You are here

July 2016

July, 2016

Events

 

The Second Media Hackathon “The Fifth Power” Took Place in Chisinau

The second media hackathon “The Fifth Power” was organized by the Independent Journalism Center and Deutsche Welle Akademie in the period of July 1-3 în Chisinau. About 80 participants from Moldova, 5 from Georgia, 1 from Armenia and 5 from Ukraine registered for the hackathon. 60 persons participated in the final competition. After three days worked on developing IT projects, web or mobile apps, which should improve the abilities of media consumers to critically perceive media messages, fight propaganda and filter information, the winning teams have been named: DIY News, Trolless and Caucasus Hack Pack (Georgia, Armenia).

More

Media Legislation

 

Draft New Broadcasting Code Voted in the First Reading

The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova voted in the first reading, on July 1, the bill nr. 53 of the new Broadcasting Code, over a year after the legislative initiative was submitted to the parliament by a group of Liberal MPs. Media experts consider that the great battle for this code will take place in the second reading, when dozens of amendments proposed by the government, parliamentary groups and civil society will be put to vote. The document was reviewed by the Council of Europe, European Broadcasting Union and OSCE Mission to Moldova and was subject to four public hearings at the parliamentary commission for media.

More

 

Broadcasting Code Again in the Deputies' Attention

On Thursday, July, 7 the parliament adopted two bills - 125 (LP) and 218 (DP) - in the first reading that provide updates for the Broadcasting Code in force. Some deputies were dissatisfied that they had to debate these bills too because on July, 1 they examined and voted the new bill of the Broadcasting Code in the first reading. The authors of the legislative initiatives motivated that these updates will be used as amendments to voting the new Code in second reading. The bills 218 and 125 drew harsh responses in the parliament's session. According to the deputy of LDPM, Vadim Pistrinciuc the bill 218 „doesn't prohibit propaganda, but puts additional regulations which can stop the little freedom of expression that exists in Moldova nowadays".

More

Public Debates on the Bill 218 "to Discuss and Accumulate Recommendations”

The authors of the bill 218 on the modification and completion of the Broadcasting Code of the Republic of Moldova organized on July, 14 public debates on this document. The event was announced a day before and had a bad turnout of media experts, MPs and civil society. The DP deputy, Sergiu Sirbu, declared at the beginning of the debates that "public consultations are necessary to dismantle myths, to discuss and accumulate recommendations". Media experts suspected that the authors of the 218 bill want to put to vote only this bill, not the new Broadcasting Code, voted in the first reading, two weeks ago.

More

 

The Parliament Announces a New Debate on the Broadcasting Code. The Media Expert: „This Is a Mimicry of the Participatory Process”

A press release published on July, 20, on the parliament's website, informed that " the proposals of updating the Broadcastig Code in force, as well as the bill of the new Code will be exposed to broad public debate on Tuesday, July, 26". The press release specified that the event is organized at the initiative of the speaker Andrian Candu and will have the topic: "Propaganda and domestic product, the challenges from the media space of the Republic of Moldova". The media experts declared that in this case the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova wants “to fool again the public opinion of our country, through the mimicry of the participatory process of adopting the changes for the Broadcasting legislation".

More

The Media Experts Are Concerned About the Debates on the Audiovisual Legislation

The media experts, the representatives of the civil society and the journalists organized on July, 25, in reply to the debates announced by the parliament, debates in the Discussion Club "STOP FALSE" on the topic: "Protection of the local informational space from the external and internal propaganda". During the discussions, they drew attention, again, to the fact that the bill 218 could be voted in the second reading till July, 31, "but the bill of the new Code will be forgotten". "The cleaning of the media market is wanted in order to make room for other channels. All of these are done in the noble purpose of fighting with propaganda", was the conclusion of participants in the Discussion club.

More

About the Local Product, the Fight With Propaganda and ... "Commitments Contained in the Roadmap"

Public debates organized on July, 26, by the Parliament on the topic "The challenges of the media space of the Republic of Moldova, propaganda and the domestic product" took place. Although discussions were controversial and not all national and international experts supported the bill 218, after more than four hours of public debates, the author of the bill 218, the DP deputy, Sergiu Sirbu, declared for a TV channel: "We have some commitments on the Roadmap and we have a deadline July, 31 when we have to adopt these changes". At their turn, the media experts declared that the debates initiated by the parliament on the democrats' bill constitute a imitation of the democratic process and it will only cause conditions of unfair competition on the media market from Moldova and will lead to the disappearance of someTV Channels from the media space.

More

Call to the MPs in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova

Ten non-governmental NGOs from media field - Association of Independent Press, Independent Journalism Centre, Association of Electronic Press, Association of Independent TV journalists, Centre for Journalistic Investigations, Association of Journalists of Russian Language, Centre ”Acces-Info”, Centre of the Young Journalist from Moldova, Committee for Freedom of Press, Association of Journalists of Environment and Environmental Tourism from the Republic of Moldova – adressed the Call to the MPs în the parliament, on July, 31. They asked the deputies not to vote the bills on the modification and completion of the Broadcasting Code of the Republic of Moldova and to put off their examination till the next parliamentary session, merging them with the bill of the new Broadcasting Code, as was decided at the meeting from July, 7 2016.

Thus, in the last meeting of the summer session of parliament none of the bills related to audiovisual legislation has not been examined.

More

The Parliament Voted a Bill Drafted by the IJC in the First Reading Which Will Facilitate Media Access to Information of Public Interest

The Parliament voted in the first reading the bill nr.47 for amending and supplementing the Law on access to information on Thursday, 28 July , drafted by the experts of the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC) and registered as legislative initiative by a group of MPs: Vladimir Hotineanu, Mihaela Spatari, Aliona Gota, Stefan Creanga, Ion Balan and George Mocanu. The bill proposes the optimization of the procedure of registration requests for information in a special Register for accounting. The DP MP, Raisa Apolischi, chairperson of the Legal Committee for Appointments and Immunities informed the MPs that only two members of this Committee voted for the examination of the bill in the plenary session of the Parliament. The Government didn't support in its notice the idea of establishing a register of applications with information request, motivating that "it would be an expensive proposition".

More

Press Freedom

 

The Parliament's Security Guards Withdrew the Accreditation of the Journalist from the Site Newsmaker.md

The officers of the Security Service of the Parliament withdrew the accreditation of the journalist Galina Vasilieva from the site newsmaker.md on Thursday, July 21 because she overcame the barrier of the specially designed space for the press from institution to ask for a statement the speaker Andrian Candu. According to the journalist's arguments, posted on the newsmaker.md site, more often the journalists can't obtain a statement from the elected officials because some of them don't appear in front of the press. The media expert Dumitru Lazur considered that the security guards didn't have any legal right to withdraw the accreditation of the NM journalist. A day later, the parliament decided to return the accreditation.

More

Statements

 

Protest Against the Intimidation of the Journalist Vadim Șterbate by a Public Servant from the Ministry of Defence

A number of media NGO-s signed on Friday, 15th of July, a statement of the Association of Independent Press (AIP), protesting against the intimidation of the journalist Vadim Șterbate, reporter of “Observatorul de Nord” newspaper of Soroca, by the Deputy Minister of Defence, Alexandru Cimbriciuc. After publication of the article “(De)gheretizarea orașului Soroca?” (“Removal of kiosks in the town of Soroca?”) which raised the problem of constructions that spoil the town’s appearance, including the issue of a kiosk situated in the proximity of the fortress of Soroca which belongs to Alexandru Cimbriciuc jr., the son of the Deputy Minister of Defence, Alexandru Cimbriciuc, the editorial board of “Observatorul de Nord” newspaper and its collaborators have been subject to different kinds of intimidation. The authors of the statement requested the investigation of this case by the General Prosecutor’s Office and the punishment of the official according to the legislation.
More

 

Abuse Committed by the Ministry of Interior Against Reporter of the Centre for Journalistic Investigations

Eight media non-governmental organizations - Independent Journalism Center, Association of Independent Press, Association of Electronic Press, Center of Journalistic Investigations, „Acces-Info” Center, Committee for Press Freedom, Association of Independent TV Journalists, Young Journalist Center of Moldova - condemned abusive actions of the Directorate for Fighting against Corruption under the Service for Internal Protection and Anticorruption of the Ministry of Interior against the reporter of the Centre for Journalistic Investigations, Mariana Colun. The journalist has sent to the Ministry of Interior several requests for information, asking, among other, for a comment on an alleged case of corruption committed by a police officer in relation with the market improvised near the Railway Station. But, instead of receiving an answer to her requests, she was summoned for an interrogation “in relation with the examination of the file concerning the provision of information about the alleged illegal actions of the police employees”.

More

 

The Media NGO-s Asked State Institutions toTake Actions in Relation with the Statements of the Journalist Natalia Morari

Seven media non-governmental organizations - Association of Independent Press, Independent Journalism Center, Center of Journalistic Investigations, Association of Independent TV Journalists, Association of Electronic Press, Committee for Press Freedom
, Young Journalist Center of Moldova - notified the Information and Security Service, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Interior, calling for actions and for investigations concerning the information made public by the journalist and moderator of „Interpol” talk-show, Natalia Morari. During the broadcast of Monday, 11th of July 2016, she declared about the plotted new provocations and attempts at intimidation ordered, according to the journalist, by the „heads of a State institution”. The signatories claimed the competent state authorities initiate an investigation based on the statements of Natalia Morari, investigate objectively the case and inform the public about the results of the investigation.

More

“Media Azi” Broadcast

 

The Main Subjects of July Editions

In July, the IJC has produced five Media Azi shows (IX-XIII). The host of the ninth edition, the director of the Independent Journalism Centre (IJC), Nadine Gogu, discussed about the need of the new code with her interlocutors Lilian Carp, deputy, representative of the fraction LP, and Ion Bunduchi, executive director of the Association of Electronic Press (AELP), one of the bill's authors. The tenth Media Azi broadcast refers to the freedom of expression, between an offensive language and excessive regulations. The theme was analyzed by the journalist Nicolae Negru, as a moderator, and his guest Olivia Pirtac, an expert in media legislation. Why does the Law on the Access to Information not work? It was the subject of the eleventh edition, moderated by the expert Dumitru Lazur, whose guests were the journalist Anastasia Nani, editor-in-chief of Anticoruptie.md website and the member of Parliament George Mocanu.

In the twelfth edition of Media Azi, the journalist Ivan Sveatcenсo and his guests, the director of the Resource Centre for Human Rights (CREDO), Sergiu Ostaf, and the journalist Serghei Ilicenco discuss about the Ministry of Home Affairs proposals to establish criminal punishment for the dissemination of genocide and racism on the Internet. And the subject of the thirteenth broadcast was about the disagreements between the media organizations and the Parliamentary majority refers to HOW concretely to change the Broadcasting Code. The journalist Nicolae Negru, as a moderator, and Eugeniu Ribca, expert in the media legislation, as a guest, debates this topic in the last July edition of the TV show "Media Azi".

Trainings

 

About Ethical Rules and Current Journalistic Practices

The young journalists from the local and national press participated in a training program entitled "Ethical rules and current journalistic practices", organized by the Independent Journalism Centre on July 22 and 23. The event was moderated by media experts Viorica Zaharia and Ludmila Andronic. Such topics as: respect for private life by the journalists, interaction with the sources and other aspects related to the professional ethics of a journalist were debated in an informal and interactive atmosphere. At the same time, they discussed about the correctness of the titles, as well as the language when writing a piece of news. During the two days, the participants at the event reported about the more problematic situations from their professional activity, related to the professional ethics and ethical rules, identifying solutions for each case with the experts' help.

More

Copyright © 2016 Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent, All rights reserved.