Journalists remind Govt. press freedom remains problematic

Dozens of journalists picketed the Government's headquarters Wednesday to remind that the media freedom remains a sharp problem in Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. The event is part of the actions organized by Moldova NGOs on the occasion of the World Media Freedom Day, marked on May 3. “We picket the Government because we consider it directly responsible for the situations, lately more and more often, when the media were intimidated, when abuses against journalists were reported, when colleagues of ours, being on duty, were beaten up, were deprived of their equipment, when they were not allowed to do their job,” said the executive director of the Independent Press Association (IPA), Petru Macovei. “Last year, there were cases when newspapers, radio and TV stations were sued for simply offering the right to people willing to express their opinions about some problem or another,” Petru Macovei said. “Last year, there were cases when citizens, after expressing their opinions on forums and in newspapers, were called to the security services or to the police to provide explanations,” said the IPA executive manager. Moldovan Journalists Union president Valeriu Saharneanu referred to the bomb alerts reported this week including in the Press House, which later proved to be false. “In my opinion, there is always a bomb in the head of this Government. There was a bomb in 2004 when the protesters from the Radio House had to be evacuated to eliminate the professionals, there was a bomb in 2006 in there quarters of Radio Antena C and on Monday we had a bomb in the Press House, which prevented scores of media to work in calm,” Saharneanu said. The chairman of the Helsinki Committee from Moldova, Stefan Uratu, talked about the authorities' attempts to reform the state-owned media. “The mechanisms of transforming the media into genuinely public institutions, from 2004 to present, only degraded them more. They have become even more servile with the authorities, to a political party,” found the former independent candidate to a seat in Parliament. The Washington-based International Organization Freedom House, in 2009, kept Moldova, for the sixth consecutive year, in the category of countries lacking free media, next to Iraq, Armenia or Russia. The Press Freedom Days in Moldova are organized by the Independent Journalism Center, the Independent Press Association, “Acces-Info” Center, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Electronic Press Association, the Journalists’ Union of Moldova and the Committee for the Freedom of the Press. The partners and sponsors include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands (MATRA Program), Eurasia Foundation and Soros-Moldova Foundation.