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The Chisinau Press Club – the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) and the Press Freedom Committee announced the top journalists of the year 2015 during the Annual Press Club Gala, 21th edition, on December 17. This event aimed to foster professional journalism development, to support and encourage the efforts of journalists to produce high quality journalism in line with international professional standards. The top journalists of the year were selected on a contest base of journalistic reports that were produced and published during January-October 2015, assigned to different award categories. The candidates were evaluated by members of the jury and the IJC Senate. The Annual Press Club Gala was held with the financial support of the OSCE Mission to Moldova.
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| On Thursday, December 3, the administrators of RISE.MD announced on Facebook that the website has been subjected to a massive DDoS cyber-attack. On the same day, RISE Moldova director Iurie Sanduta and journalist Mihai Munteanu published an investigation that featured a number of documents, including an alleged letter of prosecutor Ivan Diacov to the mogul Vladimir Plahotniuc, and transcripts disclosing certain criminal links to Democratic Party MP Constantin Tutu. |
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| On Wednesday, December 2, the participants at the Press Club meeting discussed about information manipulation, its forms and the methods for combating it. The experts suggested that media consumers could fight manipulation by: developing critical thinking; using alternative sources of information covering a broad coverage of issues, including European ones, and by reporting cases of manipulation found in media to the Press Club or to media organizations concerned with observance of the professional ethical standards in journalism.
The event was organized by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) with the support of the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the “Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society in Moldova” Project implemented by FHI 360. |
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| Eight media NGOs - Association of Independent Press, Independent Journalism Center, Association of Electronic Press, Center of Journalistic Investigations, Press Freedom Committee, Association of Independent TV Journalists, “Acces-Info” Center, Young Journalist Center of Moldova - expressed their concern about the attempt to intimidate the editorial board of the investigative weekly newspaper Ziarul de Garda in the declaration of December 16, 2015. They asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to clarify the circumstances under which the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs visited the office of Ziarul de Garda in order to find out “whether an article is being prepared about the Minister of internal affairs.” Also, they asked for clarification of eventual involvement into this case of the acting minister of internal affairs Oleg Balan and interim head of the General Police Inspectorate Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, who was the protagonist of a journalistic investigation conducted by Ziarul de Garda. |
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Several non-governmental organizations - Association of Independent Press,
Independent Journalism Center, Association of Electronic Press, Association of Independent TV Journalists, “Acces-info” Center, Center of Journalistic Investigations, Moldovan Union of Journalists – expressed their concerned with the intensification of political control over the editorial content of local media outlets, they also communicatedabout the inefficiency of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) in ensuring compliance with the principle of social and-political balance and pluralism, which is mandatory for all broadcasters in Moldova, including those who rebroadcast foreign TV channels and radio broadcasts. The signatories
asked the BCC to take immediate and active action in order to make the broadcasters whose owners are politicians or business people close to political parties abide the provisions of article 7 of the Broadcasting Code (“Social andpolitical balance and pluralism”). |
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According to radioorhei.info, on December 29, a security guard of the Orhei City Hall did not allow the website’s correspondent to attend the meeting of the CC. The
Independent Journalism Center, Association of Independent Press
Association of Electronic Press, Press Freedom Committee
“Acces-Info” Center, Association of Independent TV Journalists expressed their
concern about this attempt to restrict journalists’ rights. It was not the first violation of this kind at the Orhei City Hall. Media NGOs askedthe Orhei Police Commissariat, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Orhei Prosecution Office to investigate the cases of repeated abuse, when access to information was hindered, and to inform the public as soon as possible about the outcomes of the investigation concerning the persons who obstructed the Radio Orhei journalist’s access to the CC meeting of December 29. |
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| On Monday, November 30, media experts and representatives of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) and civil society exchanged their views on the draft Broadcasting Code during the public consultations organized by the parliamentary commission for mass media. The draft was prepared media experts back in 2011, but it was registered in the Parliament only this March by the parliamentary group of the Liberal Party. According to the authors of the draft, this document contains provisions allowing the adjustment of the national legal framework to the European legislation, and some of these are also found in the EU-Moldova Association Agreement. |
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| After NTV Moldova failed to receive the broadcasting license at the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) meeting on December 3; on Tuesday, December 8, the BCC voted for granting the license despite a declaration of media NGOs, which recommended to the BCC “not to allow rebroadcasting in Moldova of Russian newscasts and information and analysis programs that seriously violate the principle of socio-political balance, neutrality and objectivity.” The decision was approved by seven council members out of the eight present. BCC member Olga Gututui voted against, and her colleague Mariana Onceanu-Hadirca was absent from the meeting. |
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| The Independent Journalism Center summed up the results of the “Freedom of expression and mass media development in Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus” project at an informal event on December 4, which was attended by representatives of Deutsche Welle Akademie, media experts, journalists, trainers, university professors. Participants shared the experience they gained during he activities they were involved in and said that they still had a lot to do to promote media education, because young people need such lessons. |
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The Independent Journalism Center (IJC) launched on Tuesday, December 22, 2015, the study “Measuring the perceptions of sociopolitical news by the media audience in the Republic of Moldova.” In the study, experts Tamara Caraus (Moldova) and Ivan Godarsky (Slovakia) analyzed the media sources preferred by Moldovan citizens, the perception of information and manipulation, as well as the preferences in terms of domestic media versus foreign media. According to the study, propaganda and manipulation are mostly used by Moldovan media (77%), followed by the media from Russia (60%), Romania (50%) and Ukraine (48%).
This study has been produced with the financial support from the U.S. Embassy in Moldova. |
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| Copyright © 2016 Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent, All rights reserved. |
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