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SCM Took Note of Media NGO’s Declaration and Reviewed the Case of a Judge who Verbally Assaulted Jurnal TV’s Camera Crew

04 June 2019
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On 21 May 2019, the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM) took note of the information note of the Judicial Inspection in the case of Magistrate Sergei Lazari. Note that on 13 February 2019, he verbally assaulted Jurnal TV’s camera crew on the institution’s hall, while journalists documented the file of the former Judge Domnica Manole. The Judicial Inspection took note after media NGOs called on SCM to comment on the case and to explain it from the perspective of compliance with discipline and professional ethics.

According to the document published on the SCM website, chief inspector-judge of the Judicial Inspection, Nicolae Clima, took note via the ruling of 14 February 2019 of the declaration ‘Media NGOs Condemn the Verbal Assault against Jurnal TV Crew by a Chisinau Court Magistrate’. Likewise, members of the Judicial Inspection also watched Jurnal TV’s video footage, which shows how Judge Lazari, one of those who examined the case of Domnica Manole, while walking past the journalists, covered their camera with his hand and addressed the cameraman in a threatening tone: ‘You won’t understand painlessly, will you?’.

During the examination session, Serghei Lazari did not deny that he addressed the journalists with the words quoted in the video, but he justified his actions on the basis of the ‘inappropriate behavior of Jurnal TV’s camera crew’. Lazari told that he had warned several times the journalist he addressed to in the court hall to observe the order in the court hearing and that the broadcaster only published a video sequence ‘extracted from the context’.

Thus, with 9 votes in favor, the SCM members took note of the findings of the Judicial Inspection, and Magistrate Lazari was not sanctioned. Inter alia, SCM judgement states that, in the circumstances established, ‘both media representatives and judges are to fully comply with the ethical norms in order to avoid such incidents’.
SCM judgement can be appealed in the Chisinau Court of Appeal within 30 days.

Photo source: Jurnal.md