Journalists who won case at ECHR upheld honor of Moldovan guild

The journalists who won the case against censorship at the public company Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld the honor of the Moldovan journalistic guild. They were the first who in 2002 informed about the danger of censorship and dictatorship in Moldova. Such an opinion was expressed by the political analysts Petru Bogatu, Nicolae Negru and Veleriu Saharneanu, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the quoted sources, the developments showed that Voronin’s regime aimed to gradually establish dictatorship in the mass media. The TRM journalists showed courage even when the building of the public broadcaster was occupied by the police. During those days, Voronin had a meeting with the protesters and promised them that their materials will not be censored anymore. But he did not keep his word. The journalists were laid off, while the censorship at the TRM is now even heavier than in 2002. Nicolae Negru said that Voronin acted treacherously and secretly and restricted freedom. If the Alliance for European Integration does not draw conclusions from this case, they will not achieve their goal of establishing a democratic state, the analyst said. The president of the Journalists Union Valeriu Saharneanu said that the Alliance owes its victory in elections also to the independent press, which paved the Liberal-Democratic’ way to victory. “Offered a marginal role by the Communist government, the democratic press had a great say,” Saharneanu said. For his part, Petru Bogatu said that the independent press created the public opinion, made the people long for freedom and for change. After the April 5 elections, when the Communists needed a single vote to take power for another four years, the four Liberal-Democratic parties resisted the pressure due to the people’s opinions disseminated by the independent media. The three political analysts said that the TRM must be a truly public broadcaster and should organize debates involving the government coalition and the Opposition so that the people know the real situation in the country. Moreover, they consider that the legislation should be amended so that no political force that comes to power could influence the editorial policy of the public broadcaster. On September 17, the ECHR passed its judgment in the case of Manole and others versus Moldova, holding unanimously that the TRM journalists’ right to free expression was violated in 2002.