Moldova needs strategy for European communication, opinion

Authorities talk much about European integration, but the ordinary people know little about the process. A statement on this topic was made by editor-in-chief and moderator of N4 TV Gheorghe Gonta during the debate “Electronic press and political culture: responsibility for the tamed”, organized by Info-Prim Neo. “We’ve been speaking about this for so many years, but the people don’t know what European integration is. We, journalists, decide what to tell the people. We see that news about murders, accidents and rapes boost the ratings, but it’s only because we decide to show the people murders and accidents. If we accept to sacrifice a bit of ratings and cover topics of major importance, the public will be advantaged”, says Gonta. Moldova is presented as regional leader in the Eastern Partnership, but few citizens feel themselves regional leaders and the country doesn’t progress in the implementation of reforms as fast as wanted. The statement was made by MP Igor Corman, head of the parliamentary commission for foreign relations and European integration, during a round table organized by the Association for Foreign Policy. The round table participants stressed the importance of the whole society for the implementation of reforms and of the need to promote them for the public and to inform the public about all of the authorities’ actions. In this context, political analyst and director of the Institute for Public Policies (IPP) Arcadie Barbarosie claims that the Government lacks a strategy of European communication with the people. “Our citizen is insufficiently informed, doesn’t know why we must join the EU, which are the advantages and disadvantages, what we have to gain from it”, said the IPP director. Arcadie Barbarosie says that in other European countries had coherent and even aggressive strategies of European communication, because there enough cases when people were Euro-skeptical. The Government must hide in an ivory tower and be satisfied with the fact that it said something about European integration at the beginning of its mandate. The public debate “Electronic press and political culture: responsibility for the tamed” was the 11th edition in the series “Developing political culture in public debates”, organized by Info-Prim Neo with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”.