Timpul: we have acted as watchdogs and not as fat barkers of the regime

The European Court of Human Rights found guilty the Moldovan Government on Tuesday, November 27, of violating freedom of expression in the case of “Timpul Info-Magazin and Alina Anghel v. Moldova”. Timpul newspaper’s team has said in a press statement that the ECHR judgement proves that the journalists acted in the spirit of European standards, where the right to information is primordial in the society. The journalists say that they made use of this right and did their job “of reporters, of watchdogs, and not that of fat barkers of the regime”. The newspaper says that the ECHR judgment was not a surprise, because the members of the team were convinced from the beginning that they acted correctly when they published the article entitled “Luxury in Povertyland”. According to the team, the “Skoda case” was and still is arousing much controversy. First, because it concerned an unprecedented sum for damages in the history of defamation cases against Moldovan periodicals - about 2 million USD requested by Daac-Hermes Concern. Having to face such a fine and with its bank accounts blocked, “Timpul-Info-Magazin” was compelled to close down. Second, it was obviously a case where the government used an economic entity to suppress the right to freedom of expression, say the journalists. The author of the article “Luxury in Povertyland”, Alina Anghel, was severely beaten, subsequently being compelled to quit the job of reporter.