Moldova's chief phytosanitary inspector Alexandru Ciobanu has expressed his indignation after journalist Vladimir Tkhorik decided to continue his investigation into how a monopoly scheme works to export fruits to Russia circumventing the embargo. This appears from an audio recording, posted by the association of investigative reporters RISEMoldova on its website, where Ciobanu telephones the journalist, IPN reports.
Ciobanu phoned Tkhorik to express his indignation after the journalist on August 20 requested information from the National Integrity Commission about what he suspected was Ciobanu's failure to declare his interests in two companies.
“I was told that you (Mr Tkhorik) met some exporters from the north and they determined you into writing these articles and into making these inquiries”, Ciobanu appears as saying in the recording made public by RISEMoldova. The official then implies that Tkhorik took money from an exporter to write the article.
In reply to Tkhorik's claims that the article was the fruit of his journalistic work for which he received no money from any farmers, but only from the RISEMoldova project, Ciobanu maintained it was “no journalism, it's business”. “I will report this to the competent bodies, is this clear?”, Ciobanu told Tkhorik.
For his part, Vladimir Tkhorik said in a statement that those who inspired the investigation are “officials who have transformed their government jobs into a very lucrative business”.
RISEMoldova described in the statement “the actions of the ANSA vice director as an attempt to intimidate and put pressure on journalists”.
According to the statement, RISEMoldova is an investigative journalism center that acts solely based on ethical standards of journalism.
