Union of Journalists will resume activities within open-air Space for Public Debates

The Union of Journalists of Moldova (UJM) will resume the activities within the open-air Space for Public Debates inaugurated in the square of the National Opera House in Chisinau late last year, Info-Prim Neo reports. The topic of the first session of debates will be “2008, Moldova: where do we go?” It will take place on Sunday, January 27, starting at 13:00. According to a communique from the Union, the open-air Space for Public Debates in the form of civic meetings was set up in protest against the policy of the Communist government, which imposed a monopoly on the public and private media contrary to the stipulations of the Constitution and of the international legislation. The public mass media institutions financed by millions of tax payers are under the abusive control of the government, which eliminated the debate programmes that were attended by the social and political spectra of the society and transformed them into tribunes for propagating their own ideological dogmas, the communique issued by the Union’s Standing Bureau says. The Union of Journalists of Moldova announces that the meetings have been authorised by the Chisinau City Hall and will be held every Sunday throughout 2008 until the National Public Broadcaster “Teleradio Moldova” Company is politically emancipated and recognised by the society as such.