The citizens of the Republic of Moldova must learn to critically analyze the information disseminated in the public sphere and to make a difference between manipulation and true information. However, it is harder to do this even compared with corruption fighting, stated the president of the Party of Action and Solidary Maia Sandu. 

“The people allow to be manipulated by propaganda. A lot of work is to be done here so as to cultivate the critical spirit in the people so that they know how to analyze the situation from a number of sources and don’t allow to be deceived by things told on untrustworthy TV channels that are financed with politicians’ money,” Maia Sandu said in the talk show “Emphasis on today” on TVR Moldova channel.

The activities of the institutions responsible for stopping this phenomenon are another aspect of the manipulation and misinformation.

“We must have state institutions that would penalize these conducts of TV channels. I refer here to the Audiovisual Council that doesn’t do its job,” stated Maia Sandu.

Another aspect noted by the electoral contender is the fact that the Republic of Moldova, under the aegis of the current government, does not function as a real democratic state.

“We must have a functional state, public order institutions that would not allow the corrupt politicians to bribe the voters. If today we had had state institutions that do their job, those who try to bribe votes would have been harshly penalized for this. As long as the state is controlled and is captured by groups of interests, the state institutions are weak and are even used to buy people’s votes,” stated Maia Sandu.

The winner of the first round of the presidential elections said the development of the people’s civic spirit in the consumption of information could be a much more difficult process than the fighting of corruption.