This time, several officials appeared on the Board of Shame: MP and Liberal Party leader Mihai Ghimpu; Orhei Mayor Ilan Shor; several representatives of the Democratic Party; Liberal Democratic Party leader Vlad Filat; Democratic Party leader Marian Lupu; a group of MPs of the Party of Socialists; Balti Mayor Renato Usatii; the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Every one of them attempted at freedom of expression in the period of May 3, 2015 to May 3, 2016, either by inappropriate statements or by actions and legislative initiatives that resulted in restriction of the rights of journalists in Moldova.
IJC Executive Director Nadine Gogu told the media that the action aimed to bring politicians and public officials to responsibility. “We wanted to bring back into focus the problems that journalists faced in the past year. It is, firstly, limited access to information. The “Enemies of the Press” board this year displayed several cases of restriction of journalists’ access to public meetings. Another problem is modification of the legislative framework. Some laws were modified and there were attempts to modify other laws, the adoption of which might eventually obstruct the work of the media, especially online media, and allow Internet censorship. And, last but not least, a problem is the statements made by some politicians, which, in our opinion, are in contradiction with the principles of democratic society,” Nadine Gogu commented.
During the above period, IJC’s portal “Media Azi” presented the cases from the Board of Shame in its “Enemies of the Press” section.
The Independent Journalism Center will continue monitoring and presenting similar actions of public officials and their relations with the media. Thus, we intend to raise the officials’ awareness about constitutional rights and freedoms of media representatives and to urge them to respect those rights and freedoms.
The Board can be accessed HERE.