Media Organizations Are Asking Mihai Ghimpu To Publicly Apologize and Stop Assaulting Journalists

Media NGOs are bewildered by the latest declarations made by the Liberal Party leader and MP Mihai Ghimpu at the “Puterea a Patra” (“The Fourth Power”) TV talk show on N4 channel. At the show, the politician said the following about Jurnal TV channel: “This television should have been closed long ago. Our BCC [Broadcasting Coordinating Council] is for some reason sleeping.” He also said that journalists are guilty for the “theft of the century” as well, because “if the press had been more active, less would have been stolen, and we wouldn’t have reached one billion.”

It should be mentioned that it is not Mihai Ghimpu’s first assault against media outlets and journalists. In January 2013, at the “În PROfunzime” talk show on PRO TV Chișinău channel the politician accused the media of having started a denigration campaign against him and verbally assaulted Alina Turcanu. In February 2013, at a meeting with students, the Liberal leader pushed Jurnal TV microphone and accused journalists of working “against him and the truth.” In 2015, Mihai Ghimpu pulled the microphone out of a Jurnal TV journalist’s hand, refusing to answer questions about the protests in the Great National Assembly Square.

The signatory organizations are outraged by the indescribable attitude of Mihai Ghimpu and consider this behavior inadequate for a politician, especially for an MP from the parliamentary majority, who declares himself an adept of European values and liberties.

We demand that Mihai Ghimpu publicly apologize to media representatives and stop his antidemocratic rhetoric that has no respect for journalists and media outlets.

Independent Journalism Center
Association of Independent Press
Association of Electronic Press
Press Freedom Committee
Association of Independent TV Journalists
“Acces-Info” Center
Center of Journalistic Investigations