New CIJ project intends to increase transparency of mass-media funding from public money

Increasing transparency in the mass-media funding process from public money and raising public awareness of the need to amend the legislation in this regard is the goal of the project titled “Relations between press and state authorities – towards transparency and responsibility,” launched by the Independent Journalism Centre on Wednesday, December 12. According to CIJ editor-researcher, Nadine Gogu, the 11-month project will cover several activities aiming at promoting the economic transparency and Government’s responsibility towards the public. A database on the financial support (direct financing, publicity from public money) provided by the authorities will be created for this purpose. The project will monitor publicity ads placed by the public institutions and state-run companies in the local and national press, will analyse the legislation and develop the necessary amendments to ensure increased transparency in financing the mass-media from public money. The director of the organisation “Acces-Info”, Vasile Spinei, told the project launch conference that at present, the transparency of the decision-making process is only mimed by the state authorities. Vasile Spinei referred to the draft law on the freedom of expression which has been in the Parliament for a quite a while now, and the draft law on transparency in decision-making, which, though appreciated and accepted by the Government, was eventually rejected. The 2005 and 2007 coalitions for free and fair elections have ascertained that the state-funded mass-media is mainly promoting candidates fielded by the ruling party, Eurasia Foundation Country Director for Moldova, Sorin Mereacre, stated. In this regard, the new CIJ project will represent another monitoring tool for the 2009 parliamentary elections campaign, Mereacre mentioned. Senior Media/FOM Assistant OSCE Mission to Moldova, Iulia Kirinitki, reiterated OSCE’s position towards the state-funded press, regarded as incompatible with an advanced democratic society. Moldova must continue the transformation process of the public-funded mass-media into independent institutions, Iulia Kirinitki said. The „Relations between press and state authorities – towards transparency and responsibility” project is funded by the Eurasia Foundation Moldova Country Office, with financial resources from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).