The Commission for Emergency Situations has decided to suspend the licenses of six Moldovan TV channels for the duration of the current state of emergency. These are Primul in Moldova, RTR Moldova, Accent TV, NTV Moldova, TV6, and Orhei TV. The decree was signed last night by Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița, who presides over the Commission.

The prime minister said that these media organizations have “seriously and repeatedly violated” the Audiovisual Code by covering domestic events as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine in a “biased and manipulative manner”.

“After almost 300 days of war in Ukraine, propaganda in Moldova has not stopped. In fact, it has intensified. Considering that not only an energy war is being waged against our country, but also an information war, we have the responsibility and even the obligation to protect our citizens and the country. The purpose of this decision is to secure our country’s information space, eliminate manipulation and propaganda, as well as corrupt and particularly dangerous elements, especially in the difficult period we are going through”, Natalia Gavrilița posted on Facebook.

Economy Minister Dumitru Alaiba, who sits on the Commission, posted that “these entities are instruments of Russia’s war machine in our country” and that “freedom of expression has nothing to do with the freedom to deny war, to promote hatred, propaganda and lies”.

TV6 condemned the decision as “an unprecedented attack on freedom of expression, on editorial freedom, on the freedom of journalists”, asking the international community to react.

The sanctioned channels use significant sections of their airtime to rebroadcast Russian content in Moldova and most of them [corrected from "all"] are believed to be under the control of the fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor.