Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei Is Elected President of the Parliamentary Committee for the Media

During the meeting, the parliamentarians decided that the committee for the media would consist of 12 members. Its vice-presidents are Adela Raileanu from the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists (EBCS) and Virgiliu Paslariuc from PAS. The secretary of the committee is Marcela Adam (PAS). The committee also includes four PAS deputies – Maria Gonta, Marcela Nistor, Larisa Novac, and Eugeniu Sinchevici, three EBCS deputies – Elena Beleacova, Diana Caraman, and Svetlana Capatina, and one deputy from the Sor Party, Petru Jardan. Therefore, PAS has seven members in the committee, EBCS has four deputies, and SPP has one deputy. According to the Regulations of the Parliament, the nominal composition of the standing committees shall be established depending on the proportional representation of the factions in the legislative authority.

Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei is a professional philologist and used to work as a Romanian language teacher. In December 2020, she held the position of President Maia Sandu’s councilor. She is the ex-Minister of Education, Culture, and Research in the Government of Maia Sandu (2019). Earlier, she held the positions of counselor n the same ministry as well as that of deputy minister. She also worked as a consulting expert at the PRO Didactica Educational Center and as a director of the “Modernization of Humanitarian Education” program at the Soros Foundation. Her career includes two years of working as a linguistic coordinator at the US Peace Corps in Moldova, and before that, she was an assistant lecturer at Moldova State University.

The newly elected Parliament is composed of the three parliamentary factions – those of the Action and Solidarity Party, the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists (EBCS), and the Sor Political Party. The PAS faction holds the absolute majority represented by 63 deputies.

On July 26, at the constituent meeting of the Parliament in the 11th legislative authority, Maia Sandu, the head of the state and PAS ex-president, mentioned in her speech that she was looking forward to “firm actions from the Government and Parliament to protect people from lies on the TV and in the press.” “I would like to see Broadcasting Council which no longer demonstrates its political preferences for the politicians’ money. We need a law to strictly punish manipulation and fake news,” the president affirmed.