“Our Media Is in a Deplorable State Because of the Political Leadership's Desire to Have Pocket Journalists”

Back in the nineties, when the Moldovans learned on the go what democracy meant, every party had its newspaper. Whenever a party went down, so did the newspaper, and over time some journalists ended up working for another team, fighting on another barricade.

Over the years, we find that the number of journalists affiliated directly or indirectly to parties or politicians increased rather than dropped. Some may say that there is affiliated press everywhere. I agree, but even so Moldova is an outstanding case. It is wrong that a politician has monopoly over the media market in a country that seeks EU accession, although, officially, he is not even a media owner. Yet, he is not the only politician who owns/controls media outlets. Our media is in a deplorable state because of the political leadership's desire to have pocket journalists. In a sense, the journalists are hostages in this situation – they need to earn a living and this market is all there is out there.

However, part of the blame – perhaps most of it – lies with the very people who ought to be the watchdogs of democracy. Many resort to the usual excuse that almost all media outlets are politically affiliated and one does not get to choose much, and do not bother to protest any more; they gave up and accepted humiliation. There is also the army of holders of press passes, who do nothing but copy and paste from others' materials or report what was said at press conferences. Fewer and fewer journalists choose to carry out investigations, to prepare analyses, to provide well documented evidence in their materials. Unfortunately, in the past five years the Moldovan press has become flabby and the journalists have become less inquisitive in their attempts to find out the truth.