The Central Election Commission (CEC) and the National Integrity Authority hamper the access of the press and the citizens to information of public interest, especially in the election campaign, stated the president of the Journalistic Investigations Center Cornelia Cozonac. The statement was made in a news conference at IPN following the publication of the first 45 profiles of candidates who will run in the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019 by the Civic Initiative for a Clean Parliament.
“The CEC is among the institutions that hamper one way or another the access of the press and the citizens to information that is very important, especially in the election campaign, and we tend to believe that this way this institution favors particular parties as the information in the case of some parties is published, while in the case of other parties it is not,” stated Cornelia Cozonac.
According to her, the CEC during the past few years has blurred information about the workplace and place of residence of those who donate to political parties and this makes the verification of information more difficult when only the name and sum are indicated.
“Even if we were involved in a trial with the Central Election Commission and we won the case, with the court deciding that the given information is public, we cannot yet see it being made public. At a certain moment, all the financial reports and then the statements disappeared from the website of the CEC and then reappeared,” stated Cornelia Cozonac.
The activity of investigation journalists has also been recently blocked by the National Integrity Authority, which was earlier more open, when it was called the National Integrity Commission. Journalists say they have been refused access to information on the pretext that this contains personal data. “We consider they really abuse here as we usually ask for information of public interest, not for private information. But the institutions say they are pressed by the Center for the Protection of Personal Data and they could be penalized for providing such information,” noted Cornelia Cozonac.
She also said that the attacks on journalists have intensified before the election campaign. For example, journalist Mariana Colun, of the Journalistic Investigations Center, was attacked on social networking sites by Socialist MP Oleg Savva, who made negative comments because he was dissatisfied with his profile published on www.anticorupție.md.
“We filed complaints to a number of competent intuitions and asked them to take attitude to the behavior of this MP as he is an official who holds a public post and we do not think that such behavior is admissible. Regrettably, the competent authorities took no attitude. Only the Nondiscrimination Council said it will examine this case,” stated Cornelia Cozonac
She called on the citizens, including those from regions, to also supervise the candidates who will run in the parliamentary elections of February 24 and to inform the Journalistic Investigations Center if they possess information of public interest about them.
