Romanian media to support Antena C and Euro TV

Several media organizations from Romania will make a joint statement supporting the municipal radio and TV stations - Antena C and Euro TV. This was stated within the frameworks of the Press Club by the representatives of several mass-media institutions from Romania on Monday, December 11. The Press Club was attended by representatives of the Convention on Media Organization in Romania, MediaSind trade union, Romanian Centre for Investigative and others. Romanian journalists emphasized upon the necessity of making common cause and not only in cases of this kind. According to Alecu Mocanu, representative of the Journalists’ Union of Moldova, experience shows that Moldovan press demonstrate a certain solidarity in such cases, being limited though only to reflecting events, as it is shown by the case of “Teleradio-Moldova” in the summer of 2004, without taking other actions in order to support their colleagues. He proposed that journalists from Antena C and Euro TV are supported on different ways. The necessity of creating a mass-media trade-union in Moldova has been discussed during the Press Club. Several sournalists, among them Valeriu Saharneanu, Vlad Bercu, and Tudor Iascenco, stated that in the last 10-15 years there had been several initiatives in this sense but none of them succeeded. They concluded that the Moldovan press is not prepared for such changes. On the other hand, representatives from Romania, but also Federica Prina, representative of the Article XIX international media organization, mentioned that it is sufficient that only a few journalists join the trade-union, after which the organization will be expanded. Petru Macovei, executive director of the Independent Press Association stated that the Moldovan press has a lot of problems, but the most important one is the lack of solidarity, which generates other troubles. About 10 mass-media NGOs are acting at the moment in Moldova.