The media nongovernmental organizations express their profound concern about the doubling, by the Commission for Exceptional Situations, of the length of time for responding to requests for information of public interest during the state of emergency. The NGOs call on the Commission, in virtue of the legal duties it has, to stop the deviations from the standards on access to information of public interest and to adopt a balanced policy to the application of the exceptional measures to the detriment of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by law, IPN reports.
The media NGOs said that under the Law on Access to Information, the maximum period of time during which the public authorities are obliged to furnish the applicant with the requested information is of 15 workdays. The law allows for the extension of the period by another five working days if the application refers to a very large volume of information or additional consultations are needed to satisfy the request. “So, through the effect of the CES’s ordinance, the journalists and the citizens will be able to get a response from the public authorities to a request for information in over 30 workdays, which is 42 calendar days,” runs the press release.
The NGOs noted that the representatives of the media continue to face a multitude of obstacles and difficulties in obtaining information of public interest, while the doubling of the legal period for dealing with the requests is nothing but another barrier placed in order to diminish transparency in the activity of the public authorities and institutions.
“In the difficult situation in which our society is now, we need more than ever the public to be correctly and promptly informed. The lack of information can create panic in society and can increase distrust in the public authorities,” said the media NGOs.
The call was signed by the Independent Journalism Center, the Association of Independent Press, the Electronic Press Association, the Journalistic Investigations Center, the Committee for the Freedom of the Press, the Association of Independent Tele-Journalists, “Acces-Info” Center, RISE Moldova and the Association of Environmental and Eco-Tourism Journalists.
