Politicians in Moldova want to control press, debates

The politicians in Moldova and all over the world want to control the press, but do not have this possibility everywhere, including in the European states, where the level of political culture is high. Such an opinion was expressed by the director of the newspaper Panorama Dmitry Chubashenko, who was an invitee of the public debates “The print and online media regarded from the angle of political culture: responsibility for the ‘tamed ones’ -2”, organized by Info-Prim Neo. The invitees said the print and online media organizations in Moldova have the right to promote a political line on condition that it is declared honestly. It happens that they declare themselves independent, but are instruments of political manipulation in fact. Dmitry Chubashenko stated that attempts to control the press are made all over the world, but not in all the states this is possible. He gave as example the resignation of the President of Germany as a result of a number of scandals, including after the attempt to exert pressure on journalists, especially on the editor-in-chief of the publication “Bild”. As regards the situation in Moldova, Dmitry Chubashenko said that all the politicians speak about the freedom of the press, but not always are sincere. “I think that all these statements are false because the politicians want to control the press and do it,” he said. The Moldovan press often sees the master in its sources when it investigates a case and cannot put inconvenient questions to this source. At the same time, even if some of the politicians do not possess a publication, they know how to manipulate it. Permanent expert to the debates Igor Botan, director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, spoke about his visit to the editorial office of a German publication. In Berlin, a party has a share of 24%. Asked if this party becomes involved in the editorial policy of the paper, the manager laughed and said that it does not. She explained that such an attempt was made 20 years ago, but the sales of the paper plummeted then because the people understood that there was bias. Then the party abandoned this practice, preferring to benefit only from the money coming from the paper’s sales, as earlier. “The German people cannot be deceived. They understand what information is furnished to them and this is an indicator that the level of political culture in this country is high. The party gave up because it realized that it loses money, loses the newspaper and loses the people’s trust. The situation in Moldova is different because we are a society in transition and with rural culture,” stated the expert. According to him, Moldova needs papers where the line promoted by the editorial staff is clear. The existence of several media sources can be a solution as the people will be able to analyze and compare. Viorel Mihail, editor-in-chief of the paper Saptamina (“Week”), considers that a media outlet can cooperate with certain politicians if they share the same views and this wouldn’t be a shame as this relation does not mean that the politician dictates how to write. Georgeta Stepanov, dean of the State University’s Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences and a member of the Press Council, said the mass media is not a channel that transmits only objective information because the human factor is involved in this process and the subjective views have an impact on the way the events are covered. According to the dean, the party press that admits that they belong to somebody, offering the people the possibility of choosing whether to buy a publication or not, is not so dangerous. It is more serious when somebody buys a paper that declares itself independent and realizes that they are manipulated and fooled. “It bothers me when the newspapers say they are independent, but in fact are instruments for promoting the images of certain politicians,” said Georgeta Stepanov. The public debates “Responsibility for the ‘tamed ones’-2” were the 12th edition of the series “Development of Political Culture through Public Debates” that are organized by Info-Prim Neo with support from the German foundation “Hanns Seidel”.