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Editor-in-chief of ‘Ziarul de Garda’
(...) The Law on the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova guarantees ‘the exercise of social, economic, cultural rights and political freedoms of all citizens of Moldova, including members of various national, ethnic, linguistic or religious groups, in accordance with the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act and documents adopted following the Charter of Paris for a New Europe’.
It is with bitter regret that we state today that few of the rights guaranteed by this law have been fully observed during the 24 years since the country has gained independence. An example of failure would be the right to fair, impartial and diverse information, even though at the beginning of the 90s there were signs that media in the Republic of Moldova could become part of a truly democratic state. I would like to remind of the first changes at the ‘Teleradio Moldova’ State Company, when, for the very first time, news programs became diverse. And there were examples of this in print media as well. However, even to this day, none of them managed to become indisputable standards of professionalism, impartiality and diversity.
Print media - a profitable endeavor for distributors
During the past 24 years, print media struggled not only against the state's monopoly over information of public interest, but also against the monopoly of major newspaper and magazine distributors. Year after year, these institutions ruin periodical publications by raising taxes on distribution. Ever since ‘Posta Moldovei’ assumed the duties of failed banks, its bureaucratic machine has been coming down hard on media publishers. Media outlets are penalized for even the slightest delay in sending the print run for distribution, even though quite often this is due to no fault of the outlets. In addition, ‘Posta Moldovei’ charges for each newspaper copy that goes through the ‘Distribution’ department and is intended for small distributors. In this case publishers are forced to pay twice for distribution: first to ‘Posta Moldovei’ and then a second time to small distributors for the eventual distribution of newspapers to subscribers. Any efforts of creating an alternative distribution network, which has been a topic of discussion among publishing circles for the past quarter of a century, proved to be unsuccessful. It would seem that no one would dare risk becoming a competitor to ‘Posta Moldovei’, equipped with transport units and a network of post offices inherited from the Soviet period.
Do you think the state is not aware of this cumbersome situation, especially for independent press? The state is fully aware, yet it continues to selectively provide budget financing for certain publications, stimulating unfair competition and indirectly lying to press readers. The public continues to believe that everything that’s written under the banner of a newspaper or magazine about editorial policy independence is the truth.
TV channels - devised by oligarchs
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The majority of airtime on certain TV channels with national coverage is taken up by TV series, especially melodramas, most of which are produced in Russia. These shows usually have an infinite number of episodes. For example, ‘The Circus Princess’, which is a Russian series consisting of 115 episodes, aired on a daily basis, every evening and also every morning during reruns. The show aired on ‘Canal 2’, formerly known as ‘2 Plus’, which is part of a media holding owned by Vladimir Plahotniuc. Another TV show, ‘Silent Witness’, also made in Russia, had 100 episodes and kept the audience tuning in to ‘Canal 2’ for several months in a row, as did the 90-episode series ‘Jamaica’. There are many more examples of this, but the show ‘Wedding Ring’, which clocks in at 820 episodes, was probably a record for the channel. Not even the actors managed to star in all the episodes. ‘Canal 2’, however, was certain that its viewers would manage to sit through the show for a number of years. Could this proclivity for TV shows on the part of political patrons of certain television channels be a mere coincidence? I find that hard to believe. You’re probably familiar with the old joke about fools. The moral of the joke is this: ‘Label someone a fool too many times, and shortly afterwards he’ll start to believe in it’. Expose a person to 820 episodes of ‘Wedding Ring’, and soon he’ll believe that other problems in life simply don’t exist. No failed banks, no leu depreciation, no corrupted figures bonded with the state.
For that matter, even on Independence Day the channel’s programming was filled with television series.
The culminating point of media independence in an independent state?
Online space is increasingly becoming a point of interest for media consumers, even if it is predominantly occupied by ‘commercial’ opinions of politically biased analysts. The most recent example of political bias in online space would be the presence of Russian state portal sputnik.md on Moldova’s media market. (...)
Whereas Riga saw the opening of a center for combating Russian propaganda, the voice of Russian propaganda still echoes in Chisinau, even in Romanian, and is firmly taking its place in the local media space. Could this phenomenon be the culminating point of media independence in an independent state? (...)
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The article was published within the Advocacy Campaigns Aimed at Improving Transparency of Media Ownership, Access to Information and promotion of EU values and integration project, implemented by the IJC, which is, in its turn, part of the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project, implemented by FHI 360.
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content are the responsibility of author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
