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During debates held in Strasburg on July 5, European Parliament members and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, expressed their concern about media in Moldova with respect to the political situation after the invalidation of the mayoral election in Chisinau. The resolution of the European Parliament, which also makes reference to a UN report to this end, emphasizes that “in Moldova, human rights defenders and journalists are victims of stigmatization campaigns, face politically motivated criminal charges, or are threatened whenever they defend people with dissenting voices, while journalists’ access to information is restricted.”
The concerns expressed by the European officials and by the UN Rapporteur were confirmed by the representatives of independent media outlets.
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On July 5, following consultations with civil society and independent media, the European Parliament adopted a resolution regarding the political situation in Moldova, calling on the Moldovan authorities to adopt the new Code in a transparent manner. At the same time, the European Parliament expressed its concern as to whether independent, local, and opposition media in Moldova, which inter alia lack sufficient resources, “will be able to implement the new Code’s requirements regarding mandatory local content.”
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The Republic of Moldova is the most exposed and the most vulnerable country to Russian propaganda in Central and Eastern Europe, according to the results of a study called ‘Resistance to Disinformation in Central and Eastern Europe’. The research shows that most of the top televisions re-broadcast Russian programs, and a considerable part of the online media favors the Kremlin. At the same time, the authors of the study find that there are several important categories of population prone to be manipulated. They also mention that the measures taken lately by the authorities are not enough, moreover, they are likely to favor certain political groups. The study analysed the extent to which the 14 monitored states are vulnerable to Russian propaganda, assessing the situation on the basis of three indicators: degree of exposure of the population to misinformation and propaganda; state counter-measures; vulnerability to a potential digital war.
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Seven media non-governmental organisations - Center for Independent Journalism, Association of Independent Press, Association of Electronic Press, Center for Investigative Journalism, Press Freedom Committee, Association of Independent TV Journalists ‘Acces-Info’ Center, Association of Investigative Reporters and Editorial Security - expressed their concerns about the threatening statements made against journalists by Ilan Șor, Mayor of Orhei and chairman of ‘Şor’ political party, which were published on Facebook. In the video spot, the politician claims that, once he comes to power, he will apply an eventual lustration law in relation to the journalists ‘paid to write nasty things about people’. ‘Stop, you turd. I’ll fix you!’, he added, labelling the journalists with depreciatory designation ‘jurnaliughi’ (‘journo’). The signatories of the statement called on politicians to demonstrate calmness, common sense and not to resort to threats against journalists.
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A few days after Mayor of Orhei, Ilan Şor, threatened journalists, representatives of many institutions and civil society organisations stood up to defend the media and condemned his discourse. Thus, human rights organisations, the Ombudsperson, and the Office of Human Rights Commissioner for Human Rights in Moldova joined the non-government media organisations. The General Prosecutor’s Office also announced about initiating legal proceedings regarding the statements made by Sor in order to check them and give them a legal assessment.
Some human rights organisations have showed solidarity with media organisations that condemned the threatening statements made in a video post on social networking sites by Ilan Sor. Amnesty International Moldova, Legal Resources Centre from Moldova, the Information Centre GENDERDOC-M, Promo-LEX and RCTV Memoria urge the General Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the statements made by Ilan Sor in terms of instigating hatred.
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In April, the ”Radio Orhei” station filed a lawsuit against the Broadcasting Coordinating Council (BCC), after the authority issued a broadcasting license for Radio Orhei FM. According to lawyer Vitalie Zama, who represents this case in court, the first court hearing was interrupted to allow for the BCC to prepare. It will resume on September 17. At the same time, we also filed a separate complaint to the Competition Council, since we have a case of unfair competition.
Seven media NGOs, including Independent Press Association, Independent Journalism Center, and Electronic Press Association, signed a declaration expressing solidarity with the radio station “Radio Orhei” and requesting that the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) repeal the April 5 decision granting a broadcasting license to a radio station with a similar name. The signatories asked BCC to give up the formal approach to broadcasting licensing applications and take into account the rights of the existing broadcasters on the market, promote fair competition, and acknowledge the identity of each broadcaster.
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On June 20, the vice president of the Chisinau District Court issued the resolution “On Access to Court Buildings” which, inter alia, stipulates that access of press to courtrooms will be offered “taking into account the available space.” Seven media NGOs – the Independent Journalism Center, Association of Independent Press, Electronic Press Association, Association of Independent TV Journalists, Association of Investigative Reporters and Editorial Security, Center for Investigative Journalism, “Access-Info” Center, and the Press Freedom Committee – signed a declaration urging the Chisinau District Court to review the text of this resolution, which could restrict media access to court hearings of public interest, as it happened on June 19, when the results of the new local elections in the capital city were not validated.
The signatories urged the Superior Council of Magistracy to maintain an open environment in justice and to support the press in its effort to cover important events on the public agenda.
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According to a draft decision developed recently by the Government, the “House of Press,” the Soviet-era building for print media, will become subordinate to the General Division for the Administration of Buildings belonging to the Moldovan government. In the opinion of Valeriu Saharneanu, current chairperson of Journalists’ Union of Moldova (JUM), the recently developed draft decision aims at banishing all media outlets from that building so that it can be privatized afterwards. Valeriu Vasilica, Director of IPN News Agency, does not rule out that new administrators might raise the rent again, though it just increased early this year.
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According to a recently developed draft decision, the State News Agency “Moldpres” is to be transformed from a state-owned enterprise into a public institution directly under the State Chancellery, and its management will be appointed by the State Secretary General. “Moldpres” management states that this is a good initiative, while media experts are concerned that the Government may establish greater control over this press institution. Petru Macovei, director of the Association of Independent Press, believes that following the reorganization “we will have a press institution not focusing on the public interest, but pursuing the Government’s interest only.”
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After publishing a press release, prosecutors or police officers may involve journalists as witnesses in criminal or contraventional cases. Sometimes, police and reporters are carrying out parallel investigations and if journalists reveal something new, they may be summoned to report to the law enforcement bodies. Alternatively, law enforcement bodies’ investigations can start after the authors of articles have uncovered illegalities. Media Azi has identified several journalists who had been summoned to the police, Prosecutor’s Office, or Courts of Law as witnesses. Some of them claim that almost all relevant information is found in the published articles, so when they are summoned as witnesses, they think that they are wasting their time repeating what they already stated in their articles.
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The Elita TV channel produced six debate programs, called “As It Is,” and translated them into sign language, thus becoming the first regional television channel to offer this type of service. Currently, the institution’s management is looking for funds to continue the project, while the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) cautions that not all TV channels are complying with the requirement to ensure such translation of at least one news bulletin. The shortage of sign language professionals is another issue in this case.
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On 26 July, Members of Parliament adopted in final reading the new draft Audiovisual Media Services Code of the Republic of Moldova. The document regulates the editorial independence, protection of national broadcasting environment and transparency of media ownership, inter alia. The draft Audiovisual Media Services Code had opinions from some international institutions. Thus, the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, experts of the Council of Europe and those of the Freedom House each have formulated a set of assessments and recommendations for draft law improvement. It is not yet certain whether these recommendations were taken into account, as text of the adopted law was published neither in the Official Monitor of the Republic of Moldova nor on the Parliament’s website.
On July 13, the Parliament approved in the first reading a draft law providing that the state will cover part of the expenses for the production of films, documentaries, and TV shows produced on the territory of Moldova and on the basis of foreign investments. The draft law stipulates that the state is to fund 25% of eligible expenses for the production of films, series, cartoons, TV shows, reality shows, etc. The expenses for the productions that are going to promote geographical areas, specific locations, or the Republic of Moldova as a whole, might be financed by up to 30%. The purpose of the investment scheme is to attract foreign productions to the Republic of Moldova. Professionals welcome the intention of the authorities, but express concerns about the way it will be implemented.
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According to a draft law endorsed on July 11 by the Parliamentary Committee for Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sport and Mass Media, the provisions of media law on economic concentrations and dominant position in this area could prevail over the provisions of the Law on Competition. The draft envisages the introduction of a new article in the Law on Competition, which stipulates that if special media laws establish thresholds for the notification of economic concentrations, or quotas that presume the existence of a dominant position other than those established in the Law on Competition, the provisions of the media law shall be applied. The opposition, however, believes that these rules will not solve the current problems on the Moldovan broadcasting market.
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On July 11, the Parliamentary Committee for Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sport and Mass-media approved the report to the draft Law on Advertising, which aims to make Moldova’s advertising market more transparent and to protect the information and economic space of the press. The draft is part of a package of media laws, which the Parliament could adopt by the end of the current session.
The document regulates the establishment and implementation of the legal regime for messages of public interest, requirements for ensuring transparency on the advertising market, self-regulation in the field of advertising, and political advertising during special election periods, etc.
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The use of drones in the Republic of Moldova’s airspace could be regulated according to the example of the EU law. The Government has recently announced in a press release that the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is preparing a regulation on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), but the draft document has not been made public yet. It has been announced that the regulation will provide certain restrictions on the use of drones, as well as a mechanism for obtaining the right to use and shoot with such devices. Subject-matter experts are also worried that the authorities, do not introduce too drastic regulations to this, under the pretext of respecting the right to privacy.
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Between April – June 2018, attempts to misinform the public via manipulation techniques used by journalists have amplified, the most common forms being: the priority information technique, the internal or external enemy technique, the national rescuer, and the suggestion techniques. This is one of the conclusions of the report “Elements of Propaganda, Information Manipulation and Violation of Journalism Ethics in the Local Media Space (1 April – 27 June 2018),” published on June 28 by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC), which monitored Publika TV, Prime TV, Canal 2, Canal 3, Moldova 1, Jurnal TV, Accent TV, RTR Moldova, NTV Moldova television broadcasters, as well as online portals Noi.md, Sputnik.md, and Deschide.md. The report further indicates that Moldovan media continues to reflect public interest issues on the basis of political preferences, favoring certain political parties and politicians.
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At their meeting on July 13, the Broadcasting Coordination Council warned Publika, Prime, Canal 2, and Canal 3 about their violation of some provisions of the Law on child protection against the negative impact of information, as well as some BCC recommendations in this respect. The report, broadcasted by the four TV channels in February, focused on the case of a minor girl from the Drochia district. The General Media Group Corp, Publika TV and Prime founder, believes that the journalists acted appropriately. The BCC screened the reports and determined that violations of the law had been committed.
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The fourth edition of the “Fifth Power” Media Hackathon took place July 6-8. The event brought together 12 teams of journalists, IT developers, bloggers, and representatives of civil society who were tasked with developing web or mobile apps, as well as other IT tools to help media consumers develop their critical thinking, filter information, and detect manipulation more easily. They were helped by experts and mentors, including representatives of the Independent Journalism Center, DW Akademie, and Internews Moldova. After three days of the contest, the jury nominated 5 winning teams: Hype Mode Media, Youth Media Center, MOMO, InstaNews Builders, and PythonPlato. Hackathon award-winning projects are to be finalized in the coming months, after which they will be officially launched for the general public. The fourth edition of the “Fifth Power” Media Hackathon was organized by the Independent Journalism Center under the “Strengthening Freedom of Opinion in the Republic of Moldova” Project, supported by the Deutsche Welle Akademie and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany, and “Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova (MEDIA-M)” Project, funded by USAID and implemented by Internews.
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The Independent Journalism Center announced the results of the contest to select the beneficiaries of the grants for campaigns against misinformation and propaganda in the media, provided under the “Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion and Accountability in Moldova” (MEDIA-M) Project. After assessing the submitted applications, the jury selected the winners: Media Creativity and Innovation Academy NGO with the “Do You Think Like Them?” project or “Fact Checking” FILE, and Miraza SRL with the “From Fake to Fake!” project. The following criteria were used to assess the projects: implementation plan, feasibility of the proposal with well-established deadlines for each phase, appropriate target audience, promotion, and viability plans.
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The edition focuses on misinformation and its impact on journalistic society and consumers from Moldova. Among the authors you will find media experts, jurists, university researchers, web designers, and, of course, journalists. In addition, the June issue addresses other topics of both professional and public interest, such as false news, how elections are reflected based on media owners’ preferences, the brain drain associated with domestic journalism, etc. In the Mass Media in Moldova magazine, you can also read an interview with web designer Victor Spinu, co-author of the TROLLESS app. In the Book Review section, we present the special publication Fake News: A Roadmap (Riga, 2018).
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The Association “Lawyers for Human Rights” launched the platform VreauInfo.md. This platform facilitates requests for information of public interest. The platform has a list of public institutions, from which citizens can select the authority they want to address a request. The institution receiving the request will answer in the same manner. Both questions and answers will be published on this website. The Association representatives consider that this website will be useful not only to citizens, but to investigative journalists, civil society representatives, and civic activists as well.
This platform was created under the project “Respect of the right to public information through strategic litigation and by way of creating an open-source platform for making public freedom of information requests to public bodies,” with the financial support of Freedom House, a partner of Internews in implementing the project “Media Enabling Democracy, Inclusion, and Accountability in Moldova” (MEDIA-M), funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
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Media experts who monitored the implementation of the 2017-2019 National Implementation Plan of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement concluded that, when it comes to media, the paper mainly refers to the development of broadcasting and overlooks the print media and online media. This topic is discussed during the 83rd episode of Media Azi talk show by the host – Nicolae Negru, journalist, and his guest – Aneta Gonta, media researcher and co-author of the monitoring report. Is there a possibility that a person who incites hatred through the media could be held accountable for that? What should be done in such a case by journalists that are hosting talk shows or other debates on political topics? This topic is discussed during the Media Azi talk show by the journalist Irina Gotisan and her guests – Olesea Perean, human rights officer at UN, and Vitalie Gutu, television producer. Journalist Anastasia Nani and her guests – Corina Cepoi, director of the Internews representation in Moldova, and Victor Spinu, co-author of the Trolless app, discuss the results of the fourth episode of the “Fifth Power” Media Hackathon during Media Azi talk show. Ilan Sor, Mayor of Orhei and leader of the political party ‘Şor’, vs inconvenient journalists - hate speech or right to opinion? How can this speech be characterized, what consequences can it have and what should be done to prevent such situations from becoming common? These questions, as well as others, were addressed on the Media Azi show by moderator Nadine Gogu and her guest Cornelia Cozonac, President of the Center for Investigative Journalism.
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