The press – catalyst of the Government reshuffles?

Alina RADU, director of Ziarul de Garda

Recently, Ziarul de Garda published an article about the fortunes, companies and interests of Vitalie Iurcu, former director of Moldtelecom, who is now Deputy Minister of Economy. Vitalie Iurcu, who headed a state enterprise only 5 years, managed to become impressively rich. At the moment he lives in a luxury house, drives a Porche Cayenne and owns several expensive land lots in Chisinau, but through intermediaries, is involved in the business of several companies.
 
We remind that before the publication of this article, the reporter of ZdG, Victor Mosneag, worked a lot, even in terms of the Code of Conduct. Primarily, he sent a request for information to Moldtelecom, long time ago, in April, after the Easter holidays, requesting for public information, especially about money spent by Moldtelecom state enterprise. The answer that came later was sober like a strict fasting day. We were told that we cannot obtain copies of some official documents of Moldtelecom.

I reread one Article 4 of the Law on Access to Information, which provides for that: “Everybody is entitled to seek, to receive and to make known the official information” and we continued to work. The article “Five years at Moldtelecom = luxury house and car, land loots of millions and a nephew who makes all the money” published on September 10, according to readers opinions was a very good one. Tens of thousands of online readers, thousands of shares on social networking sites, thousands of readers of the printed version of Ziarul de Garda, as well as readers of lots of other media from the Republic of Moldova  took-over the subject from www.zdg.md. The comments rained heavily and virtually all confirmed importance of subject, as well as the quality of the article, the good reasoning of the facts.

How the Deputy Minister reacted to this article? How the Minister to whom he reports reacted? And the Government that broke this Minister down? The NAC? The NIC? A common reaction: a joint silence of ignoring the press disclosures.

On September 12, 2015, two days after publication of this article the entire Government resigned. Voluntarily. Not the Moldovan Government, but the Egyptian one. What do these Governments have in common? One thing - they were criticized in the press for corruption. In Egypt, the press pressure on corrupt officials is more functional.

On September 15, 2015, due to the media print, one more Government fell. This time, the Prime Minister of Australia, a state with high indices of the quality of life, had to resign due to the media criticism. No, the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbot, did not resign because of a stolen billion. The last wave of critics was rightfully hilarious, the Prime Minister was held up to ridicule because during a visit to Tasmania, at a farm, Tony Abbot took an onion and ate it with peel. Internet users considered it is a gesture of populism and ignorance. During his last press conference, Abbot said: “If you want better coverage, be a better government!”.

A few months ago, on July 26, 2015, Baron Joh Sewel, British politician, university lecturer, member of the House of Lords, had to resign after a newspaper published some images of his private life - he consumes drugs. He immediately resigned. His political career, which successfully started in 1974, ended in an instant. Two days after his resignation, the British edition of The Guardian published the article “Press pressure works: Sewel resigns amid a newspaper feeding frenzy”. In the Republic of Moldova, a country with a high level of corruption, and a high level of control over the press, the journalistic investigations and revealing corrupt persons are a luxury. However, the press weekly publishes enquiries of reporters who prove with figures and facts cases of corruption in the Government, ministries, agencies, mayor’s offices, courts, prosecutor's offices, police stations.

The reaction of the Government, the Parliament, the General Prosecutor's Office, the NAC, the NIC is very week and is limited only to two aspects: they either pretend to react, or jointly decide to keep silent.

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.