The General Prosecutor’s Office initiated criminal proceedings against the director of the newspaper “Timpul de dimineata” (“Morning Time”), Constantin Tanase, over his actions aimed at instigating national, racial and religious hatred or dismemberment (article 346 of the Penal Code), a communiqué from the Office says, cited by Info-Prim Neo. According to prosecutors, on February 3, 2008, during the protest organised by the Union of Journalists of Moldova in the square of the National Opera House in Chisinau, Constantin Tanase and others incited to national separation and hatred and to limiting the rights of the Russians from Moldova. ”The given encouragements affected the social relations and peaceful cohabitation of the country’s people, harmed the honour and dignity of the representatives of the Russian nation, endangering the public security,” the communiqué says. The Independent Press Association, the Independent Journalism Centre and the Electronic Press Association expressed their concern about the Prosecutor General’s intention to take legal action against participants in the February 3 protest. They called on the Prosecutor General’s Office not to violate the constitutional right to freely express one’s opinion and not to yield to political pressure when investigating the cases. On February 3, Tanase said that Moldova should get rid not only of Voronin and Communists, but of Russians too. His words aroused the indignation of Russian journalists, who described the statement as provoking, pointing to the revival of a new anti-Russia hysteria in Moldova. Constantin Tanase said later that the phrase was taken out of context and deliberately interpreted by the Russian journalists. He explained that the theme of the protest was Moldova’s neutrality and the accession to NATO and there were used geopolitical terms. When he said that Moldova should get rid not only of Voronin and Communists, but of Russians too, he meant Russia and not the Russian ethnics from Moldova.