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According to Viorica Zaharia, one of the authors, the research was conducted after several voices in the society started to say that the work done by investigation reporters leads no-where and that the protagonists of their articles continue to keep their positions. She acknowledged that the law does not explicitly provide for the authorities to respond to investigations published by the media, but that this should be the case as the state has taken the commitment to fight corruption. ‘In this case, the media is giving a hand to institutions by flagging issues or by providing well documented materials, and all the institutions have to do is analyze them once more and establish the violations. (...) However, the society expects that the media will put pressure on the authorities though the articles they write and that the latter will take action when they should’, explained the journalist.
The journalist Victor Mosneag, co-author of the study, said that in 11 of the 26 monitored cases the authorities did not respond in any way. ‘Neither the National Integrity Authority (NIA), nor other state institutions did as much as start to check the materials written by the journalists. There was no response to 15 cases, in 11 cases the institutions concerned took measures upon own initiative, while in four cases the response came after the requests made by Moldova Curata, that is the notifications we filed by someone else’, mentioned Victor Mosneag.
At the same time, in seven out of the 15 controls or investigations initiated, no sanctions were imposed, as it was found that the law was not violated, although the facts described by journalists were confirmed. In seven other cases the controls are in progress. ‘So far, only one individual concerned in a case was sanctioned, but the sanction is not final because the individual in question, Grigore Repesciuc, challenged in court the Facts Ascertaining Statement according to which the legal regime of conflicts of interest was violated’, added Mosneag.
In his turn, the representative of the civil society under NIA, Vitalie Palega, suggested the journalists that for a greater efficiency they should send the articles they publish to the authorities with the required duties to act. ‘I did not notice the NIA Board being addressed to, and that is why I suggest you to notify the Board specifically the next time you don’t receive any answer, because we tackle such topics at the Board meetings’ said Palega.
The authors of the study recommended the authorities to have an appropriate response to the information published by the media, particularly in case of investigations that reveal the lack of integrity of people holding public offices, without waiting to be notified.
