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The representatives of newspaper Ziarul de Garda (ZdG) said that their editorial office had been threatened by telephone by a person who introduced himself a businessman Renato Usatii. During the telephone conversation, the name of Pavel Paduraru, a journalist of newspaper Timpul, was also mentioned.
“Today at 16:24, the editorial office of ZdG received a telephone call. (…) The caller introduced himself as Renato Usatii and said that he was displeased with the article placed 2 hours before on www.zdg.md. (…) Usatii expressed his displeasure with the article and with the fact that Ziarul de Garda failed to publish what he had said about Vlad Filat, adding that he can buy televisions and newspapers in Moldova, but still wants Ziarul de Garda to write what he claims to be true,” wrote Zdg.md yesterday.
The director of ZdG, Alina Radu, confirmed that she received a call on her own mobile telephone and she recognized the voice of Renato Usatii. “We emailed him and asked him several times to answer some of our questions that we considered of public interest, but we received no answer,” said Alina Radu. “Usatii said that he had not received our questions by email, and we agreed to send him the questions to another email address. He spelled two other email addresses, but said that we must write what he had said several days before, as we did it wrong,” explained Alina Radu. “I suggested that he could go to court if he was dissatisfied with any of our articles. At that moment, he began verbally attacking us,” added the director.
Contacted by Media-azi.md, Renato Usatii confirmed that he had called Alina Radu and threatened her to transform Ziarul de garda “into a La Placinte restaurant.” Also, he expressed his disapproval with the interpretation of the author regarding the life of journalist Paduraru, claiming that the former used a Russian idiom. Renato Usatii said that he had known Pavel Paduraru for a long time and considered him one of the most honest journalists of Moldova.
Media NGOs reacted and issued a declaration, asking law enforcement bodies to investigate this case and take action to ensure the safety of the persons concerned.
Both ZdG and other media outlets mentioned the name of the businessman in several resounding articles, including the ones about the case of Universalbank and the attempt against Gherman Gorbuntov.