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Pushed and hit
After the protest from the Great National Assembly Square (PMAN) organised by the Shor Party, the Free Europe reporter, Nicu Gusan, tried to find out from the mayor of Orhei, Ilan Shor, if he had permission to organise that demonstration but the bodyguards stopped him. Meanwhile, the deputy leader of Shor Party, Marina Tauber, intervened in the discussion, but the security guards did not allow him to get an answer from her either, and one of the bodyguards shoved his elbow into the journalist’s belly. ‘I felt an elbow hitting me in the stomach when he got closer to me and tried to get between me and Tauber. I was holding the microphone over his shoulder and he hit me with the elbow’, stated Nicu Gusan for Media-azi.md
The journalist called the police officers to document the case, but none of the them approached him. Nicu Guşan claims to have seen a police officer nearby, who did not react to his cries. When asked why didn’t they help him, a police representative advised him to approach the MIA press service...
On the same day, another journalist from Radio Free Europe, Tatiana Etco, was also assaulted, this time by the supporters of Ilan Shor, who she filmed while they were sharing the buckwheat and cans directly in the PMAN.
Complete lack of openness
According to TV 8 journalist Natalia Morari, she tried to get among the supporters of the mayor of Orhei during the protest organised by the Shor Party, but could not cross the Police line. ‘I have been at almost all the protests organised during the recent years, but it's the first time to see such an unfriendly attitude of the Police. I felt that Police showed a total lack of openness and collaboration with journalists’, said Natalia Morari.
Mariana Rata, from the same TV channel, was not allowed by the Police to take photos in the street between the National Palace and the Government on the Independence Day. Law enforcers asked to show her press badge to be able to pass through the mobile fences and after seeing her TV8 press badge they said they could only give her access after she presented another ‘blue’ permit or accreditation. ‘The law does not stipulate that you must have a ‘blue permit’ to walk on public roads. The main question I have is to the Government: who, based on which criteria and for what reasons issued separate permits for access to public events? We are not speaking about a summit or events attended by foreign officials, we are speaking about a public event. So, who did decide that we must have special permits?’ Mariana Rata wonders.
Journalists from Newsmaker also mentioned that with their usual press badge they could not get to the National Palace, for the Independence Day concert. Police officers asked them to show a special permit from Moldova-Concert State-Owned Enterprise.
Are journalists cannon fodder?
API Executive Director, Petru Macovei, is outraged because the General Police Inspectorate and the representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not take any steps to protect the journalists. ‘The journalists were attacked by the bodyguards. Police officers saw this. In some cases, journalists asked Police for help, and the Police did nothing. Although they had the obligation to help, because journalists have the constitutional right to practise their profession (...) and still journalists were actually used as cannon fodder in this situation; Police saw this, stayed in a wait-and-see position and after that, Minister Jizdan stated that “everything was in accordance with the law”. On the contrary, the Police abused by the failure to act, although its employees witnessed this and had the duty to intervene. They did nothing, and this actually dishonours the Moldovan Police,’ said Petru Macovei.
API Executive Director is also puzzled as regards the discrimination of journalists who were asked to show special permits to have access public events. ‘This is a situation that must be the subject of a very serious investigation because I have the impression that the Moldovan Police, instead of defending the journalists who were there to carry out their mission – not even as protesters, but to carry out their mission – in fact, restricted the access to public spaces during events of public interest, and this is an abuse. I demand the Prime Minister to order an investigation in order to find out how the Moldovan Police behaved in relation to the journalists who were in the PMAN on 26 and 27 August,’ stated Petru Macovei for Media-azi.md.
We mention that the Minister of Internal Affairs, Alexandru Jizdan, stated previously that all Police actions during those two days had been in compliance with the legislation. The Internal Protection and Anticorruption Service (IPAS) of the MIA suggested to the citizens ‘who are dissatisfied with the actions of the law enforcers during the protests, to file a complaint with the nearest Police Inspectorate or the IPAS or contact the short number 1520’.
On Tuesday, 28 August, the media NGOs published a statement condemning the abuse of people that obstructed journalists from multiple media outlets to reflect the events that happened in the PMAN on 26 and 27 August, related to the protests and marking of Moldova’s 27 years of independence.
The signatories of the statement demanded that the General Prosecutor’s Office act on its own initiative with respect to these cases and the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conduct an own investigation to hold liable the people who violated the legal rights of the journalists.
