Media NGOs about Foreign Journalists Being Forbidden to Enter Moldova
Media NGOs have signed a declaration expressing concern about the Border Police forbidding two foreign journalists – Roman Shutov, program director of the portal detector.media from Kiev, Ukraine, and Irada Zeynalova, presenter on the Russian television NTV – to enter Moldova. The two journalists were returned from Chisinau International Airport for the reason that they could not confirm the purpose of their visits. Signatories to the declaration ask the Government of Moldova to take urgent measures to ensure free movement of foreign journalists visiting our country, in line with the national legislation and with relevant international conventions.

The Civil Society Asks the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Investigate the Case of Two More Russian Journalists Returned to Moscow
Several civil society organizations specialized in the media, including the Independent Journalism Center, the Electronic Press Association, and the Press Freedom Committee, asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) to initiate an internal investigation on the reasons why the Border Police prohibited two journalists of the Russian television RTVI to cross the border of Moldova. The authors of this declaration asked the MIA to investigate the case and to take proper measures if it is found that the Border Police representatives acted contrary to the legislation.

BCC: Broadcasters Forced to Comply with the “Anti-Propaganda” Law
The Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC) issued on January 15 a decision, obliging broadcasters and service distributors in Moldova to adapt their broadcast program services to the “anti-propaganda” law. Fines for violation of this law range from MDL 40,000 to MDL 70,000, and fines for repeated violations – from MDL 70,000 to MDL 100,000. Withdrawal of the broadcast license will only be applied after gradual application of sanctions. At the same time, the BCC will monitor compliance with the new provisions throughout the year 2018.

The BCC Reports Lack of Sign Language Specialists
Hearing impaired people are dissatisfied with the insufficient number of newscasts with translation into sign language in prime time on Moldovan televisions. According to the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC), the majority of televisions, despite having the obligation to deliver, since September 1, 2017, a newscast with translation into sign language or with simultaneous subtitles daily between 17.00 and 23.00, do not fully comply with this obligation. According to the Association of the Deaf, in Moldova there are about 5,000 hearing impaired persons, and only 17 licensed sign language interpreters.

The AIP Launched Stopfals.md
The Association of Independent Press (AIP) has launched www.stopfals.md – the online platform of the campaign against false and tendentious information “STOP FALS!”, which has been conducted for two years now by the AIP in partnership with the Independent Journalism Center and the Association of Independent TV Journalists of Moldova. By launching this portal, which has the slogan “The portal that protects you from media fakes and manipulation,” the AIP aims at reducing the impact of media fakes and at developing the citizens’ ability for critical analysis of information. The platform will familiarize readers with modern fact-checking tools, which can help check the information that appears in the public space and identify fakes promoted through text, images, or video.

The Constitutional Court Allowed the Speaker of Parliament or the Prime Minister to Promulgate the “Anti-Propaganda” Law
The Constitutional Court (CC) decided on January 4, 2018 to assign the temporary duty of president of Moldova after Igor Dodon repeatedly refused to promulgate the “anti-propaganda” law. The CC found that by refusing to promulgate this law the head of the state violated his constitutional obligations and oath. Therefore, the CC decided that the law should be promulgated either by the Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu or by Prime Minister Pavel Filip.

Andrian Candu Signed the Decree Promulgating the “Anti-Propaganda” Law
According to a press release of the Parliament’s Department of Communication and Public Relations, the Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu, acting as interim president according to the powers offered to him by the Constitutional Court to promulgate the “anti-propaganda” law, signed the promulgation decree on January 10, 2018. The new provisions of the Broadcasting Code under this law allow transmission of informational, analytical, military, and political programs on television and radio if they are produced in the Member States of the European Union, the USA, Canada, or in the countries that ratified the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, and forbid the transmission of such programs from countries that are not in this list. The Russian Federation is not among the countries that ratified the above convention.

Moscow’s Reaction to the Promulgation of the “Anti-Propaganda” Law
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced at a press briefing on Thursday, January 11, that Moscow reserves the right to respond to the promulgation of the so-called anti-propaganda law by the Moldovan Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu, according to a press release of the Russian ministry. Zakharova accused the parliamentary majority in Chisinau of violating Moldovan citizens’ rights to information and of deviation from democratic norms.

Changes at the Public Broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova under the New Broadcasting Code
The draft of the new broadcasting code, which will be named the Code of Audiovisual Media Services, provides for a number of changes in the work of the public broadcasting company Teleradio-Moldova and of its supervisory body, the Supervisory Board (SB). This Board will have 6 members more than the company’s Board of Observers currently has, and the nomination of candidates will take into consideration that 5 of them need to be from outside Chisinau and that 3 should be of minority ethnicity. The draft Code of Audiovisual Media Services is at the stage of public consultations. The document is prepared by local and foreign experts within the parliamentary group on improving media legislation.

Where's the truth in the media? Librarians are talking about media literacy in the regional and rural communities within MEDIA-M project!
The first trainings in media literacy, within “Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova” project, launched by Internews in Moldova with the financial support of USAID, was organized at the “Eugeniu Coșeriu” City Library in Balti and Cantemir District Library (photo https://www.facebook.com/internewsinmoldova/).Within this project, 16 Novateca librarians (The Global Libraries Program in Moldova http://novateca.md/ro/program-overview ), were selected from all around the country to conduct workshops for teachers, local administration officials, local and regional opinion leaders, pensioners, doctors, students, and others. The purpose of the training sessions is to inform the local population about techniques of manipulation of information in the media, to develop skills to disseminate and critically analyze information, so that the population would differentiate between facts and opinions. Also, to get the locals to constantly analyze their sources of information, thus creating a protection mechanism against media traps. The training program will take place in the period January - April 2018.

Cross-Border Reports Connect Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine
A series of multimedia materials produced by journalists from Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia have been launched as part of the regional project “Neighbors.” Five teams from the three countries – the newspaper Ziarul de Garda and the Association of Environment and Ecotourism Journalists (Moldova), Canal 24 (Ukraine), Studio Monitor and a group of independent journalists (Georgia) – produced cross-border reports on issues of regional interest, such as urban development, oligarchic government, propaganda, occupied territories, winemaking, and alternative energy. The first regional material about energy independence in the three countries, produced by the Association of Environment and Ecotourism Journalists, was published in Moldova on January 04, 2018. Another regional material, about oligarchies in the three countries, was produced by Ziarul de Garda. All regional reports will be published by local media partners in Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia.

The “Media Freedom Matters” small advocacy grants competition has closed. Freedom House received 30 applications and will announce the winners in February. These grants will support local organizations' efforts to increase public awareness of media freedom issues, including freedom of expression.
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The Media Forward Policy Brief series officially launched on January 30 and is published on Freedom House’s new MEDIA-M program page. The first brief in the series, titled “Media Literacy and the Challenge of Fake News,” focuses on how external actors have created parallel realities and employed deceiving narratives in an effort to manipulate, control, and disrupt media and society in Moldova. Victoria Bucătaru, the Executive Director of the Moldova-based Foreign Policy Association, is the author of this policy brief.
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The Freedom House Freedom of the Press 2017 report for Moldova is now available for download in English, Russian, and Romanian.

“Divided by Two”: Gender Identity – How Much Does It Split Us?
Since birth, every person belongs to a biological gender, which then determines our personal and professional development. Also based on gender identity the family and then society expect certain things from us. How different women and men are and what differences there are between genders are the issues discussed in the “Divided by Two” [Romanian „Împărțit la doi”] show. Another episode of “Divided by Two” discusses the way parents and the education system can help the young generation learn life skills without gender stereotypes. One more episode of “Divided by Two” focuses on postnatal depression, which affects both women and men.

The December 2017 Issue of “Mass Media in Moldova” Magazine
The new issue of the “Mass Media in Moldova” magazine, which appears in Romanian, Russian, and English, in electronic and print versions, presents a cycle of original materials that focus on media events from the second half of 2017, as well as on topics of general interest. The authors who contributed to this issue are media experts Aneta Gonta, Ion Bunduchi, Tatiana Puiu, Alexandru Dorogan, Mariana Onceanu-Hadarca, Ioana Burtea, Victor Gotisan, and others. They addressed problems in the media sector; the need for radical changes in broadcasting; access to information in relation to personal data protection; Moldova falling behind in switchover to digital television; the autonomy and independence of the Broadcasting Coordinating Council; implementation of media education in the system of education; and so on.