Teleradio-Moldova demands that Prosecutor’s Office protects its journalists from AMN intimidation

The national public broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova called on the Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova and other relevant bodies to take measures and protect the company’s employees from the intimidation acts on the part of members of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) so that they could work normally and unhindered. The administration of Teleradio-Moldova accuses the AMN of brutal pressure on the national public broadcaster and of limiting the freedom of the press, Info-Prim Neo reports. A statement issued by the company says that the AMN lies when it says that the Communist Party (PCRM) is favored in the news program “Mesager”. “According to the company’s internal monitoring reports and the opinion of national and foreign observers, the AMN is extensively present in the news programs broadcast on the public television and the election contenders complained about this to the Central Election Commission,” the statement reads. Teleradio-Moldova also says that in reality, the AMN is not dissatisfied with the company’s editorial policy, but with the fact that the mass media, including the national public broadcaster, presented the Public Opinion Barometer, which says that if parliamentary elections were held next Sunday, the AMN would poll only 5.4% of the vote. On March 25, the AMN picketed the building of Teleradio-Moldova, demanding that the Supervisory Board should revise the editorial policy of the public broadcaster, correctly inventory the airtime offered in news programs to the PCRM and exclude the party’s adverts from the company’s advertising volume for payment until the end of the election campaign so as to partially restore the other runners’ rights. In a communiqué issued today, the AMN says that it expects this responsible body (the Supervisory Board, e.n.) to take practical measures so as to monitor how the national public broadcaster observes the law, and announces it postponed the planned picket.