In Moldova, there are practically no conditions for correct and pluralistic information. Instead of improving things and contributing to the appearance of an increased number of powerful media outlets that will play the essential role of the media, the authorities worsened these conditions. The media should be more financially independent than now for efficient democracy and for the society’s capacity to be informed, to choose and to make correct choices. The conclusion is contained in the Foreign Policy Association’s study “State of the media – between editorial independence and financial dependence”, which was presented in a news conference at IPN.
Journalist Liliana Barbarosie, who is one of the authors of the study, referred to a Parliament decision of 2013, by which a person is allowed to hold a license for several frequencies. Owing to the lack of money, the exiting media sources gravitated to businessmen with non-transparent political and economic interests. Through the media outlets they finance, they aim to increase their own influence and credibility in society. This monopolization is very dangerous as, when all the media institutions speak in one voice, at a certain moment the population can believe that the situation is as these outlets report.
Another emphasized problem is the imbalance in favor of Russian media sources. Following the crisis in Ukraine, the problem in Moldova became more evident than ever. The danger does not reside in the presence of these media sources, but rather in the flagrant imbalance in their favor. The perception that the greatest majority of people forms views on the events from the country and the world based on certain media sources is especially dangerous. Through the agency of these sources, there are transmitted messages inciting interethnic hatred and separatism in Russia’s favor and anti-European propaganda. Chisinau has no mechanism to protect or counteract these instigating messages. This thing is very dangerous in the conditions in which Moldova is a multiethnic state with multiple possible hotbeds of separatism.
In this connection, study authors Liliana Barbarosie and Lina Grau recommend revealing the names of the media outlet owners and launching public debates on the amendment to the Broadcasting Code obliging the media organizations to make public the names of their owners.
