Petition of the Journalists’ Crisis Cell: ‘We ask that the media be given access to information of public interest!’

According to the petition, the restricted access to public information is a huge problem for the journalists from the Republic of Moldova. Over the past years, the access to data owned by the authorities was restricted under different pretexts – personal data protection, state and trade secrets; qualifying requests for information as petitions; journalists’ obligation to request information via letters instead of emails or telephone calls, etc. The current restrictive administrative practices are also due to the existing legal framework, which contains drawbacks that restrict the access of the media and implicitly, of the citizens, to information.

Over the past three years, the Independent Journalism Center, together with other civil society organizations have been working hard to improve the legal framework that regulates this field, including the Law on Access to Information. In July 2018, a draft law containing recommendations of media NGOs was registered in the Parliament, but it was never even discussed by the Parliament.  

The petition can be signed until Monday, 18th May 2020.