Moldovan journalists joined the campaign to support investigative journalism and argue against the abusive protection of personal data that concern functionaries. The campaign authors say that if this phenomenon develops, the Republic of Moldova will find itself in a very serious situation, when the people will be deprived of very important information.
Contacted by IPN, director of the Journalistic Investigations Center Cornelia Cozonac said given the cases of pressurizing journalists and of preventing them from doing their job by abusively using the personal data protection instrument, the journalists and NGOs decided to initiate this campaign in order to highlight the dangers of the abusive protection of personal data, which deprives the people of very important facts.
“Invoking the protection of personal data, a barrier is formed to the access to information about corruption, fraudulent management of public money and public servants with integrity-related problems,” stated Cornelia Cozonac.
Director of the paper “Ziarul de Garda” Alina Radu said among the reasons for launching the campaign was the attempt to take legal action against a journalist. “This was a signal that they point the finger at journalists – if we don’t like what you write, criminal cases could be started against you, even if the legislation does not envision this,” she stated.
According to Alina Radu, each day the investigative journalists receive negative answers to their inquiries about public servants, their CVs, property, interests and data about public money. The explanation is that the data is personal and the state is obliged to protect the functionaries from journalists.
“We want to obtain access to information so as to be able to work professionally and not to use unverified information. We also want another attitude from the state institutions to reporters, especially those who carry out investigations, because the ruling parties founded expensive TV channels that produce cheap news, while those involved in investigative journalism, which is the most difficult one, are somehow marginalized and repressed,” stated the journalist.
A public debate involving national and foreign experts will be staged within the campaign in February. Official letters will be sent to the European Commission and Moldova’s development partners, whereby these will be warned about the lack of access to information. There will be held meetings with European ambassadors in Moldova.
