Moldova Press Council launched

The Moldova Press Council has been launched these days. The commission in charge of selecting the members of the Council has decided that, out of the 9 appointed members, 4 should represent mass-media, including two from regional publications, while 5 should represent the consumers of the media products, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to a press release of the Association of Independent Press (API), the members of the Press Council, representing the mass-media are: Ludmila Andronic – editor-in-chief of the “Business Class” magazine; Dmitrii Kalak – deputy editor-in-chief of the “Ekonomiceskoe obozrenie/Logos-press” national newspaper; Oleg Hitalschi – editor-in-chief of the local newspaper ”SP” (Balti); Liubov Casim – editor-in-chief of the local newspaper fromUTA Gagauz Yeri “Express/Aiin-Aciik”. Members of the Press Council, representing the reading public, became: Daniela Terzi-Barbăroşie – executive director of the “Development Partnership” Centre; Georgeta Stepanov – university professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the Moldova State University; Ion Manole – chairman of the ”Promo-LEX” Association; Loretta Handrabura – Deputy Minister of Education; Ana Curcudel – journalist. The members of the Press Council are elected for a period of two years and their first meeting is to be held on January 22, 2010. The council was founded on October 1, 2009, by 6 NGOS: API, the Independent Journalism Center, the Committee for the Freedom of Press, Moldova Journalists’ Union, CREDO and IDIS “Viitorul”. The Press Council states its independence from the public administration, political, business or any other interest groups. Its mission is to contribute to a better responsibility of the mass-media in relation with their audience, by settling the conflicts between publications and media consumers, outside the court, by promoting quality journalism and respect for deontological rules of journalism by publications, news agencies and information portals.