two media institutions because they broadcast news items “that the Communists don’t like”. Stepan Piron also said that two legal cases were opened against him, a criminal one and an administrative one, and that they try to close the two media outlets. ”On July 16, four persons filmed my house where “Media” is based. On the same day, I was phoned at home and at the workplace and told to go to the Comrat Court of Appeals to take part in a trial, though I had not been summonsed earlier.” According to Piron, the PCRM representatives try to make him keep silent. “Some of the representatives of the Communists called me traitor and told me I would be arrested.” The IJC president in Gagauzia asks those involved in these illegal acts to stop exerting pressure and to respect the interests of the Moldovan people during the election campaign.