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The draft law was developed by the Parliamentary Working Group on Improving the Media Legislation and contains the recommendations made by the Center for Independent Journalism, the Association of Independent Press and other media experts.
Earlier, the Independent Journalism Center developed a draft Law amending the Law on Access to Information. The draft was registered as a legislative initiative by a group of MPs, but it was voted in the first reading only in July 2016. Some provisions of this draft law were included in the draft law tabled recently by the Parliament.
The legislative package to be amended also includes the Law on Freedom of Expression, Law on Personal Data Protection, Petitions Law, Contravention Code, Law on State Secret and Law on Press.
Registry for the press
The draft law was signed by MPs Andrian Candu, Eugen Carpov, Corneliu Mihalache and Vladimir Hotineanu. The chapter with amendments to the Law on Freedom of Expression defines the notion of journalist and describes media outlets registration mechanism.
Thus, according to the document, media outlets must register with the Agency for Public Services and in Public Media Registry.
At the same time, each issue of a periodical must include the following reference data: name of publication, founder, name of the editor (chief editor) or his/her alternate, order number and printing date, price of a copy, address of editorial office and printing house, index, circulation, number and date of registration.
The online media will be also obliged to provide almost the same information as mentioned above.
Concurrently, the draft law prohibits publishing and distributing unregistered periodicals.
Who is a journalist?
Law on Freedom of Expression gives us the following definition: ‘Media — means of mass information, printed or electronic, as well as the journalist’.
The new draft law has a separate definition for the notion of journalist, according to which journalist ‘is an individual who regularly collects, photographs, records video and/or audio, edits and publishes information of public interest, with the purpose of public dissemination through the media’.
According to the document, foreign journalists will be accredited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI). At the same time, public authorities might refuse to grant accreditation to journalists only due to deeds that prevent ‘normal conduct of the public authority activities’.
MFAEI may suspend accreditation of a foreign journalist in case he/she breaches the Constitution or other laws.
From 15 to 10 days. The period for delivering information of public interest is reduced
The draft also contains several amendments to the Law on Access to Information.
For example, the requested information must be provided within maximum 10 days since the date when the request for information was registered.
The draft also provides that, if there is a justified explanation why the information of public interest needs to be offered with no delays, the information of public interest shall be delivered within two days.
At the same time, the number of information requests is not limited and the applicant may ask for explanations and clarifications on the provided information.
Information providers
According to the legislative initiative, non-residents in the Republic of Moldova will also have the right of access to information.
The authors extended the list of providers who are obliged to offer information to the applicants. Therefore, the list includes enterprises and joint-stock companies in which the State is founder and/or shareholder, political parties, social-political organisations, political groups, religious cults and non-profit organisations. ‘Individuals or legal entities of private law who are and/or were in partnership and/or cooperation with public authorities and other subjects mentioned above or remunerated from public money or international funds/grants for Moldovan authorities and are in possession of information of public interest’, will be also obliged to provide the information.
Furthermore, information providers will be obliged to publish more information about the outlet itself, number of employees, statistical data, public procurements, and other details.
How will the personal data of public interest be processed by the media?
Besides that, authors included amendments to the Law on Personal Data Protection. Thus, the draft adds the notion of ‘personal data of public interest’ into the mentioned law, aiming to eliminate the vicious practice of some public institutions that have recently unjustifiably refused to provide information to the media invoking the rules for personal data protection.
Thus, the draft stipulates that media outlets need not register as an operator of personal data so that this measure cannot be interpreted as an impediment to the their work.
The media will not be obliged to process personal data of public interest only with the individual’s consent and will not need the approval of special bodies for this purpose if data are collected as part of a journalistic investigation or a feature story on topics of public interest.
The request for personal data of public interest will be made in the name of the of media outlet. The access to personal data of public interest may be restricted if the analysed special case jeopardizes the physical or psychological security of a person, in the case of minors, in the case of persons with disabilities and in other situations.
The draft also provides amendments to the Contravention Code, according to which the Ministry of Internal Affairs is in charge of finding and examining contraventions regarding the violation of legislation on access to information and petitioning, as well as publishing of the public periodicals not registered in the Public Periodical Publications Registry. Prosecutors will also have powers of finding and examining violations of the legislation on access to information and publication of non-registered periodicals.
Furthermore, a number of amendments are proposed on classifying and declassifying information of public interest. For example, according to the draft law, the period for classifying the information about people who are collaborating or have collaborated in confidence with bodies conducting intelligence, counterintelligence and operative investigation activities, is up to 25 years. At present, this term is unlimited.
The authors propose to repeal the Law on Press as its provisions are included in other current laws.
