Various Journalists, Representatives of the Civil Society Would Have Been Wiretapped by the Special Services of the Republic of Moldova

Chiril Motpan said that he had recently received information from the Committee on the wiretapping of a number of individuals who are supporters of the ‘Dignity and Truth’ Party (PPDA), that he is also a member of, without mentioning the source. According to Motpan, the wiretaps were conducted by the Security and Intelligence Service and by the Police Inspectorate that was led at that time by Gheorghe Cavcaliuc.

Media-azi.md tried to get a comment from Cavcaliuc, but his phone number was not available.

According to Motpan the following people were wiretapped: Nadine Gogu, Executive Director of the Independent Journalism Center, Petru Macovei, Executive Director of the Association of Independent Press, Cornelia Cozonac, Director of the Center for Investigative Journalism, Alina Radu, Director of Ziarul de Garda, journalists from TV 8, Natalia Morari, Mariana Rata and Angela Gonta; journalists form Jurnal TV, Anatolie Durbala, Constantin Cheianu, Vasile Nastase (now MP), Val Butnaru, Vladimir Berghii, Alina Cujba; journalists Ion Preasca from RISE Moldova and Valentina Ursu from Radio Free Europe, Tudor Darie, founder of the portal Agora.md and others.

The TV channel TV 8 urged the media to start a joint action against the illegal tracking and wiretapping of journalists and civic activists from Moldova. "We urge you all to sign a joint request to the General Prosecutor's Office to ask to conduct the criminal investigation of the circumstances we were wiretapped and stalk. It is time to join our efforts to punish in criminal proceedings those who ordered and those who executed the order on our abusive and illegal wiretapping", stated the request.

Note that, previously, RISE Moldova wrote in the article ‘The Ministry of Wiretapping’ that the authorities conducted a campaign during which it wiretapped and stalked the opponents of the democratic government under the guise of certain criminal cases filed on the basis of some messages posted on Facebook or statements made during press conferences. According to RISE, 52 people, including politicians, representatives of civil society and even journalists, were under the lens of the prosecutors and policemen. Besides wiretapping the phone calls, the private life of certain individuals was monitored through microphones and video cameras that were set up in their homes.
 
According to Vladislav Gribincea, the Head of the Legal Resources Center from Moldova, (who was also wiretapped, according to Motpan's data), the statistics of the last years show that the number of orders for wiretapping the phone calls in the Republic of Moldova has been continuously increasing.

UPDATE: It should be mentioned that the General Prosecutor's Office took action and is currently checking the information submitted by the deputy Chiril Motpan regarding the alleged illegal wiretapping of several journalists, civic activists, etc., which allegedly were conducted upon the indication of the former leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA). Dumitru Robu, the Interim General Prosecutor, stated for TV8.md that he checked whether the information included in the document submitted by Chiril Motpan was different from the information provided by the investigation conducted by the journalists from RISE Moldova several months ago, based on which three criminal cases were filed.

UPDATE: Ghoerghe Cavcaliuc reacted on his Facebook page to Motpan’s accusations. Cavcaliuc rejected the accusations and said they were false. "As regards the false accusations launched against me for the umpteenth time by the same irresponsible political stakeholders who got into the Parliament by intoxicating the public opinion and by manipulating the society by using all types of fakes and lies, I want to say the following: ‘I definitely reject the accusations against me and I qualify these actions as a revenge and a biased denigration, because, last week, during a TV show I revealed various information and I brought evidence about how the leadership of the party and certain party colleagues in key state positions that are part of the same party as Chiril Motpan is, lied and manipulated the society with fakes. During my professional career, I was alway guided by the law. I had a correct, transparent and friendly attitude towards media representatives, and journalists will not let me lie about this", wrote Cavcaliuc.

The list of persons that were wiretapped, as provided by Motpan: