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On August 31, 2015, Alina Țurcanu, Member of the Press Council of Moldova, editor at Radio Free Europe and member of the Center for Investigative Journalism, posted on Facebook a critical comment about a news item published by publika.md, namely the news item in which the authors claimed that there was supposedly a link between the pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and the Civic Platform ‘Dignity and Truth’ and the ‘Antifa’ Movement.
‘Do you call this journalism, PUBLIKA.MD?! How can one produce ‘news’ just like that? Aren't you ashamed of lying so recklessly? Either you are very malicious or the author of this crap does not speak English (I'd rather assume that the first guess is true though). Just compare the news item published by Publika.md with the article published by the dubious blog cited as source. How come you saw messages of support and urges to action there? Following your logic, if a website supported by terrorists publishes a story from a press conference by Mr. Plahotniuc, it would mean that he, as well as everybody whom he supports/pays/controls are supported by terrorists?', wrote the journalist on her Facebook page.
After the publication of this opinion, Alina Țurcanu was intimidated and threatened by an employee of Publika TV, Daniel Lachi. He wrote: ‘Feel free to exclude me from your friend list, no problem, but I will be keeping an eye on you; take care to behave, so that I do not have to punish you. Feel free to choose any topic of investigation, but keep away from my TV station,’ he wrote in his message.
Subsequently, according to journalist Alina Țurcanu, one of his superiors called her by phone to apologize for the incident.
The threats of the Publika TV employee aroused a wave of negative responses from Internet users. The Press Council took initiative and demanded that Publika TV publicly dissociate themselves from the threats addressed by their employee and to launch and internal investigation of the incident. ‘Threats and intimidation in response to critical opinions are inadmissible in a democratic society, which is provided for by law,’ says the official statement of the Press Council.
The opinion of the management of Publika TV about what had happened was requested by phone, but the callers were told to send an electronic inquiry. By the time of publication of this item no reply was received from Publika TV.
Today, September 2, the activists of the Party 'Our Home Moldova' protested in front of the Publika TV premises to express disagreement with the editorial policy of the TV station.
