Mass-media NGOs boycott a conference organized by the R. Moldova Parliament as sign of protest

A group of non-governmental organizations activating in the field of mass-media announced that they refuse to take part in the annual conference “Cooperation between the Parliament of the R. Moldova and the civil society”, which is to take place in the Parliament building on Tuesday, December 19. According to a signed declaration given to the Info-Prim Neo Agency for broadcasting, the Free Press Association, the Independent Journalism Center, The Association of Electronic Press APEL, the Access-Info Center, the Impact Media Agency, interpreting this action as a sign of protest against the cases of abuse by the authorities in the process of implementing a new Code of the Audiovisual in the cases of the municipal stations Antena C and Euro TV, and rejecting the simulation, by the Parliament of the R. Moldova, to cooperate with the associative sector. In such conditions, the aforementioned non-governmental organizations see no reason in participating in the proceedings of the respective conference. The document mentions that the signatory NGOs “repeatedly declared their willingness and openness to collaborate with the Parliament of the R. Moldova, our efforts being directed towards improving the legal and normative framework regarding the mass-media. Unfortunately, the supreme legal body neglected the majority of our proposals, adopting decisions dictated by the current political conjuncture and not by the need to develop a professional mass-media in the R. Moldova. As such, the proposals and the initiatives of the non-governmental organizations to improve the code of the audiovisual were not taken into consideration, and the candidacies proposed by us in the Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual were rejected without transparency and motives, defying the spirit of the law. We consider that the crisis situation created around the municipal and national public audiovisual represents a direct consequence of the strongly politically influenced strategies in the field, and also of the unwillingness of the authorities to collaborate with the exponents of the civil society, capable of proposing efficient solutions in the issue of major public interest. The signatory organizations draw the attention of “the public opinion, embassies and foreign representatives to the fact that the pretended collaboration of the Parliament with the civil society, on the mass-media segment, is rather formal in nature, with the goal of polishing the image of the people in power abroad and to create the fake impression of social consensus in the principal problems faced by the country”. They call the parliament to reconsider its attitude towards its collaboration with the civil society in the sense of adopting an honest, open partnership position, benefic to the entire society”. According to a notice by the press service of the Parliament “Tuesday, December 19 of the current year, in the building of Parliament, there will be an annual conference “Cooperation between the Parliament and the Civil Society”, which will tackle practical aspects and functional realizations of the cooperation process between the legal body and representatives of the associative sector throughout 2006, as well as discussing issues concerning the consolidation of the cooperation, visions and perspective framework. Marian Lupu, president of the parliament of the Republic of Moldova, as well as presidents and vice-presidents of permanent parliamentary commissions, members of parliament, representatives of non-governmental organizations and of foreign diplomatic missions accredited in Chisinau will be attending the event”. The majority of the NGOs who signed the present declaration broadcasted another declaration on Sunday, in which they qualified the actions of the authorities linked to the reorganization of Antena C and Euro TV Chisinau as anti-democratic and anti-constitutional, and on Monday, they held a press conference on the matter.