President Maia Sandu said that during the state of emergency, the Audiovisual Council should have prerogatives so as to limit the citizens’ access to propagandistic media sources. Information warfare is very dangerous and keeps society on barricades. The President’s message comes after the Audiovisual Council yesterday announced that it does not have instruments to suspend the broadcasting of TV channels that disseminate propaganda in the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
President Sandu said the propaganda and disinformation war is present in the Republic of Moldova, while the Audiovisual Council should take attitude to ensure the security of the information space.
“On the one hand, we should respect the people’s right to choose the source of information. On the other hand, we must take care of the correctness of these sources of information. In the context of the state of emergency, the Commission for Exceptional Situations will offer additional prerogatives to the Audiovisual Council so that particular actions are taken swiftly. Today, the ordinary legal framework stipulates a longer warning period and period for penalizing those that disseminate messages inciting to hatred, to war. Now, owing to these prerogatives, the Council will intervene swiftly to stop these sources,” Maia Sandu stated in the talk show “Good Evening” on the public TV channel.
The official noted the Republic of Moldova has a trenchant message at the foreign level and considers the actions in Ukraine are a real war, not a demilitarization operation, as the Kremlin asserts.
“We say it clearly that this is Russian aggression against Ukraine and we strongly condemn this aggression. Beyond the war in Ukraine, we have information warfare. Owing to the propaganda, fake news, hate speech, society is on barricades and this is extremely dangerous. My call is to be vigilant when we inform ourselves and when we disseminate information, while the media outlets should be very responsible and should not distribute fake news,” said Maia Sandu.
Since the war in Ukraine started, a number of media NGOs have requested the national Audiovisual Council to suspend the broadcasting of Russian TV channels that are retransmitted in Moldova, by the example of the Baltic States, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
