The institutional communication during the COVID-19 pandemic was defective, said the public association WatchDog.MD Community, which produced a report on the digital measures adopted during the pandemic and described the situation in the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
“The pandemic in the Republic of Moldova has significantly affected the informational landscape and the access to public information. This decline began with the detection of the first case of COVID and the establishment of a state of emergency from March 17, 2020 to May 15, 2020. When the first Covid-19 cases were detected in Moldova, authorities started to conduct all press events online, while the journalists were not allowed to attend those events. The access to information of public interest was limited, even though it was imperative for the authorities to communicate in a timely manner with the citizens,” noted WatchDog.MD.
The report compiled by the association examines the evolution of the access to information of public interest during February 2020 – April 2021 and cases when the authorities hid or presented incomplete information. There were assessed the ways in which the official websites were adjusted to the needs of the population in times of a pandemic and the accuracy of the ordinances made by the Commission for Exceptional Situations.
The only digital response measures applied in Moldova were purely informative. One of them was the activation of the ArcGIS COVID-19 online platform, which presents the latest numbers of COVID-19 cases in the country. The data is disaggregated by age, sex, geographical location, time of case registration (day/month), and the confirmed cases among pregnant women. The platform also shows the number of accumulated views. However, the platform has a cumbersome name and has not been widely promoted, enough to be used by the general public as an information tool.
WatchDog.MD identified abuses related to the access to information, lack of transparency on the part of the authorities and lack of institutional capacities.
“During the pandemic, authorities have shown little transparency and inefficient communication. Information should be communicated in a transparent, accurate and timely manner. In crisis situations, the authorities should all the more establish mechanisms that allow citizens and journalists to easily contact public authorities to request information, clarifications and explanations, but also to come up with comments, information and ideas,” said the report authors.
The report was produced as part of the regional study “Public health or digital liberties? Citizens’ tracking during and after COVID-19: implications for democracy in EaP countries” that was conducted in cooperation with six Eastern Partnership countries with the assistance of the Black Sea Trust of the German Marshall Fund in the framework of a project implemented by the Institute of Innovative Governance and Digital Communication Network.
