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Deutsche Welle journalist
… As an honest citizen of this country, I periodically look through the Constitution and Fiscal Code. Art. 34 (4) of the Moldovan Constitution says: “The state or private public medias are required to ensure the correct awareness raising of the public”. Several meters away from me, on TV, a sexy but bored presenter violates this constitutional provision and thinks that she does journalism at the only news television in Moldova (affiliated to CNN by the way). I watch the report about “the most sincere protester” in Usatii’s tent until the end then switch to CNN. There, surprise! In just a few minutes I see that this TV station does respect the Constitution of my country even though it is not from Moldova. I continue watching and see a short report and a fragment of speech held by the US Secretary, John Kerry, at the inauguration of the new office of the newspaper “Washington Post”, about the need for truth and the importance of the free press: “It is vital that the truth comes to light and the facts become known, because people otherwise invent things and disseminate propaganda. Look at what happens when the knowledge is missing and how much power this situation gives to dictators, demagogues and tyrants. Silence enables the crimes and corruption to ruin the whole country. Ignorance allows the demagogues to say that up is down, and the black is white”, John Keery said. This American official does not live in Moldova and, apparently, did not say anything unusual. This looks like a quotation from the manuals for journalism students. But how much power these words acquire when these values are suppressed and replaced by journalistic non-products, propaganda that leads to dictatorship, corruption and, finally, tyranny in the country you live in!
At the beginning of this comment, I was thinking to pass the journalistic material about the man in Usatii’s tent through the filters of the journalistic expertise. To dismantle it piece by piece. I gave up. It would be embarrassing. It would be as embarrassing as analyzing the report broadcast by the same TV station in the last local election campaign in which a reproach was made to Dorin Chirtoaca behind the camera that “in winter, Chisinau is not too green, while in summer people have to clean their shoes from dust twice a day”.
I have the impression that we are some laboratory rats and somebody is testing their propaganda “weapons” on us. They don’t test our patience, but our intellect. It is a game at the edge of the absurdity. In Moldova, there are some journalists and political analysts who, in different periods, can be seen providing services to one political group then to another political group. The orientation or principles of these groups are of no importance to them. They accept all kinds of gifts from the leaders of these parties – from mobile phones, tablets and scholarships abroad to houses and cars. This may seem strange to you, but it is still not clear to me what can determine a journalist, analyst, sociologist, political consultant with very good reputation in Romania for accuracy and professionalism, to abandon everything and come to Moldova to serve a party? These are all strange things. People working in this field say that the propaganda material I was talking about earlier was the result of the thinking and imagination of a “journalist” who has recently migrated from a green camp to a blue one after the greens stopped paying him, because their leader was imprisoned. They say that the “smart episode” with the drunk man was the evidence of his loyalty to the new blue funder. He worked “on his own”, with minimum resources which is demonstrated by the fact that the microphone in which the “most sincere protester” speaks does not have the emblem of the TV station… This is a hypothesis fed by gossips, but there are suspicions that this journalist who came from across the Prut river, serviced other non-democratic regime from the Republic of Moldova in the past for a fee. So, he has no principles. He’s a mercenary!
Maybe, this journalistic side-slip might be ignored. Maybe, although it is of an indescribable seriousness. It is even more serious since the risk of NITization of the audiovisual and online media in Moldova is higher than ever. We speak about a phenomenon that is tolerated and even encouraged by the owner of the main television networks of Moldova. We speak about a single owner-beneficiary, irrespective of how many companies are officially registered as owners of the radio and TV stations that service him. We speak about focused mechanisms of media intoxication applied by the media institutions that are part of the trust of this “terminator” of the freedom of press in Moldova.
The article was published within the Advocacy Campaigns Aimed at Improving Transparency of Media Ownership, Access to Information and promotion of EU values and integration project, implemented by the IJC, which is, in its turn, part of the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society project, implemented by FHI 360.
This article is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content are the responsibility of author and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
